Last Wednesday night, at the University of Rhode Island’s Paff Auditorium in Providence, leaders of AS220 launched the public part of their “All Access” campaign “to comprehensively renovate and upgrade downtown Providence’s flagship arts complex.”
The landmark alternative arts center is aiming to raise $5 million to improve the 21,000 square foot building at 115 Empire St. that the nonprofit bought in 1992 and moved into the following year. So far they have raised $3.1 million, leaving $1.9 million left to their goal, AS220 Artistic Director Shey Rivera says.
Twenty-five years after occupying the Empire Street building, it’s home to AS220’s Main Stage (which hosts some 400 events annually), the Black Box Theatre, three galleries, the AS220 Youth after-school program, a dance studio, the Paul Krot Community Darkroom, 20 live-work studios for artists, and AS220 Foo(d) restaurant and the Bar @ AS220.
“The building gets so much use that it needs to be refreshed and renovated,” Rivera says. “…We’re going back to our roots to strengthen what we do.”
(Let me note here that I’m honored to be personally connected with AS220. Last August, my partner Kari Percival and I were artists-in-residence for AS220’s annual Foo Fest street fair shenanigans. And Kari has designed graphics that the institution is using on pins and T-shirts to help support their current fund-raising.)
Speaking of fund-raising … Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.
AS220 was launched by a group of artist friends in 1985 as a cooperative gallery and performance space above the Providence Performing Arts Center at 220 Weybosset St. They called their alternative space AS220.
AS220 expanded when they moved to Empire Street in 1992. At the time, downtown was often seen as a dicey neighborhood. But as the retail core grew in allure and value, AS220 has been able to keep alternative arts in the heart of it because they owned their building.
Then in 2005, AS220 bought, renovated and reopened the Dreyfus building at 95 Mathewson St. and then in 2008 the abutting Mercantile Block at 131 Washington St. AS220’s main offices moved to Mathewson Street, but the heart of what’s grown to be a cultural empire remains on Empire Street.
“It was really fast growth,” Rivera says. “…This is a return to home so we can build up and be much stronger.”
The “All Access” project aims to install an elevator to make the building fully accessible “for the first time in the building’s history” and create a gender-neutral bathroom. “We’re making sure we’re there to support the many different kinds of people living in the city,” Rivera says. “Access tied to equity and justice are super important.”
Additionally AS220 plans to:
• Improve the common living facilities on the third floor.
• Create a secure stage loading area.
• Reconfigure the AS220 Foo(d) and bar—by moving the kitchen from out in the open in the restaurant into the back of the building to increase capacity.
• Open up the wall between the restaurant and the Black Box Theatre foyer to link the two.
• Make the Aborn Gallery on the second floor publicly accessible.
• Upgrade the theater’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning system.
• Create a “stage right” exit in the theater for “more effective staging of theater productions.”
• Create new storage for the theater’s risers and seating to increase the flexibility of the space.
• Reduce the sound bleed between the various spaces to make it easier to program them.
• Improve lighting, audio visual and sound equipment in the main stage, gallery and theater.
• Upgrade the green room in the basement to improve the experience for performers.
• Install new security measures and key systems to increase safety.
The improvements should make the building more energy efficient as well, AS220 says.
The goal is not just to make the building better. They’re also aiming to raise $1 million for an “Access Fund” to help them “continue generating affordable and accessible opportunities that help transform communities.”
Rivera says this will include replenishing depleted reserve accounts for the buildings and helping with general operating expenses. Its use is broadly defined—to both plug holes and foster new projects, if I understand it correctly. “We can’t expand if we don’t have the capacity to manage all those spaces,” Rivera says. The fund will help “to strengthen the culture and the staff that are working hard to make this happen.”
Speaking of fund-raising … Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.
