Providence Journal: "AS220 and the Art of Providence"

By David Brussat

AS220’s first quarter century marks an opportunity to judge the art collaborative’s leadership of art in Providence.

“AS” stands for art space; “220” is the street number of its first address, on Weybosset Street, in a storage room in the bowels of another local bastion of art, the Providence Performing Arts Center. AS220 moved to 115 Empire in 1993, then recently expanded to the old Dreyfus Hotel, on Washington Street, and now to the Mercantile Building next door.

AS220 saved Empire Street from decline by augmenting rather than demolishing the aesthetic of its neighborhood (at least on its side of the street). Other arts organizations use their buildings to advertise their creativity. Under the leadership of Umberto Crenca — another quarter century worth celebrating — AS220 has actually been creative, and its creativity has taught Providence a vital lesson.

The lesson is that creativity and tradition are two sides of the same coin. Creativity and tradition are not opposites, and they are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, tradition acts as a vessel of creativity no less than modernism, and arguably more so.

Indeed, modernism limits itself by rejecting tradition, and by rejecting artists’ historic and progressive practice of moving art into the future by building upon the practice of past masters (who did the same). By defining creativity as novelty, modernism limits the reach of art, pushing artists to ever more obscure attempts to be unique, or to copying the (recent) past. This narrowmindedness limits artists’ success (and their incomes) by alienating a vast pool of potential patrons. At AS220 and other art confabs low income may be a badge of honor — but it’s one that artists inflict on themselves.

Most other organizations that claim to support art and artists have thrown themselves behind this scam. A few artists have made millions by adroitly working the levers of publicity and propaganda, but for generations the best creative minds have yoked themselves to this hamster wheel to produce work that baffles or offends many possible buyers of art. How popular the arts would be if more artists had been harnessing the past instead of just rejecting the past. Ditto, architects. Just think how beautiful our streets and cities would be.

AS220’s renovation projects on Empire and Washington streets show how well creativity flourishes in an environment of tradition.

In Providence, artistic devolution has been slower because of such ancient institutions as the Rhode Island School of Design, founded in 1877 to help art bring beauty into industrial design. And the Providence Preservation Society has protected the city’s architecture since 1956. But unlike AS220, both RISD and PPS have been unable to resist the urge to play “strange bedfellows” with the most arrogant of modernists, the modern architects. Luckily, this has not (yet) undone their many decades of good work. PPS has hired as director RISD’s design czar, James Hall, who will, I hope, offer a broader sensibility to our benighted preservationists.

Trinity Repertory Company’s experience in the 1980s with modernist theater under Anne Bogart, who alienated subscribers in droves, usefully warned local art groups of modernist hazards. The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, for example, often includes in its programs a piece by an atonal composer, but it’s never the final piece played, and for good reason.

AS220 epitomizes the recognition that traditional culture embodies a more comprehensive artistic sophistication. Its creative program has emphasized arts whose edge builds on instead of rejecting the proprieties of form that span those arts’ pasts and futures. Having enjoyed AS220s offerings, I know that is true.

AS220 embraces its duty to educate and improve public taste, and it must respect the public if it expects to do so effectively. The café society on Empire, the “Action Speaks” forums on public issues, the poetry slams that make poets keep their feet on the ground as their imagery soars, the communal dining style of its cheap but stellar new restaurant — all of this says a lot about creativity in Providence.

In fact, AS220 embodies the city’s “brand.” Instead of rejecting the past and embracing novelty for its own sake, AS220 uses tradition in art and architecture to engage a more encompassing creativity. Bert Crenca may be appalled to read it here, but I doubt he’d fall for the latest pseudo-hip idea making the rounds locally: that the only type of bridge that can adequately reflect the city’s creativity is a bridge that doesn’t look like a bridge. Ha! We look to AS220 for an approach to creativity more coherent than how wacky we can make our next bridge.

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