(4.25) As part of the Sites and Stories Explored Through Scholarship, Art, and Community Engagement project, the Providence Preservation Society (PPS) will unveil five original artistic works that explore the hidden and layered narratives of several endangered historic sites in Providence. Five artists and artist teams were selected to create new works related to four sites that are featured on the PPS 2018 Most Endangered Properties list.
You can see what two of these artists have created for the Providence Preservation Society Artists’ Presentations this Thursday. The tour starts with videographer David Wells at the Broad Street Synagogue, then proceeds over to Elmwood Avenue to the Knight Library where artist Walker Mettling will present his project. (Mettling first gave a talk at the library last October as an introduction to the project.)
Artist David Wells has created a video engaging the current residents of the area to share their voices about the Broad Street neighborhood along with those who worshiped at the now vacant Broad Street Synagogue. The intersection of these two communities is core to his project. The video will consist of two kinds of visual storytelling creating informative accounts of place, thereby expanding the collective understanding of those who breathed life into these spaces.
Artist Walker Mettling, a former RISD Museum artist fellow, is best known for his jittery and wondrous screenprinted monsters, and as the founder of the Providence Comics Consortium which holds comics-drawing classes at local libraries around the city. But it appears that Mettling has accessed his more conventional drafting chops for the Knight project which has culminated in a hardcover book to be presented Thursday (see image below).
He will start with documentation and research of the now inactive reference storage stacks, the horse-drenched reliefs banding the main room, and the stained glass symbols set into the windows of the smaller quiet rooms. His work will be influenced by how the library and the neighborhood have interacted in the past and how they do today.
This event is free and open to the public — advance registration required. Meet at the Broad Street Synagogue on Broad Street.
Free and open to the public, 5pm to 7pm, Thursday, April 25, 688 Broad Street, (directions)
Below is the Broad Street Synagogue.
