(10.9) The Providence Preservation Society’s Sites and Stories Explored project will focus on the hidden and layered narratives of several endangered historic sites in Providence. The PPS has selected five artists and artist teams to create new works related to four sites featured on their 2018 Most Endangered Properties list. Each artist will begin the process this year through discussion with a local scholar and a walking tour that engages the community. The project kicks off at the Knight Library in South Providence.
This tour will be a walking conversation, meant to inform everyone who participates. We’ll examine the history of Knight Memorial Library, the people who created it and the people who use it today, as well as the art and architecture of the building and the challenges that go along with maintaining it. The tour will feature artist Walker Mettling and community leader Channavy Chhay. Attendees are encouraged to share their knowledge, experiences, questions and concerns.
Walker Mettling is a Rhode Island cartoonist and runs the Providence Comics Consortium. Channavy Chhay is the Executive Director of the Center for Southeast Asians.
Walker Mettling will create a handmade hardcover artist book focusing on Knight Memorial Library. 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.
Registrants will be contacted with location details. Participants may, or may not, be meeting at the library itself. We don’t know. Go here to register.
5pm to 6:30pm, Tuesday, October 9, Knight Library, 275 Elmwood Avenue, (directions)