Woonsocket, RI—Riverzedge Arts, a local nonprofit providing professional training in the arts to Woonsocket teens, has been approved for a $25,000 Grant for Arts Projects award to support “The Blackstone Meets Main Street,” an immersive arts installation and mixed-use venue in historic downtown.
“The Blackstone Meets Main Street” reconnects residents and introduces visitors to the Blackstone River’s value as a cultural landscape and make important strides toward stimulating Woonsocket’s creative economy by providing a rejuvenated space for cultural activities. Riverzedge Arts’ project is among 1,248 projects across America that were selected to receive this first round of fiscal year 2022 funding in the Grants for Arts Projects category.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects like this one from Riverzedge Arts that help support the community’s creative economy,” said NEA Acting Chair Ann Eilers. “Riverzedge in Woonsocket is among the arts organizations nationwide that are using the arts as a source of strength, a path to well-being, and providing access and opportunity for people to connect and find joy through the arts.”
“At Riverzedge Arts, young artists create civic-minded projects like these from start to finish, often in partnership with the City of Woonsocket. We’re so excited to have our city and our youth participants gain national recognition,” says Riverzedge Arts’ Executive Director Dr. Kristen Williams.
Once again working with Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt’s administration, Riverzedge Arts will create a multi-media, multi-sensory installation on Main St. using light, video and photographic imagery, and a soundscape to reframe the downtown core of Woonsocket as a site for eco-tourism and cultural activities. Video projections of the river in motion will play across the walls of parking lots and buildings while speakers hidden in alcoves and nooks play a loop of the river’s multi-season soundscape. Large-scale historic and contemporary photographs of the river and its uses will surround pedestrians to activate curiosity and imagination in viewers.
For more information on other projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.