It’s been a challenging year for the merchants of Hope Street.  Construction, noise, and detours have disrupted the retail climate for business owners and customers alike, and they want to reward your patience with a bigger and better Spring Block Party . . . in and around the construction. It’ll be fun.

Join Providence Monthly and the Hope Street Merchants Association for our annual Hope Street Spring Block Party . . . bigger and better this year. ‘Beers for the Ballet’ will feature five great local breweries: Foolproof Brewing Company, Grey Sail Brewing of RI, Trinity Brewing, Narragansett Brewing Company and Newport Storm Brewery. New this year — win an iPad or a Grand Prize gift certificate package in the Street Scavenger Hunt.

Also: Gourmet Food Trucks * Sidewalk Sales * Kids Zone * Hayrides * Pedicabs * Outdoor Open Dance Classes * Roaming Street Entertainment.

The music lineup looks like this: 12:30pm Ben Walsh; 2pm the Silks; 3:30pm Ravi Shavi; 5pm the Rice Cakes.

Noon to 6pm, Saturday, May 18th, rain or shine (it’s totally going to shine), Hope north of Rochambeau

(4.18) The Rochambeau Library will host Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores Thursday at 7pm.

Shake off the winter blues with some stomping Gypsy rhythms, Appalachian dirges, Irish fiddles, Kraut rock and multi-layered percussion. Truly something for everyone.

Free concert, 7pm, Thursday, April 18, Rochambeau Library, 708 Hope Street, all ages

(3.2) A reception Saturday, March 2nd, from 6pm to 8pm, opens the new exhibit by artist Coral Bourgeois at Cade Tompkins Projects — Life Series: Focus on Hands 2013 — with an additional installation of 1400 black and white and decorative tiles surrounding the works.

The images in Life Series depict multiple interactions such as men and women in nature, women in traditional Middle Eastern dress and silhouettes of a young boy’s head with mathematical symbols.

In addition to the Life Series four other seminal works are included in this fully tiled room in the gallery: Ode to Wolfe E. Myrow (seen here), a lushly patterned and intensely beaded work with a nod to Morocco, Dreaming of India, a work that plays with the idea of the exotic world of India both real and imagined, If You Only Knew, a glorious combination of French Empire personalities and architecture pulled together with intense blues and a multiple of beads, and Layers, a geometric conglomeration of lines and circular apertures which reveal images of nature and wildlife in their optical vibrations.

Runs through April 27th, Hours: Saturdays 10am to 6pm/weekdays by appointment, Cade Tompkins Projects, 198 Hope Street

Contemplate artists in pairs at “Double Legacy: RISD Masters · RISD Alumni” now through February 23rd at Cade Tompkins Projects.

Cade Tompkins Projects is pleased to exhibit an extraordinary body of work created by RISD Faculty and Alumni whose symbiotic relationships have informed their respective careers. The exhibit debuts a curated selection of work at Cade Tompkins Projects, January 19 – February 28, 2013.  New work consists of drawings, prints, sculpture, and painting.

The artist pairs include: Nancy Friese and Sophiya Khwaja; Daniel Heyman and Stella Ebner;  Julia Jacquette and Tedd Nash Pomaski; Dean Snyder and James Foster; John Udvardy and Huckleberry Starnes.

Seen here is Khronos by Dean Snyder; metal flake paint over epoxy composite.

(Thursday’s New York Times happened to run a short, unrelated piece, about the fabric Ms. Tompkins recently used to reupholster a chaise longue.)

Winter hours: Open Saturdays, 10am to 6pm; or weekdays by appointment.

Cade Tompkins Projects, 198 Hope Street, 401. 751.4888, entrance actually on Fones Alley west off Hope Street, picture after the jump, (directions)

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Check out the new exhibit at the BankRI Gallery “Animal Fantasy: Paintings by Abbot Low” now through March 6.

Low took classes at the Rhode Island School of Design, experimenting with sculpture, drawing and painting and had a particular fondness for drawing animals. He attended both the Vermont College of Fine Arts and the Maine College of Art, graduating in 1989. In 1992, he left for Santa Cruz, California, far from the evergreen landscape of the northeast.

For eighteen years he lived in California, painting wildlife and gradually developing a style all his own. Bright, vivid colors, strong graphic compositions and animals created from his own imagination and sense of humor, graced his canvases. Three years ago, Low moved back to Rhode Island and took up residence in Bristol.

Through March 6, BankRI Pitman Street Galleries, 137 Pitman Street

(2.5) What better way to show your love for your city than by pitting one neighborhood against the other in a steel cage, grudge match, food fight to the death! Head down to City Hall Tuesday for the 4th annual “I Heart Providence” celebration and cheer on your team.

The two sides in the culinary competition will be:

East Side: Nemo Bolin of Cook & Brown Public House, Brandy Schwalbe of The Duck & Bunny, and Paul Jalaf of Vanity

West Side: Mike McHugh of Julians, James Mark of North, and Jonathan Dille of the (soon-to-open on Broadway) Grange.

Participating stores and restaurants include Abyssinia, Ebisu, El Rancho Grande, Eye Cookies, Fertile Underground Grocery, Kabob and Curry, Los Andes Restaurant, Olneyville New York System and Whole Foods. Music by Bored with Four and Miss Wensday and the Cotillions.

6pm to 8pm, Tuesday, February 5, City Hall, 25 Dorrance Street

Real estate developer and life-long Providence resident Peter M. Scotti has purchased the Clarke Flower Shops property at 398 Hope Street. An effort in 2011 by the former owner to raze the building and develop a new drive-through coffee shop was abandoned in the face of vehement neighborhood opposition who expressed traffic and safety concerns. Scotti tells the Providence Journal that he is optimistic a more appropriate use can be found for the property.

Scotti, who lives and works on Hope Street, said he wasn’t “overly concerned about it,” but said, “The big problem with that was the drive-through.”

It would be hard to find a developer with more genuine affection for the structure — a teenaged Peter Scotti actually worked there when it was McCarron’s Flowers — but the building and greenhouse have fallen into disrepair. Providence Preservation Society president James Brayton Hall hopes that at least the façade can be saved.

(12.6) Hope Street will be blocked off today between Rochambeau and Sixth Streets for the holiday stroll and pub crawl.

This year’s stroll will be HUGE! Musical trolley rides, hay ride, petting zoo, food trucks, fire jugglers, The Extraordinary Rendition Marching Band, tree and wreath sales, Children’s Film Festival Outdoor, blacksmithing, glassblowing, carolling, pictures with SANTA, local celebrities, Human Dreidel, Holiday Parade, Bar Crawl and MORE!

Restaurants on the pub crawl have special deals — map after the jump.  Fire jugglers should go on about 7:15pm near Burlington Street.

4pm to 8pm, Thursday, December 6, Hope Street, Facebook page

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Check out the new exhibit up now at the BankRI Galleries on Pitman Street — “Construction Zone: High Contrast Photographs by David DeMelim.”

Although DeMelim originally attended the University of Rhode Island to study marine biology, he found himself taking art classes, primarily in photography and printmaking. “Pretty soon,” DeMelim says, “I had enough credits to graduate with a BFA.”

DeMelim uses high contrast imagery and strong singular colors to find and isolate his subjects. The results, abstracted portraits and landscapes, are quite unlike the high dynamic range photography so in vogue today.

(Seen here: “Modern Rewrite,” high contrast Ultrachrome print)

Runs through October 31, BankRI Galleries, 137 Pitman Street

Hope Street will be closed to traffic between Fifth and Burlington Streets this Sunday afternoon for Fall Fest.

Live music and hay rides ($2). Food trucks and a Grilled Pizza Duel between Pizzico and Blaze Restaurant.

“Call Me Maybe” flash mob workshop (Festival Ballet parking lot at 3:15pm). The flash mob itself will take place at the First Works Festival on the 29th. Pumpkin patch (free pumpkin for the first 150 kids).

Noon to 4pm, Sunday, September 23, Hope Street between Fifth and Burlington Streets

Take a load off. Another “chair” has appeared; this one is red with a surface to the right where you can keep a beverage, and the remote.

Some random thoughts with on Blackstone Boulevard.

1) Just because it is legal for men to go shirtless does not mean it is acceptable in every case. Yes, it’s hot . . . we’re all hot.

2) To the urbane flâneur who litters the path with vanilla cigarillo wrappers, your douchiness can not be calibrated.

3) The speed limit on Blackstone Boulevard should be 35 miles/hour.

[Additional Note: We now know that 'Stump Chair' has a Facebook page, but it's still very mysterious. BC]

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A new exhibit “Paintings by Shari Weschler Rubeck” goes up Thursday, August 2, at the BankRI Pitman Street Gallery. Seen here is “Monkey Mess,” mixed media including paint, airbrush, collage, transfer, pen, graphite, and stickers.

Through September 5, 137 Pitman Street, Monday through Friday 9am to 7pm, Saturday 9am to 3pm, Sunday noon to 4pm

Puns . . . are . .  the . . . wurst. Okay, can’t be done. However, it should also be said, that the excellent food writer, Gail Ciampa, is in no way to blame for the headline “Their best is their wurst” above her piece in today’s ProJo about the new Wurst Kitchen Window at Chez Pascal on Hope Street.

It has been said that whenever God closes a door, somewhere else he’s caving in the front of your building with a Buick. Meanwhile, heathens like myself believe that life is a random series of meaningless but frequently wonderful events, and the new Wurst Kitchen Window has to be Exhibit A. Last year someone did indeed drive a car into the front of the restaurant (I think by accident) and owners Matt and Kristin Gennuso decided to carve out this sidewalk window/café from the newly created void. There are several little tables and chairs on the sidewalk. (For more about the food, just read the Ciampa article. Two relish recipes included.)

Today the window was manned by Aaron who explained that some of the interior of the bar and restaurant had been sacrificed to create the mini-kitchen right behind the window. (Pictures after the jump.)

Window Hours: Tuesday thru Friday, 11:30am to 2:30pm. The same hours on Saturdays, and also the Hewtin’s Dogs truck is parked on Ninth Street on Saturdays, cuz of the Farmers’ Market crowd and all.

Wurst Kitchen Window at Chez Pascal, 960 Hope Street, 401.421.4422

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This four-part summer music program — In Concert With Nature — starts this Wednesday with who else, Miss Wensday and the Cotillions. The performances, presented by the Blackstone Parks Conservancy, are free and open to the public and take place next to the trolley shelter opposite the entrance to Swan Point.

And kudos to those responsible for the design and maintenance of the plantings around the hut; they have really filled in and look amazing. Somebody knows what they are doing.

Events calendar after the jump.

Miss Wensday and the Cotillions, 6pm to 7:30pm, Wednesday, July 11, (rain date July 18), Blackstone Boulevard (at Elmgrove Avenue)

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A new exhibit by photographer David Silverman is up at the Pitman Street BankRI Gallery.

Known for his sports photography, with clients that include the Patriots and the athletics departments of Brown University, Bryant, MIT and Yale, Silverman began to travel to far off locations to try his hand at wilderness photography.

His first trip was to Alaska, his models grizzly bears. Then he was off to Africa and the wildlife preserves in Kenya and Tanzania.  Lions, giraffes, elephants, cheetahs, and hippopotamus were his inspiration; the Serengeti and Masai Mara his landscape. The exotic locale and unusual subject matter combined to give Silverman a new opportunity to communicate what he sees.

(Image was cropped for formatting.)

Through August 1, BankRI Pitman Street Gallery, 137 Pitman Street/9am to 7pm, Monday through Friday/9am to 3pm, Saturday/noon to 4pm, Sunday

The Lippitt Park Farmers Market sets up on Wednesday afternoons — maybe not quite full bore like Saturday mornings, but that might even be preferable. For a list of potential vendors go to Farm Fresh Rhode Island.

3pm to 6pm, Wednesdays, Lippitt Park, north end of Hope Street at Blackstone Boulevard