The makings of an arts district is not all about tax free zones or artists’ lofts. It’s more about people and institutions. About a community, about an environment that fosters creativity and celebrates imagination.
It’s about the magic that happens on the stage of Trinity Repertory Company, at Perishable Theater, or in the former movie palace we call Providence Performing Arts Center, or at RISD, in the museum and in the classrooms, or Veterans Auditorium filled with the music of the Rhode Island Philharmonic.
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It’s about people. People like Oskar Eustis, who came here and helped restore Trinity Repertory Company artistically, reminding many in the community of the days when Trinity was a Tony Award winner.
It’s about loyalty and commitment and to wanting to see a job through. About looking at an opportunity elsewhere, and understanding that there are still many more challenges that lie ahead here in Providence.
No one would have criticized Oskar Eustis if after seven years here he had agreed to leave to become dean of the Yale School of Drama and artistic director of the Yale Repertory Theater. He didn’t, and instead decided to remain in Providence, where he said there are “exciting opportunities waiting in the wings for Trinity Rep and its community.”
The fact that he has decided to remain in Providence is a testament to his character and commitment to the community and, mainly, to Trinity Repertory Company.
Oskar Eustis is an enormously talented and creative individual, whose presence in Providence cannot be underestimated. Not only has he had a dramatic impact on Trinity Repertory Company and the arts community, he has been part of that spirit behind Providence’s revitalization. As the Providence Renaissance has unfolded in the form of bricks and mortar, its soul has been in the arts.
Mayor Vincent Cianci, Jr. has been quick to recognize that it is the arts upon
which the renaissance has been built — upon Trinity, upon PPAC, and Perishable
and RISD, the Philharmonic, the galleries, and the festivals.
So now it is time to move with renewed vigor to develop the arts district that was promised a few years ago.
Eustis and others within the arts community often wonder when the project will actually take hold, when the dream of a community of artists living in downtown lofts will become reality, when all of the other amenities that have been envisioned are actually completed.
Eustis looks with excitement at Trinity’s next decade, a period when the theater will open a second stage at the old Citizens Bank Building. We hope it will also be a decade that fulfills not only the “exciting opportunities” that Eustis envisions, but also the promise of a vibrant downtown arts district that fosters an atmosphere of creativity and imagination.
