The heart of The Avenue Concept (TAC) lies outside the rear door of its facility on Lockwood Street in PVD. It’s the back wall of the one-story structure which has been spray painted with a wealth of graffiti, an art form that goes back to ancient Rome. “This is where graffiti artists, and emerging mural artists, can practice,” says Executive Director Tracy Jonsson-Laboy. All the artist has to do is walk inside the building, ask Paintbar Specialist Kendell Joseph for a spray paint can or two, then go back outside and create tags or throwies. Noting that TAC has an extensive network of diverse artists, Jonsson-Laboy emphasizes, “Our focus for the next couple of years will be creating pathways for them. We want to make sure that people have access to our programs here in Providence.” Jonsson-Laboy joined Avenue Concept in August 2024 after running Rejmyre Art Lab Center for Peripheral Studies, a nonprofit in Sweden, for two years. Before that, she founded and was executive director of Newport Art House, an artist-run organization, and also wrote for Motif. She holds a Master’s in Historical Preservation from Roger Williams University.
“Being an artist is a mindset, and I have many mediums,” she says. For example, “community building, textile art, and music.” Say’s Drone Dolores when she performs as a “one-woman band with a looper.” The Avenue Concept is doing more than dispensing spray paint. It’s holding workshops where participants can learn how to write and submit project proposals, and how to fill out grant applications, along with the ins and outs of invoicing and bookkeeping. It also offers lift training classes for mural artists through Sunbelt Rentals in Warwick. As Jonsson-Laboy puts it, “We know the steps, the requirements, for public art. And we’ve decided to share all of that knowledge.” Equally important, the nonprofit is giving new and emerging artists the chance to practice their craft in public spaces. For instance, Ripples is the name of a project in partnership with the Providence Department of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Mayor’s Office. In this program, fifty utility boxes will become painted artworks and five large-scale murals will be created. Of the utility boxes, fifteen will be painted by high-school youth through New Urban Arts (NUA), fifteen will be offered to artists through an open call juried by a cohort of community members and artists, fifteen will be curated by Joseph, and the final five will be contingency boxes which will be open to the community, according to Jonsson-Laboy.
New Urban Arts runs free after-school arts programs for high schoolers. For the boxes, Studio Director Jeannie Castillo-Lapierre says NUA has partnered with DownCity Design, Youth Pride Inc., Trinity Academy for Performing Arts, and the NUA Knights of Central High School, all located in the capital city. “Our students have been asked to think about where these utility boxes are, and who is coming across them every day,” Castillo-Lapierre says. The students were instructed to make the designs representative of the community, its culture, and its people. “We’ve heard back from the community about one of the utility boxes that’s been completed,” she adds. “They love the Bodega box.” The five Ripples murals have been awarded to one open-call artist and four TAC artists from the nonprofit’s legal-wall community. One of them, the West End Funk mural by Swerve, Greg Was Here, and Back, has already been completed and adorns the Big Nazo building at 1386 Westminster Street in PVD. The other murals and artists will be announced in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit opened a sculpture exhibit in downtown Providence. Called Urban Decay, the four new pieces were curated by Nina Johnson, director of an art gallery of the same name in Miami, FL. As Jonsson-Laboy puts it, “We want to be serving the art community as a resource and as a platform.” Recent sharp cutbacks in federal funding for the arts by the White House, in addition to its targeting of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs throughout the federal government, have had a sobering if not an unsettling effect on cultural communities. “We get very little federal funding,” JonssonLaboy says. “We’ve been supported privately for many years. And we’re very grateful to all of our sponsors for their support, especially in times like these.” The executive director vows that The Avenue Concept will maintain its focus on serving underrepresented artists, executive orders from the White House notwithstanding. “We’ve doubled down on DEI. We’re making a point of getting everyone involved,” she emphasizes.
The role of the artist becomes particularly important during tumultuous times. As Jonsson-Laboy puts it, “Artists should have a seat at every decision-making-table. They think outside the box with emotion as a main medium. Many argue that emotions are communal. This means that artists are often great at saying what could and should be done before many have thought of it.” Quoting local artist Maia Hay, whose work is on view at the lot side of the Weybosset facade in downtown Providence, “Public art is art that is made for others” and with a sense of place in mind.
The executive director says she is excited to continue the work of supporting living artists by building toward TAC’s vision “to create clear avenues for artists to inspire joy, dialogue, and inclusion in public spaces.” It is the concentration of creative people and arts organizations in Providence and environs that brought Jonsson-Laboy back to the region. “We’re all interested in creating sustainability for the creative communities here, and we can do so most effectively by working together,” she says. Simultaneously, public art creates “positive outcomes” for businesses and other interests, which TAC will meet by offering tours this season of the downtown murals, utility boxes and sculptures. The tours will be multi-media. Each tour will provide information about the artist and the subject matter of the piece, the hidden details, context about PVD, and the supporters who made it possible.
“I believe in investing in living artists,” Jonsson-Laboy concludes. “We have an excellent portfolio of local, regional, and international artists’ works; we invite you to join us on a tour or at one of our events this summer. We are looking forward to growing the cohort of artists and TAC members who want to advocate for more public art in Providence and beyond.” •
The Avenue Concept’s public artworks and programs can be viewed on its website theavenueconcept.org
