Mount Pleasant. Elmhurst. The Valley Arts District. These are all neighborhoods whose offerings I thought I knew well, having worked in and around Providence over the last few years. But you can certainly miss a lot of subtle, intricate treasure troves of experience in this city if you’re not looking for them. As the Gallery Night trolley pulled off from the Waterfire Arts Center, I didn’t know exactly what to expect from this evening. I sometimes feel like I’m not the type of person that really “gets” art, its interpretations, and the intentions of the artist that created it when I see a work. But I had a good feeling from the buzzing energy of the people conversing outside before we left, and the warm air and dazzling golden hour views of PVD on the ride to our first stop only strengthened my positive gut feeling about what the night would entail. I thought I knew what the Creative Capital had to offer, and I was wrong in the best possible way.
This is Gallery Night, a nonprofit that runs a series of free, monthly, guided bus and walking tours of Providence galleries, usually from March to November, weather permitting. Each tour is a mix of known and mystery galleries, so you could go every month and never have the same experience. This whole endeavor is volunteer-run, community-oriented, and seriously fun. I knew that PVD is regarded as a mecca for artists and creatives, but I was entirely clueless that local colleges like Providence College (PC) and Rhode Island College (RIC) had genuine, museum-level gallery spaces open to the public right in my backyard.
I got to speak with Melissa Carella, an enthusiastic Gallery Night volunteer, who describes it as “The ultimate date night, solo date night, something to bring your parents to. I don’t think any person could go on and be like, ‘That was horrible.’” To put it briefly, I couldn’t agree more.
The first stop was PC’s Smith Center for the Arts, where I saw PVD-based artist Felicia Megginson’s exhibition “Re-Framing Nature” at The Reilly Gallery. Megginson utilizes multi-exposure photography and shadow play to create stunning, distinctive photographs that transport the viewer to the places they were captured. In captivating landscapes from places like Mexico and Italy, she fully immerses herself in nature, exploring what we can understand about ourselves through the natural world around us.
How many art galleries do you know of where you also get the chance to speak to the artists themselves and ask questions? Well, artist-led talks are pretty common on Gallery Nights, and they add so much to the privilege of taking in the work. I was able to speak with her directly, and she shared thoughtful advice about photography as an art form, which I immediately could connect back to her work I had just viewed. Always ask yourself what story you’re trying to tell, and stay observant and curious about the seemingly mundane, everyday beauty around you. It was pretty amazing food for thought to hear that from the artist herself, standing in front of her own work. I’ll be continuing to chew on that as I explore myself as an artist, and I think you can apply that framework to any creative medium that excites you.
Next up on the tour was the Bannister Gallery at RIC, where we were all blown away by California-based artist Sarah Sense’s exhibition, “Land, Line, Blood, Memory.” Sense uses a photoweaving technique inspired by her Indigenous Chitimacha and Choctaw heritage, having spent summers with her grandfather on Louisiana’s ancestral tribal lands. Walking into the gallery, we were all immediately struck by these bold, unique designs arranged throughout the room. Her basket-weaving patterns transformed a combination of photographs and archival documents into intricate, colorful, three-dimensional works. My personal favorite was a work called Montclair Rabbit; I strongly suggest you check it out for yourself. This exhibition closes April 24, so while you will likely miss it upon reading this, Bannister Gallery at RIC and Sarah Sense are names that are both definitely worth keeping on your radar.
Be mindful that the tour goes by fast, so make sure to take in every moment as you check out the works! Before we knew it, we were at our last stop for the evening, back to the Waterfire Arts Center itself. The scale of the gallery is sublime, a spacious room with commanding, high ceilings and an air of profundity. In the lobby, there are various books for sale, and conversations happening organically. You could easily spend hours at this spot alone, which I’m already making plans to do in the future.
As Melissa shared about Gallery Night, “You meet such cool people. It’s a community builder. We’re definitely in a loneliness epidemic. Art is the unifier. I might be biased, but I feel like art is the thing that can actually save society.” Art asks us to question what we perceive as reality and the things we’ve been taught to believe. It asks us to reflect on questions like whether we’ll be objects of commerce and capitalism, or agents of societal change. The use of imagination, whether through photography, weaving, sculpting, painting, writing, you name it, urges us to think collectively about big ideas like community and the kind of world we are living in, and the kind of world we would like to build together. I think the greatest thing about Gallery Night is seeing how they’re working to achieve their mission of making art accessible to everyone. Art isn’t exclusive to people of a certain race, background, or social status, but all too often, people are barred from the art space. “Gallery Night is a low barrier to entry,” Melissa shares. “There’s something for everybody, and it really is a great connector for people.”
As mentioned before, Gallery Night is a nonprofit, so it relies on funding from grants and donations to keep these tours free and running throughout the year. If you are able to donate, please do. If you can’t, the best thing you can do is attend a tour yourself, bring a guest, share your experience on social media, and tell others about it face-to-face. Word-of-mouth is extremely powerful, especially when we live in such a paradox of being more digitally connected but socially isolated than ever before.
I didn’t have to book a flight, drive very far, or cough up a large sum of money to have access to these awe-inspiring galleries that were hiding in plain sight this whole time. An experience like this was available to me right in PVD, on college campuses I drive past, and in arts centers I walk by almost every day. As Melissa put it, “Art is like microdosing happiness and creativity. That’s why this is a great appointment for yourself every month. Just show up, have fun, and connect with people.”
To learn more or book your spot on an upcoming tour, visit Gallery Night Providence at gallerynight.orgor find them on Instagram at @gallerynightprovidence. The Bannister Gallery at RIC can be found at @bannistergalleryon Instagram. Learn more about PC’s various galleries on Instagram at @pcgalleries.