Mayor Smiley Announces New Downtown Mural

Design by Lauren YS

Details announced for PVDFest Public Art Installations, Parade Grand Marshals, Maker Spaces

PROVIDENCE, RI – Mayor Brett P. Smiley, The Avenue Concept’s new Executive Director, Tracy Jonsson-Laboy, FirstWorks Executive Director Kathleen Pletcher and Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism Director Joe Wilson Jr. today announced that a new Downtown mural has been commissioned by the City of Providence in commemoration of PVDFest 2024. The project, spearheaded by Mayor Smiley and the Department of Art, Culture and Tourism, celebrates the history of theater, Providence’s Chinese American and Southeast Asian communities and LGBTQ+ contributions in Downtown Providence. The City worked with The Avenue Concept and Paolino Properties to select an artist and location for the signature public art piece.

Additionally, details were announced today for this year’s PVDFest public art installations, parade grand marshals and artist maker spaces. Providence’s signature arts festival returns Downtown this September with an exciting lineup of main stage performers and an array of highlights that promise to captivate attendees. This year’s festival, set to take place on September 6 and 7, with a rain date of September 8, will transform Downtown Providence into a dynamic hub of creativity, community and celebration.

“This mural embodies the spirit of PVDFest and the creative energy that makes Providence unique,” said Mayor Smiley.  “Public art is fundamental to Providence, and this mural will not only beautify Downtown, but also tell a powerful story of our community’s rich history and vibrant diversity. By celebrating the contributions of our theater, cultural heritage and LGBTQ+ communities, we are honoring the past while inspiring future generations.”

The mural by artist Lauren YS, which is not yet titled, is located at 40 Snow Street and spans 27 feet by 85 feet of wall surface.

Design elements were selected by the artist following robust historical research and community engagement.

• The mural features a figure on the far left holding scissors and thread, honoring Perry Watkins, the first Black scenic designer on Broadway from Providence. This figure also holds a fan with the Port Arthur logo, representing a key Chinese restaurant and dancehall that was a haven for the Asian and LGBTQ+ communities.
• Curtains highlight local theaters like PPAC and Trinity Rep, while arches reference the Chinese restaurants and dancehalls that were central to the theater experience from the 1950s to the 1980s. These venues also served as unique performance spaces, nodding to Trinity Rep’s non-traditional stages.
• Two middle figures blend ancient Chinese opera with modern drag, symbolizing Providence’s Chinatown and referencing Rhode Island’s former “Kings & Queens” community hub.
• The right figure honors Providence’s LGBTQ+ history, inspired by 1910 drag performer Francis “Auriema” Renault. The jewelry in the mural is a nod to Beatrice Temkin, a pioneering LGBTQ+ ally and namesake of the Beatrice Hotel. The Beatrice and the Snow Street building are owned by Paolino Properties.

PVDFest organizers also announced the festival’s temporary public art installations, PVDFest Parade grand marshals, and details about the new maker spaces joining the festival this year.

This year’s festival will bring two temporary public art installations to Downtown Providence. 

• “The Art of Play,” Doorley Building, 444 Westminster Street:  “The Art of Play” by Julio Berroa and Haley Peters is an immersive sculptural art installation that explores the themes of play, identity, and cultural fusion. Drawing from the artists’ journeys growing up LGBTQ+ in and around Rhode Island, the work creates a multi-sensory experience that reflects the complex layers of intersecting identities and the blending of cultural heritage. “Play is an integral part of learning about yourself and those around you,” said Berroa and Peters. “By supplying vibrant opportunities for cohesive play, we hope to build connections between those who interact with this installation’s moving, spinning, and visually captivating elements regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.”
• “Public Property,” 25 Dorrance Street: “Public Property” by artist Sylke “Sy” Meyer is a social sculpture that presents a commentary on public space and the evolving nature of collective memory. The installation of a large camera obscura brings together elements from different times and places, such as the Soldiers and Sailors monument, City Hall, and the viewer’s present moment, into a single point of intersection. The interactive piece invites the public to consider the evolving concepts of ownership and access through time.

Three arts champions have been named PVDFest Grand Marshals this year.  

• Anjel Newman, a Black American artist, creative director, and educator from Rhode Island, who specializes in using design principles to transform organizations with a focus on empathy, storytelling, and social justice. She serves as Co-Executive and Youth Program Director at AS220, teaches art and social justice, and is a member of the PPSD School Board.
• Chachi Carvalho, a talented emcee, song writer, poet, and entrepreneur who has performed for and captivated many PVDFest audiences over the years. He is the owner of We Own The Masters LLC. and co-owner of Beatbox Digital Recording Studio in Pawtucket. He is the founder and artistic director of the Culture Shock music festival and annual community celebration.
• Rodney Davis, a leading community champion and LGBTQ+ activist who has served for more than twenty years as co-chair and president of Rhode Island Pride. Rodney has also served in leadership roles for the Rhode Island Alliance, and has personally and professionally supported numerous organizations that promote social justice and community advancement.

Numerous Artist Maker Spaces will join the festival this year, inviting attendees to participate in public art. 

• The PVDFest Mural Battle will feature muralists AGONZA, Niko Tolentino, Elton Duarte, and Natural, who will compete alongside each other to create four unique works of art on a mobile canvas. The winner will be selected through audience engagement. Hosts Club Ambition and Chip Douglas will be on the mic to hype up these artists and the crowd as they participate in Providence’s first ever Mural Battle.
• TuftXPVD’s founder and owner Sav Hazard-Chaney is bringing the first “pop-up” community tufting station to PVDFest this year. Come be a part and watch the magic of rug tufting LIVE! This community engaging activation will invite festival goers to participant in the actual tufting of a PVD tufted design. Step up and add your touch to this one-of-a-kind experience. Participants will be guided and supported by TuftxPVD, Rhode Island’s first Black and Woman-owned rug tufting studio.
• Podcasters and digital creators such as the Spark Up Podcast and Passion Street Media’s best friend duo, Lucas and Aaron, will be at the festival to interview attendees and creatives, capturing and highlighting Providence stories and experiences that inspire and connect.
• The Peace Flag Project will host a booth inviting the public to design their own 9×9 in flags sharing messages and artwork promoting a better world.
• Legos with Andy Grover, where participants are invited to unleash their inner architecta at the LEGO Build Zone! Join fellow festival-goers in crafting an iconic Providence building piece by piece. Connect with new friends, get creative, and soak up the vibrant downtown atmosphere.
• Spark Up will be engaging with new and past guests and festival goers to talk about Providence related topics from the past, present, and future, collecting stories and experiences of the PVDFest and learning about creatives who stop by to share their personal stories.
• Gather Glass, which invites the public to experience the magic of glass blowing at PVDFest. Watch live demonstrations, learn about this mesmerizing art form and the artists behind the creations, and see how molten glass transforms into stunning shapes and objects.
• DWRI Letterpress will offer opportunities to print outside on their table-top portable press and will have a mix of DWRI and Linotype Daily prints and posters for sale, cards that attendees can print for free, and various other exciting letterpress printed goods and sundries.
• At the Alley Cat Foam Pit, everyone is welcome to enjoy some foam-filled fun. Dive into the foam pit, groove to the artists on the dance stage, and explore cultural heritage partners nearby.
• At the JWU Tent, students from the Center for Media Production at Johnson & Wales University and industry partner LittleFire Media invite attendees to visit their Makers on Matthewson space to share their personal stories about PVDFest. These confessional-style interviews will be recorded and edited into a video loop that celebrates Providence’s signature arts festival.

PVDFest 2024 is set to captivate attendees with a diverse array of cultural and artistic highlights. Visit pvdfest.com in the coming weeks for more updates and ways to get involved. View all previous 2024 PVDFest programming announcements at pvdfest.com/news.

Sponsors:

PVDFest is made possible in large part by generous sponsors who continue to support Providence’s creative culture year-round, including the City of Providence, Providence City Council, Providence Tourism Council, WM, The Boston Globe Rhode Island, ProvPort , Waterson Terminal Services LLC, WPRI Media Group, Breeze Airways in partnership with Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport, North American Crane & Rigging LLC, Rhode Island Energy, iHeart Media, General Dynamics Electric Boat / Buildsubmarines.com, Rhode Island Commerce Corporation, Delta Dental of Rhode Island, Dimeo Construction Company, America News, DUNKIN’, Amica Insurance, COX, Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, First Bristol Corporation/Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites, Floor & Decor, Johnson & Wales University, Cornish Associates, Fidelity Investments, Paolino Properties, SURV, The Foundry, Withum, Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O’Gara LLC, High Output, Half Street Group, Matunuck Oyster Bar, Santander, The Public’s Radio, Hey Rhody Media Co., Rhode Island Monthly, Gather Glass, Insomnia Cookies Downtown Providence, Legacy Collective RI, BankNewport, and Navigant Credit Union. Sponsorship opportunities are available at pvdfest.com/sponsors.

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About The Avenue Concept:

The Avenue Concept (TAC) produces visual public art and experiences with artists and communities designed to inspire joy, dialogue, and belonging, envisioning vibrant public spaces where art is a catalyst to nurture connection, hope, and inclusion. Founded in Providence, RI, in 2012, TAC has produced more than 300 artworks in partnership with 200+ artists, dramatically changing the look, feel, and engagement with the Providence cityscape. The organization prioritizes storytelling and artwork documentation and actively promotes artists and their stories.

About Lauren YS:

Lauren YS (they/them) is a queer Asian-American femme with a deep passion for visual storytelling. Based in LA with a B.A. in English and Fine Art from Stanford University, Lauren applies their background in literature to the urban sphere through freestyle muralism. Their signature style of high-chroma design elements interwoven with dynamic portraiture creates lush, florid pictorial portals to worlds that are as just as they are visually captivating. Lauren’s work seeks to bring an element of the fantastical and narrative fluidity to the dignity of their characters’ person-hoods, with a specific passion for creating space for queer and BIPOC stories. From large-scale murals to multi-layered works on canvas, Lauren’s work draws inspiration from queer worlds, fluidity, mythology, dreams, animation, travel, nature, human dignity and their mixed Asian-American heritage. Lauren’s vision encapsulates the lifetime search for identity, a love of local myth, and the constant pursuit of promoting just futures. They have exhibited large-scale murals around the globe including Yale University, Art Basel Miami, Wynwood Walls, Long Beach Museum of Art, PangeaSeed SeaWalls (New Zealand), the World Trade Center in New York, and have shown in galleries including Vienna, New York, London, Tokyo, and Melbourne. They completed a mural in Providence in 2016 after spending a semester studying at Brown and RISD while completing their BA in English and Art Practice from Stanford University. That mural is inspired by a Gypsy Moth epidemic Rhode Island was dealing with at the time of the mural.

About Julio Berroa:

Known for his multi-faceted approach to the field of art and design which weave both the analog and digital, artist Julio E. Berroa is often creating hyperreal and immersive scenes of intense experiences using vivid colors and organic shapes and textures depicting very intimate moments. Centered around the intersection and blend between the artificial and the natural, Berroa’s world is hyperreal – delicate and intricately detailed, as well as bold and dynamic. Berroa’s practice is informed by the thought that everything that’s unique and constantly changing is alive in different forms of expression and art-making. Berroa was born in Salcedo, Dominican Republic and has been a Providence resident since 2012. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Media Design and a minor in Photography.

About Haley Peters:

Haley Peters is a Mashpee Wampanoag ceramicist based in Rhode Island. He is dedicated to exploring the beauty and complexities of indigeneity through sculpting and hand-building, emphasizing understanding the places that shape us. Their mark-making is an integral part of this practice, using fingers and other natural materials to carve and burnish as a way to accentuate the hand-building processes used by Wampanoag potters since time immemorial. Finding references in the environment and working from stories passed down through the generations, Peters intends to creatively portray the connections between the Indigenous people of the Northeastern Coast and the places we currently and historically call home.

About Sylke “Sy” Meyer:

Sylke Rene Meyer is a writer, director, media artist, performer, educator, and co-founder of the performance group Studio206. Her practice is informed by and engages with group relations and media theory and criticism, and encompasses collaborative experimentations across theater, performance, and new media. Her work has garnered numerous awards such as an Emmy Award, and Best Film Awards at major festivals such as Seattle, Chicago, and Montreal, and has been theatrically released in cinemas, on public television channels, and exhibition spaces worldwide. Since 2022, she has been a Professor of Creative Practice Research at Northeastern University in Boston. Her current artistic research concerns expanded live spaces, natural and synthetic intelligence relations, as well as questions around identity and media.

About Anjel Newman:

Anjel Newman is a Black American artist, creative director, social designer + educator from Rhode Island. Leveraging the values of Hip Hop + a range of artistic disciplines/ philosophies, at its root, Anjel’s work is about co-creating spaces that center those who are most impacted by systems of oppression, to reimagine + design a future that is as magical as it is just, ripe with possibility + wonder. Anjel specializes in using design principles to support organizations to transform from the inside out, with empathy + storytelling at the center. Currently, Anjel serves as AS220‘s Co-Executive and Youth Program Director. Additionally, Anjel teaches art, design + social justice classes for local colleges + universities. As a resource trainer with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Anjel facilitates conversations with the goal of dismantling systemic racism. Her work as an artist is directly influenced by her work as a social designer, educator + facilitator. Recently, Mayor Smiley appointed Anjel to the PPSD School Board: a position that she is honored to hold and uses to advocate for the needs of our students and families. Give her a follow on Instagram + Facebook + TikTok.

About Chachi Carvalho:

Charles “Chachi” Carvalho is a lifelong Pawtucket resident and first-generation Cape Verdean American. Chachi is a passionate musician, producer, event curator, educator, husband, loving father, community advocate, coach, and entrepreneur. He is well known for his leadership as an artist and activist; using past experiences and a love for music and education to help pave a path of success for himself and others. He is a positive member of our local community and his impact has been felt across various industries and spaces.

Mr. Carvalho currently serves as the inaugural Chief Equity Officer for the City of Pawtucket under the Administration of Mayor Don Grebien. He previously served as the School Culture and Community Engagement Coordinator at his alma mater Shea High School where he still volunteers as a football coach for the Raiders and finds great joy in helping our local students design their desired future selves. Additionally, Carvalho is a talented emcee, song writer, poet, and entrepreneur. He is the owner of We Own The Masters LLC and co-owner of Beatbox Digital Recording Studio in Pawtucket. He is the founder and artistic director of the Culture Shock music festival and annual community celebration. He recently completed a year-long collaborative residency with the Brown Arts Institute where he was able to launch his project Local Traffic, highlighted by his Cypher Academy and Global C.A.F.E. initiatives. Chachi also serves as the official brand ambassador for the Transform Rhode Island Scholarship for the Papitto Opportunity Connection, under the direction of the Perry Group.

About Rodney Davis:

Rodney Davis is a seasoned communications and marketing strategist, events expert, and passionate activist for LGBTQIA+ rights, social justice, and civil rights. Born and raised in Newport, RI, Rodney began his journey in activism in Providence in the early 1990s after leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, marking the start of his lifelong commitment to social justice. Rodney played a pivotal role in the Rhode Island Alliance, serving as both president and vice president, where he championed LGBTQIA+ civil rights. However, he is perhaps best known for his 20+ years as co-chair and president of Rhode Island Pride. After stepping down at the end of 2013, Rodney was called back to leadership in 2021, where he and the all-volunteer team successfully organized the largest RI PrideFest and Night Parade in history in June 2023. Beyond Pride, Rodney is deeply involved in his community. He served on the African American Ambassadors Group with the City of Providence and was a co-facilitator and artist for the All Black Lives Matter mural in Kennedy Plaza. His dedication to social equity is further reflected in his role as chair of the Providence Municipal Reparations Commission. Rodney’s academic journey includes graduating as a Diversity Leadership Scholar from College Unbound, where he now mentors other students. He is also a proud alumnus of Rogers High School and the Leadership Rhode Island Alpha II class. Professionally, Rodney has made significant contributions as the communications director for Big Picture Learning and currently serves as the Senior Content and Production Manager at United Way of Rhode Island. He lives in Western Coventry with his partner of over 20 years, Brian Mills, along with their rescue Pit Bull Terrier, Beau, rescue cat Jackson, and a brood of happy hens.