Funded by the Mellon Foundation and the American Rescue Plan, the Providence Commemoration Lab (PCL) is a program co-administered by The Department of Art, Culture and Tourism (ACT) and the Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS).
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.
ACT and RIHS have commissioned nine Providence artists to interrogate the ways that Providence residents construct and share memory and culture at three distinct sites in South Providence: Columbus Square, Roger Williams Park, and Public Street. The PCL will site and stage new, temporary works on public properties that invite unexpected ways of understanding commemoration as a communal process of historical redress and spatial reclamation.
We anticipate that the Labs will be spaces where the community engagement process and culminating works challenge the stakeholder communities 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?
Providence, RI
United States
Please submit your quote for the scope of work for one project site to:
Ena Fox
Director, Providence Commemoration Lab
efox@rihs.org
Project Sites:
We will identify indoor Lab spaces at each of the three sites (Columbus Square, Public Street, and Roger Williams Park), where artists and community residents can gather for conversations, workshops, and other activities. The specific siting of new commemorative works will come out of the artists’ work with community residents and stakeholders.
- Columbus Square is a small park at the intersections of Elmwood and Reservoir, which was the locus of controversy over a Christopher Columbus statue that has since been removed.
- Public Street runs from Broad Street to the industrial waterfront that was once a thriving salt marsh along the Providence River. The site has multiple ecological, cultural, and economic development histories.
- Roger Williams Park, the “people’s park, has numerous commemorative works scattered across its 102 acres of green space and is an important part of the area watershed.
ACT and RIHS require a photographer or photographers to document the activities of the Providence Commemoration Lab (PCL), which will unfold in phases from Spring 2024 through Summer 2025. The Engagement, Design and Manifestation phases at all three sites will be the most important to document. We want to capture the artists’ engagement with communities—which could be meetings, art workshops, informal gatherings such as a picnic, creative interventions that produce spontaneous interactions, and more. Possible activities of the Design phase are charrettes and prototyping with community members, while the Manifestation phase includes artists creating final installations or productions, and the culminating public events where the commemorative works are “unveiled”, performed, or otherwise shared.
We expect photo documentation to provide images that will share the progress and excitement of the PCL in real time through the PCL website and to create a useful image archive for the Project.
The photo documentation will take place as needed over the 12-18 months of the PCL, determined by activities during key project phases. We would prefer to contract with the same photographer/s for the duration, so that they become familiar with the artists, project sites, and participating neighborhoods.
The photographer/s will work in concert with the artists and PCL Director to determine when they need to be present to document the activities of the three mentioned phases, understanding that all the activities will not need to be documented.
DELIVERABLES
- Range of still images documenting the Providence Commemoration Lab activities, artists, community participants, and related events.
- Images that are professionally edited and formatted for web or print use and delivered via online transfer or other means to be determined by the photographer/s in consultation with the PCL Director.
- Images shall be delivered on a schedule over the course of the Project to be determined in consultation with the PCL Director.
COMPENSATION and TIME COMMITMENT
We estimate 70 to 90 hours of work total per project site over the course of three PCL phases. The photo documentation time per site may be fewer or more hours, depending on the site, as there may be multiple locations at two of the sites. We anticipate that the photographer will spend 10 hours per week to document activities during each of these phases as follows:
- 3 weeks during Engagement
- 2-3 weeks during Design
- 2-3 weeks during Manifestation
The photographer will receive three payments on a schedule that coincides with the above project phases, upon completing deliverables and submitting an invoice for each phase. These payments will be issued on or about the following dates:
August 15, 2024
November 15, 2024
July 15, 2025