Project Beta

by Celina Colby

Calling all artists! A new residency has opened in Newport, Rhode Island. Arts in Bushwick (AiB) and the newly formed non-profit Newport Art House (NAH) have teamed up to introduce a northeast artist residency called Project Beta in the beautiful seaside city. The goal of the residency is to bring artists from New York and other thriving artropolises to the hallowed shores of New England. Here they can explore the rich natural beauty and cultural offerings of the historic city.

Three Bushwick, New York, based artists will break ground on the residency. Thomas Stevenson, a video and multimedia artist, Lucia Rollow, a photographer and Jeremy Kiracofe, a sculptor. Each artist will be paired with a local Rhode Island institution that works in their medium, Fab Lab for Stevenson, the Newport Photographer’s Guild for Rollow and the Newport Art Museum and the Steel Yard for Kiracofe. During the week of August 15–22 the artists will execute a project specifically connected to their institutional partner and this residency.

Stevenson has ties to New England, he earned his MFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and his BA from Boston University. His work is an effort to bypass the power structures that define our society to get back to the communal skills and interactions that he believes define humanity. Rollow is a homegrown New Yorker who has been living, studying, and working in New York City since 2005. In addition to creating her stark, beautiful, black and white images of abandoned buildings, she owns and operates the Bushwick Community Darkroom. Kiracofe’s artwork is in the pursuit of the pure idea. He seeks to affect his viewers with a powerful emotional reaction, and his haunting installations certainly achieve that.

Project Beta culminates in a public exhibition on August 20 in the hippest Newport art area by Touro and Spring streets. Works will be exhibited at a variety of venues including Long’s Yoga Room, Maison DNA and the Newport Opera House. The interesting exhibit locales will add to the community integration of the project. Although the grand opening is on the 20th, the works will be displayed from August 20–23. Free maps are available for the full series of local events running parallel to this date as part of the Newport Backyard Summer Arts Series organized by A Common Practice.

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Image Credit: Photo by Lucia Rollow.

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Celina Colby is the editorial assistant at Art New England magazine and the blogger behind Trends and Tolstoy.