Gillian Christy’s vision of wrapping a stainless-steel vine-and-leaf sculpture around the smokestack atop a mixed-use redevelopment project in the Olneyville section of Providence came from the same organic source that inspires much of her other work.
But the “Smokestack Project” at The Plant differs from Christy’s other metal sculptures in a couple of big ways. For starters, it is the first large-scale public art installation she has ever created.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
“I’ve been answering these RFPs [request for proposals] for many years, even in college, trying to get the large-scale community pieces,” Christy said. “Because the budget for these projects is so big, it’s really hard for a company to give the contract to an amateur.”
To complete the “Smokestack Project” will cost more than $100,000, said Carolyn Mark, executive director of Puente, the nonprofit Olneyville real estate developer that is spearheading the mill conversion, in partnership with Baltimore-based Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse.
The funds are being filtered to Christy in one large upfront payment, then a monthly stipend, then a large final installment once the project is completed, in mid- to late-January.
She said the project’s most challenging aspect was finding contractors in the construction industry to work on the pieces she couldn’t create, for lack of space and equipment.
For instance, Christy said, because her Providence studio is only 500 square feet, it couldn’t handle the fabrication of the 7-foot bronze extension for the existing smokestack.
Its bronze grid mimics the pattern of the bricks on the original smokestack, which stands about 60 feet high. Christy said she made the grid a part of her sculpture because she wanted to replace part of the smokestack that was knocked down by a storm more than a decade ago.
After cold-calling dozens of companies, she contracted the work to Mystic Scenic Studios Inc., a custom fabrication company in Norwood, Mass.
She also hired a graphic designer, an engineer and an architect – and an assistant to help her with the project, from start to finish.
All of it was a new experience for her, from managing invoices to having to request a budget increase after the market price for bronze skyrocketed, Christy said.
Incorporating the community into the fabrication process was another new experience for Christy – and it’s a part of the reason she landed the job.
“The sense of people in the community getting their hands on the project was something unique about her proposal,” said Puente’s Mark.
Christy enlisted the help of 16 people from the Olneyville community. Her helpers, ages 15 to 45, were given a free six-week course at The Steel Yard, to teach them how to weld and make leaves for the sculpture. The courses were paid for by the City of Providence, which provided a stipend; and The Steel Yard, which made an in-kind donation of the necessary space and equipment.
The sculptor said it was important to her to engage the people in the project because of the nature of the redevelopment.
The Plant is a mill conversion that is transforming about 86,000 square feet into artist live/work and small business live/work space, plus some retail and office space.
What sets it apart from other such developments in Olneyville is the affordability of those spaces. Monthly rents for the 29 live/work units will range from 70 cents to $13 per square foot, depending on the size and type of unit, according to Julian Dash, Puente’s real estate director.
Thus, the project adheres to Puente’s mission of catalyzing economic self sufficiency in neighborhoods faced with gentrification and displacement.
“What attracted us to Gillian is, she really captured the spirit and essence of our redevelopment project,” said Mark, the nonprofit’s director. “We hope it signals growth in the neighborhood … the leaf and vine symbolizes something growing where nothing was growing before.”
