For all the talk of establishing an Arts & Entertainment district in downtown Providence, few artists – or entertainers – have taken up digs in the capital city.
Legislators adopted a bill two years ago – providing tax breaks to artists living or establishing studios in the downtown area bounded by Dorrance, Mathewson, Weybosset, and Washington Streets. But if there has been an influx of artists since that legislation was approved, it has been more of a trickle, than a stampede.
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Meanwhile, the idea to use arts and entertainment as a means of economic development is catching on in other communities.
While the capital city is making strides – with work under way, for example, at Grace Park on Westminster Street and renovations taking place to create artists’ lofts in other vacant downtown properties – it is now getting competition from other communities eyeing the arts as a viable way to spur economic development.
Already, two other Rhode Island communities — Westerly and Pawtucket – are moving forward with Arts & Entertainment Districts of their own.
In Westerly, the town’s downtown has been declared an Arts & Entertainment District – where no sales tax is being assessed on original creations that the State Council on the Arts deems to be legitimate works of art.
In Pawtucket, city officials have begun aggressively marketing an Arts & Entertainment District that stretches along parts of the picturesque Blackstone River.
Beginning Jan. 1, of this year, tax breaks on state income and sales tax are being given to artists, writers and composers who produce their original works within the newly created district. Sales tax exemptions on the sale of original works are also available to art galleries operating within the district.
Pawtucket Mayor James E. Doyle said the move to develop an Arts & Entertainment District has a two-fold approach.
”It’s an image builder,” said Doyle. “And it’s a tool for economic development.”
Doyle expects the Arts & Entertainment District to provide a much needed shot-in-the-arm for the city.
”The biggest problem I thought we had when I took office last January was that the city was a victim of ‘Rip Van Winkle Syndrome’ – it had been asleep for six years,” Doyle said.
The concept of using arts and entertainment as a means of economic development is catching on throughout the United States. New Orleans and Seattle, for example, have long enjoyed the benefits of deeply rooted arts and entertainment communities. Other American cities see arts districts as a smaller piece of an overall package. Joining Providence on that list include: Miami Beach Art Deco District; North Hollywood (NOHO) Arts District; Rock Island (Illinois) Arts & Entertainment District; and San Jose’s South of First Avenue (SOFA) Arts & Entertainment District.
Perhaps, in Rhode Island, a series of smaller arts districts will emerge and prosper. That would not surprise John Worsley, a jazz performer and enthusiast who serves as interim executive director of the Pawtucket Arts Council.
Worsley is convinced that arts and entertainment make sense in Pawtucket. The textile mills may have declined in the 1950s, he said, but the cupboard is by no means bare. The Blackstone River and historic Slater Mill, he said, can be catalysts to other economic development initiatives.
Worsley sees an enthusiasm, he said, among city officials and artists.
”There are many artists in Pawtucket who live here already,” said Worsley. “What Rhode Island generally has not understood is the number of great artists who come from the state.”
One of them is Thomas J. Kersey is a 56-year-old painter who arrived in Pawtucket from New York in 1976.
Kersey has an abstract style, using “acrylic on canvas.” He doesn’t actively market his work, but it is available for purchase and he often gets calls from people who have seen it and been impressed.
Kersey doesn’t see any reason why an arts district wouldn’t flourish in Pawtucket.
”The fact that there is no sales tax certainly makes it attractive,” he said.
Kersey believes that there is room in Rhode Island for several arts districts – all of which may offer artists a different look.
If city officials are able to lure artists to Pawtucket, those artists will find an established arts community.
During the last decade, Morris Nathanson, a restaurant designer, and his wife, Phyllis, have transformed an old factory at 163 Exchange St. into a collection of 13 artists’ studios featuring 12-foot-high ceilings.
Does Doyle see his Arts & Entertainment District as competing against the capital city, and Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, Jr?
”Absolutely not,” Doyle said. “It’s really apples and oranges. We’re at a smaller scale, more like Westerly. But there is no reason we have to be swallowed up by Providence.”
