PROVIDENCE – An estimated 175 artists from across the nation and around the globe are expected to attend the 20th annual conference of the Alliance of Artists Communities in Providence which, organizers say, is designed to celebrate inspiring new developments in an era of diminished resources.
“Advancing Today’s Artists: Boldness + Abundance in a New Economy” will be held at various city locations Oct. 20-23. Keynote speakers include Daniel Bernard Roumain, composer and musician whose achievements have ranged from a collaboration with Lady Gaga to being named one of the “Top 40 Under 40” business people in “Crain’s New York Business.”
The Alliance, based on North Main Street in Providence, represents approximately 500 organizations in the United States alone, said Executive Director Caitlin Strokosch. The organizations mainly provide artists-in-residency programs and artists’ retreats at such sites as universities, museums, artists’ colonies and urban art centers such as AS220 in Providence.
“We help provide time and space to artists of any description for the creation of new work, and we are one of the few organizations dedicated to this,” she said. The Alliance works with artists on such matters as professional development, research, networking and also lobbies Congress on behalf of artists, she said.
Providence provides “the perfect backdrop” for the convention, Strokosch said, because of its “strong history of collaboration, a high tolerance for quirky and non-mainstream, and an abundance of creative individuals that have shaped this city.” The conference is expected to generate more than $300,000 for the local economy, she said. The event was last held in Providence in 2002.
Other keynote speakers are: Clay Rockefeller, artist, activist and Providence resident who co-founded The Steel Yard and works as a consultant to nonprofits; Anna Schuleit, a visual artist, Rhode Island School of Design graduate and a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow; Elizabeth Streb, a dancer and choreographer, also a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, who has been called “the Evil Knievel of dance.” A full list of speakers and presentations can be found at http://www.artistcommunities.org/conference2010/speakers.html.
Sponsors include Bank Rhode Island, Amtrak, Narragansett Beer, Narragansett Creamery, the Rhode Island Foundation, the R.I. State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.