The Dirt Palace, a collective of feminist artists, will celebrate its 25th anniversary this month with a fundraising brunch on the lawn of its Wedding Cake House at 514 Broadway in Providence
The suggested donation is $25 to attend the event, which will be held on Sunday, August 24, from 11am to 3pm. Attendees can order any item from the menu. There will be a cash bar for cocktails and fun non-alcs, it being a fundraiser after all.
Want to attend for free? Bring a book or zine to donate to Dirt Palace’s library. But first, run it by the collective using this form, which can be found at this link.
As Dirt Palace put it in a release: “If it is a book or zine written or made by you, a member of the local arts community, then we 100% want it (if we don’t already have it), though we do ask that you sign it. If it’s made by someone else who is a member of the local arts community and we don’t have it, then we also probably want it. If it’s made by someone who was local for a time or is very connected to the local community, there’s a pretty good chance that we want it.”
Since its founding in 2000 in an abandoned library building, Dirt Palace reckons it has served as an incubator for hundreds of feminist artists. Located at 14 Olneyville Square, it provides the artists with affordable studio space, facilities, shared resources, opportunities, and a culture of cooperation.
In 2015, Dirt Palace Public Projects was established as the nonprofit umbrella for its various programs and projects. The collective offers five different types of residencies at its two locations.
Recently, Dirt Palace helped administer artist selection and oversaw commissions for the inaugural portrait show Founders and Inventors Who Shaped Our World for Gather RI, a new nonprofit.
Slated to open in September in the West End of PVD, Gather RI is a women’s empowerment center that will provide a safe space for women and non-cis people, and educational resources including stories and artworks to the public.
Currently, Dirt Palace is prioritizing artists of color within its exhibitions, residencies and leadership. The collective’s goal is to offer opportunities and living and working space to artists from a wider span of backgrounds.
And at its heart, Dirt Palace is about enhancing the cultural life of its neighborhoods of Olneyville and Federal Hill.