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Tuesday, January 21, 2025
The Olneyville Expo
Community Organizations and Partnerships

Woonasquatucket River Greenway Arts

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Woonasquatucket River Greenway Arts (WRGA)

Celebration and performances on July 27, 2019

Public art installations on view July-October, 2019

A series of site-specific performances and temporary art works demonstrating the potential for a public art park along the banks of Providence’s historic urban waterway. The Dirt Palace storefront window gallery begins hosting Greenway Arts installations focused on the Woonaquatucket and its watershed in fall 2018. Installations by Keri King and Brendan Rose and animal habitats by The Steel Yard were put on view the last week of July 2019 during PVD Fringe Festival (July 20-27) and remain on view through October 2019.

On July 27 the City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism, lead cultural partner WaterFire Providence, Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, and collaborators staged a culminating celebration along the Greenway, highlighting the potential for a permanent linear art park connecting downtown to emergent arts institutions and diverse residential neighborhoods. As part of this event, the Manton Avenue Project will reprise excerpts of “The Olneyville Plays” and “The Woonasquatucket River Play” on the banks of the Woonasquatucket River beginning at Riverside Park. Wilbury Theatre Group will hold The Olneyville Expo, a chautauqua-style tent revival at Donigian Park. WaterFire will create a new site-specific lighting installation, Moon River, near Eagle Square.

Following the WRGA demonstration project, partners will convene on October 2nd to refine a vision for the permanent park’s arts infrastructure  in anticipation of the Woonasquatucket River Greenway extension project (see Woonasquatucket Vision Plan.)

Woonasquatucket River Greenway Arts is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts Our Town initiative.

#NEAOurTown
#WRGA
#ACTPublicArt
#PVDCreativeCapital

Deborah Spears Moorehead – “Providence Preservation Society’s Sites and Stories of Parcel 1 A. Providence River from 1600 to Contemporary” at Dirt Palace Storefront Window Gallery
Keri King – What’s In The River?

For more on Keri’s project, see RISD’s alumni spotlight here.

Brendan Rose – “Dandelion”
Brendan Rose – “Dandelion”
Steel Yard – “Sculptural Pollinators” (pictured with WRGA artist facilitators and Steel Yard Director of Public Projects, Tim Ferland)
Manton Avenue Project – “Along The Woony”
Manton Avenue Project – “Along The Woony”
Manton Avenue Project – “Along The Woony”
Manton Avenue Project – “Along the Woony”
Manton Avenue Project – “Along The Woony”
Family Fringe – Teens and Mentors from “Write Rhode Island” with Wilbury Theatre Artistic Director Josh Short, Mayor Jorge Elorza, and Director of ACT, Stephanie Fortunato
Wilbury Theatre Group – The Olneyville Expo hosts Sarah Leach and Marcel Mascaro foreground; b boy Jose “Facce” Maldonado and DJ Aarin Clemmons background
Wilbury Theatre Group – The Olneyville Expo featuring excerpts from Manton Avenue Project’s “Olneyville: The Operetta”
Wilbury Theatre Group – The Olneyville Expo featuring Project 401
Wilbury Theatre Group – Sarah Leach and artist Matt Tracy
Wilbury Theatre Group – The Olneyville Expo with the Olneyville Magician Alvaro Morales and some assistants
Wilbury Theatre Group – The Olneyville Expo with Ashley Ogoffa interviewing Greg Stevens of NY System
WRGA Illuminated Night Procession
WRGA Illuminated Night Procession
WRGA Illuminated Night Procession featuring spectacle generator Jess Brown and the ICR Drummers
WaterFire Providence – “Moon River” (Pictured foreground, Executive Artistic Director Barnaby Evans)
WaterFire Providence – “Moon River”

Dirt Palace Storefront Window Artist Talk with Daniella Ben Bessat – November 25, 2018

Dirt Palace Storefront Window Gallery Artist Talk with Matt Tracy and Mary Kim Arnold – April 7, 2019

Dirt Palace Storefront Window Gallery Artist Talk with Eli Nixon and Xander Marro – June 27, 2019

Woonasquatucket River Greenway Arts Project Map by Julia Gualtieri
Woonasquatucket River Greenway Arts Project Map by Julia Gualtieri

What’s Next for Woonasquatucket River Greenway Arts?


Woonasquatucket River Greenway Arts Community Feedback Session

Wednesday October 2, 2019
6:00PM – 8:00PM
FREE ADMISSION
Olneyville Branch of the Providence Community Library
1 Olneyville Sq.
Providence, RI 02909

Produced by the City of Providence’s Department of Art, Culture + Tourism in partnership with WaterFire, The Steel Yard, The Wilbury Theatre Group, Manton Avenue Project, Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council and The Dirt Palace with support from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Woonasquatucket River Greenway Arts (a.k.a. WRGA) is a series of site-specific performances and temporary works demonstrating the potential for a public art park along the banks of Providence’s historic urban waterway.

On Wednesday October 2 from 6pm-8pm, the partners involved in the Greenway Arts Project invite our community to join us at The Olneyville Community Library for a special event hosted by The Wilbury Theatre Group, the City of Providence’s Dept. of Art, Culture, + Tourism, and The Olneyville Community Library that is part feedback opportunity, part listening session, and all celebration of the culmination of this groundbreaking project.

Join us as we archive the complete film of The Olneyville Expo into the Olneyville Library’s collections for generations of community members to come, and share your own thoughts on the Greenway Arts Project!

Riders on the WRGA Public Art Bike Ride visit the Steel Yard’s “Sculptural Pollinators.” Photo by Dot Campbell and WRWC
Keri King tells riders about “What’s In The River?” Photo by Dot Campbell and WRWC

WRGA Public Art Bike Ride
Saturday September 21, 2019
3:00PM – 4:30PM
Pedestrian Bridge between Promenade St and Providence Place

Bike the greenway and learn about new and established art from Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, the Steel Yard and Greenway Arts public artists

Ride begins at 3:00PM on the pedestrian bridge between Promenade St and Providence Place near Gillian Christy’s “The Return Home” sculpture and ends at approximately 4:30 at Riverside Park for ONE Neighborhood Builders’ Olneyville Multicultural Festival.

Riders must provide their own bikes and be comfortable biking on city streets. Helmets are strongly recommended.

Free and open to the public.

For more information and updates, see the event’s Facebook page.

WRGA Timeline and Archive 2018-2019

WRGA Audience Snapshot

Two ACT staff worked on surveying the attendees during the Olneyville Expo on Thursday, 7/25/19, Friday, 7/26/19, and Saturday 7/27/19 at both Family Fringe and the Olneyville Exop.  On both Thursday and Friday, one ACT staff member circulated throughout the crowd between approximately 6:30pm and 7:30pm, when the Expo began. On Saturday, both circulated and surveyed during both Family Fringe and the hour or so before the Expo began; the Saturday surveying period lasted between about 3pm and 7:30pm.

The online form, administered through a tablet, was originally written in English and on Thursday, only the English version circulated; on Friday it was translated so that Spanish speakers would be able to take it as well.