Riverzedge Arts knows that anywhere can be a destination, but it doesn’t happen by accident. Places where people want to go—and stay—are created through intention and creativity. This is placemaking.
“There’s no there there.”
~Gertude Stein, referring to Oakland, CA circa 1890
Public Art
In 2011, the intersection of South Main Street and Mason Street in Woonsocket had a traffic island; today it is a micro-park. Perhaps no single project from Riverzedge Arts demonstrates the placemaking power of public art like the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial we installed there. Sited on one of the busiest streets in the city, the sculptures and gardens have transformed the image of this neighborhood. With intention and creativity, there was suddenly a “there” there.
The Public Art Lab is a multi-disciplinary art, design and fabrication studio that can meet all creative needs, including:
- Museum-quality exhibition design
- Custom, hand-painted 2D and 3D signs
- Public art—murals, sculptures and installations
If you can think of it, we can find a way to make it happen. We can help you think “outside the box” or even help you build the box. We’ve been manufacturing culture, cool and creativity since 2002!
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In 2009, Riverzedge Arts, the city of Woonsocket and the renowned engineering firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin engaged in a planning process to improve wayfinding in a city notorious as a place to get lost. Using large-format maps as a starting point, youth participants traced the routes that they follow, usually on bicycle or on foot. The result transformed the way the city thinks about all modes of transportation.
Since then, the Riverzedge Arts has created other types of public planning engagement inputs, using large format images that become physical touchstones for these ongoing processes. These customized images let planners frame the conversation by visually emphasizing those aspects that are most important to a particular project. A river, for example, is just a thin blue line on a map. But if a planning process is river-focused, it should dominated the map.
With the right kind of inputs, planners can get better results and move more quickly to find the crucial ideas that they are after.
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The Green Design Lab has developed a special practice in creating stormwater remediation solutions for homeowners and institutions. Stormwater runoff directly impacts the health of our fresh and salt water ecosystems, polluting them with chemicals from lawns, roads and industry and sometimes even raw sewage. Worse, runoff squanders a valuable resource: water.
Our remediation plans seek to capture stormwater and, when possible, store it for future use. When storage is not possible or practical, our solutions divert runoff into permeable areas, where it can infiltrate the soil and enter the water table.
Installation of a rain garden is our preferred method for local infiltration. In addition to capturing runoff, rain gardens bring a diversity of plant species to areas that are usually just lawns. This then attracts birds, bees, butterflies and other animal species, creating micro-ecosystems in urban areas.
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Rad River™ Laundry Detergent is an all-natural cleaner that really works without harming the environment. Whole Foods® has given it an “orange” rating on its color-coded scale. How do we know it’s effective? We’ve tested it using the most challenging laundry available on earth—the dirty, smelly clothes of teenage boys. And a little goes a long way. Each jar can wash 54 standard size loads.
Violet Revolution™ Seed Bombs are weapons that destroy ugliness with flowers. We wrap local flower and grass seeds inside balls of air-dried terra cotta clay. Because it’s air-dried, the clay dissolves in water, creating a moist environment that germinates the seeds. You can plant them in your yard by just pressing them into the ground with your foot. Or throw them into that abandoned lot and let nature take its course. Join the Violet Revolution!
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