Date/Time
Nov 23, 2014
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Location
Providence Public Library
150 Empire Street
Providence, RI
Visit Website
Tags
art, For all ages, gallery, Gallery Opening, Local, Only in Rhode Island, To do in Providence, To do in Rhode Island
An immersive art and oral history installation by The Center for Public Humanities at Brown University and Urban Pond Procession will officially open with a reception. Visitors to the exhibition are invited to come sit a spell in the immersive art installation, and delve into the history of the former West Elmwood neighborhood through an oral history soundscape of West Elmwoodians sharing their memories.
The West Elmwood neighborhood once stood where the Huntington Industrial Park stands today, along the Providence/Cranston border. The neighborhood was deemed “blighted” by the Providence Redevelopment Agency in the 1950s and slotted for redevelopment into the industrial park as a way to attract new businesses to Providence. Ultimately, over five hundred homes were demolished. While the neighborhood is gone, memories of a neighborhood still remain.
These memories have been captured as part of a collaboration between the Center for Public Humanities at Brown University and Urban Pond Procession – a community organization that advocates for the health of urban ponds. While the memories of the West Elmwood neighborhood have been showcased in a variety of other exhibits, this art installation is a special reimagining of the Shadows and Sounds project, created especially for Providence Public Library.