The past 18 months have been a strange time for art lovers. Museums and galleries have sat empty. Artistic communities have, like all of us, learned to live in isolation. At the same time, though, there’s been a revolution in how we think of public space in our cities and towns. Streets, parks, and even alleyways have turned into our storefronts, our classrooms, and our museums. 

What do these changes mean for the art world, and for arts’ relationship to the rest of the world?

On this episode, Trending Globally partnered with ‘Providence Curates’ to explore this question. Providence Curates is a nonprofit made up of artists, writers, and curators, dedicated to expanding and diversifying artistic communities in the region and to reimagining how art can enter the public realm. 

This conversation was put together for PVDFest Ideas 2021, an Arts and Ideas festival in Providence, Rhode Island. 

Guests on this week’s show: 

• Jonny Skye is a gallerist based in Providence, RI, and a board member of Providence Curates. 
• Spencer Evans is an artist, a professor of drawing at RISD, and a board member of Providence Curates. 
• Melaine Ferdinand King is a 4th-year doctoral candidate in Africana Studies at Brown University
• Judith Tolnick Champa is an artist, curator, and founder of Providence Curates and the Providence Biennale. 

‘Providence Curates: Cultivating a Transformative Experiment,’ is an offshoot of the Providence Biennale. You can learn more on their website, and contact them directly at [email protected]. 

Special thanks to Stephanie Fortunato, Director, and Dr. Micah Salkind, Special Projects Manager of the City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism (ACT) PVDFest Ideas 2021, for making this collaboration possible. You can find a list of all of this year’s PVDFest Ideas events (both live and virtual) on their website.