Providence Commemoration Lab Book: On-Line Version

Funded by the Mellon Foundation and the American Rescue Plan, The Providence Commemoration Lab was a program co-administered by the Department of Art, Culture and Tourism (ACT) and the Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS).  From 2023-2025 The Lab sited and staged new, temporary projects on public property that invited unexpected ways of understanding commemoration as a communal process of historical redress and spatial reclamation.

ACT and RIHS commissioned nine creative practitioners to interrogate the ways that Providence residents construct and share memory and culture at three distinct sites: Columbus Square, Roger Williams Park, and Public Street. Nine, twelve-month (one-year) artist residencies began in spring 2024. The total budget for the Providence Commemoration Lab was 1.4 million dollars and was spent down over two years.

As a capstone of the project, ACT and RIHS engaged Studio Loba and bookmaker Ruchika Nambiar to create a book that shares the story of the Lab in a holistic way, including voices of the artists, administrators, researchers, and writers who all collaborated on this expansive project. With a limited run of 200 copies, the physical book can be found at the Providence Public Library (PPL), Fleet Library (RISD), Providence Athenaeum, Simmons Center (Brown University), Providence Preservation Society (PPS), Community College of RI (CCRI), RI State Historic Preservation Commission, RI State Library, Roger Williams University Library, Primus House Center for Reflective History, Lit Arts RI, School One (Write RI Program), RIC Library, and the MET School Library.

You can access a digital version here: