The New Bedford Whaling Museum’s scrimshaw collection, which includes hundreds of whalebone clocks, pie crimpers, musical instruments, canes and umbrellas, is advertised as the largest of its kind in the world.  Naomi Slipp, the museum’s chief curator, said these items weren’t considered fine art when the museum’s founders began collecting them from locals in 1903, […]

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This week’s episode of Artscape features an interview and studio session with Providence-based “hot jazz” band Paper Moon. Morning Edition host Luis Hernandez talked with guitarists John Birt and Dylan Harley, who describe the band’s music as a kind of time travel back to the sounds of early jazz and artists like Django Reinhardt.

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With a background in literature and classical music, Providence musician Olivia Dolphin writes piano driven pop songs about relationships and self-reflection. The Providence singer-songwriter’s latest single, “Ghost Story,” is a cautionary tale about heartbreak and the perils of modern dating.

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Where does an agnostic find hope in the face of the injustice of the world? And what happens when that agnostic starts hearing the voice of god in the rain? These are just a few of the themes of the radio play “God Talks to an Agnostic.” Written and directed by Don Mays the play explores the complicated role of the Black church in the life of a person struggling with their spirituality. The third season of “God Talks to an Agnostic” airs this weekend. Artscape producer James Baumgartner talked with Don earlier this week.

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The recently-retired URI professor was honored this week with the Rhode Island Pell Award for excellence in the arts. Artscape producer James Baumgartner visited Dilworth in his studio in Providence for this profile. Bob Dilworth has been drawing and painting since he was a child growing up in Lawrenceville, Virginia in the 1950s and 60s. The art teacher at a local HBCU encouraged Dilworth to apply to the Rhode Island School of Design, and after studying painting there, he went on to teach a few different places, before coming back to Rhode Island in the early 90s.

After teaching at URI for nearly 30 years, Dilworth retired in early 2020. But he hasn’t slowed down. I met with him in his garage studio in a quiet corner of Providence where he paints for 10-14 hours a day. Dilworth had several paintings in progress on canvasses 6-8 feet tall. Most of his paintings are portraits, more or less life-sized, and he describes the subjects as his community: his friends in Rhode Island, and people from his hometown.

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The Newport Historical Society’s latest exhibit is called “A Name, A Voice, A Life: The Black Newporters of the 17th-19th Centuries." Morning Edition host Luis Hernandez talked with Rebecca Bertrand, the museum’s executive director and Kaela Bleho, the digital access manager of the museum and co-curator for this exhibit.

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Providence musician J. Mamana has a new album coming out this summer called “For Every Set of Eyes.” It draws on influences that range from Neil Young to Mahler and Schumann. Mamana lost two of his closest friends in recent years, and through making the album, he found a way to process his grief.

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The cold, austere exterior of the Greek temple-like building is a contrast to the warm, sunny interior of this private library that dates back to 1836. For this week’s Artscape, Morning Edition host Luis Hernandez gets a tour of the Athenaeum’s rare collections of art, books and a few oddities.

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A Pawtucket-based company has built a device that makes it easy for anyone to make stop-motion animations. This modern update on the glue-stick and construction paper art project brings students’ ideas to life and unlocks their creativity.

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The RISD Black Biennial features the work of 68 artists who are either connected to RISD or the greater Providence area and are from the African diaspora. The show’s theme is “Sonder,” a relatively new word meaning “the realization that everyone, including strangers, has a life as complex as one's own.”

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