“Accessibility is Beautiful”: Saturday, Sept.10, 2:00 – 7:00 p.m., The Steel Yard, 27 Sims Ave. Providence.
Gallery Shows at AS220: Sept. 8 – 24. Opening Event: Sept. 10, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. AS220 galleries at 115 Empire Street and 95 Matthewson Street, Providence.
Chuck Hinman: This is The Public’s Radio, I’m Chuck Hinman. Artscape producer James Baumgartner is in the studio with me, what’s going on this weekend, James?
James Baumgartner: Hi Chuck. I want to highlight a couple of events. The first is “Accessibility is Beautiful” at the Steel Yard in Providence. It’s held by RAMP, R-A-M-P, Real Access Motivates Progress, they’re an organization that supports people with disabilities along with their families and allies. The event is designed to help local businesses learn how to be more accessible for people of all abilities.
Hinman: I see that’s on Saturday from two to seven at the Steel Yard. What else is going on?
Baumgartner: AS220 has gallery shows from five different artists that start today. One of those artists is Sandra Lee of Glass Magik Studios. She finds old glass and crystal pieces and combines them in different ways to make new works of art. She’ll have a crystal candy dish attached to a bakelite bowl and a heavy candlestick with a brass detail. Individually, they’re all pieces that I might have seen in my grandmother’s china cabinet, but combined together they create something totally different.
Sandra Lee: The process is interesting, you know, I can be out in the back here, putting – trying different pieces. And it can take a lot of time because they have to fit just right. And the look has to be just right. And the proportions have to be just right for my inner child to go, “Yes! It’s perfect.” It’s a process. It’s fun. It’s pure creativity. It’s repurposing these gorgeous items that just languish on the shelf now.
Baumgartner: Alby Pearson will have a series of his photographs on display at the AS220 main gallery. The photographs are mostly from his hikes in the woods of Connecticut and they feature zoomed-in shots of water and reflections. He gets his artistic inspiration from paintings more than from photographs.
Alby Pearson: One of the techniques I use is kind of zooming in kind of far on something but using other things to help frame the shot. And yeah, that’s what I liked about the – especially the water pictures is that they do kind of resemble a sort of, like abstract painting.
Hinman: Earlier this year, you and I talked with Jeffrey Yoo-Warren about “Seeing Providence Chinatown” a virtual re-creation of the Chinatown neighborhood of Providence that was torn down in the 1910s. Here’s what he told us in March.
Jeffrey Yoo-Warren: I guess I’m really interested in understanding not, you know, not just remembering, you know that this did exist. But understanding what it means today. You know, not only that the families that lived here are still around, the On Leong Merchants Association still exists and has an office in Providence over on Reservoir Ave. So some of those stories continue today, but also there are so many other people who have come, you know, to this city over the years, and had their own distinct experiences of being here. And then, you know, perhaps having their histories kind of erased or ignored.
Baumgartner: Working from archival photos and maps, Jeffrey spent months creating a virtual reconstruction of the neighborhood which existed just a few steps away from where AS220 is right now. He says that the project “seeks to understand what it might have felt like – personally – to walk down Empire street in 1914.”
Hinman: You’ll be able to see the virtual reconstruction of Providence Chinatown at AS220’s Aborn Gallery on Matthewson Street.
Baumgartner: The gallery shows are open now through September 24th and there’s an opening event this Saturday from five to seven.
