The Providence Commemoration Lab will site and stage new, temporary projects that invite unexpected ways of understanding commemoration as a communal process of historical redress and spatial reclamation. Working with local artists, scholars, community stakeholders and neighborhood champions, ACT and the Rhode Island Historical Society have commissioned nine social practice/community-engaged artists to interrogate the ways that Providence constructs and share memory at three beautifully complex under-resourced sites: Columbus Square (24 Reservoir Ave, Providence, RI 02907), Roger Williams Park (Pine Hill Ave, Providence, RI 02907), and Public Street Beach (Public St. & Allens Ave).

The three priority public sites proposed for the Providence Commemoration Lab have been selected because they pose critical questions about the practical and philosophical realities of commemoration in the City.

The primary goal of the Providence Commemoration Lab is to create a platform for Providence residents to own and be accountable to new commemorative traditions. We anticipate that the labs will be spaces where the engagement process and culminating works challenge lab stakeholders and the larger public to re-think not only whose stories get told, but how they get told – in what forms, using what media, and for what durations?

The primary intended beneficiaries of this project are Providence residents who do not see themselves represented in the substance or style of the City’s existing commemorative works as per recommended activity 7.3.A.5 in PVDx2031, A Cultural Plan for Culture Shift. The producers hope that Lab work is also relevant and provocative for those who feel proud of the existing statuary and sculpture that largely comprise the City’s commemorative landscape.

Ultimately, the Providence Commemoration Lab aims to bolster civic participation in work conducted by the City’s Special Committee for Commemorative Works. ACT and RIHS hope Labs will activate stakeholder groups who will use the City’s growing online inventory and that they will generate interest in future lab work, or other creative commemorative projects. The continued development of an accessible, comprehensive inventory of commemorative works is a particularly important component of the overarching project.

We invite you to check back often for updates on how to get involved.