WaterFire Providence

WaterFire is in the middle of a major organizational transition as laid out in its strategic plan. Started in 2011 when the organization went to the dual arts leadership model with Peter Mello hired as managing director/coCEO to co-lead with founder/executive artistic director Barnaby Evans. In 2012, WaterFire met another key strategic objective by purchasing and rehabilitating an abandoned, historic building, prominently positioned on Valley streetscape on the gateway into the underserved Olneyville neighborhood. In 2017, WaterFire moved into the WaterFire Arts Center, the organization’s first permanent visible home, a multi-use arts and culture venue unlike any other in the region and a catalyst to further development in the neighborhood. WaterFire will continue navigating its strategic transition from an improvised arts event to a RI institution by expanding arts and culture programming in the WaterFire Arts Center and integrating it into and strengthening the WaterFire event downtown.

In 2020, WaterFire was planning a series of events and activities including: launching of a lecture series on Creative Placemaking and Public Art; organizing a variety of WaterFire lightings honoring community heroes including healthcare professionals, first responders and essential worker on the front lines of the battle against the coronavirus crisis and continue to collaborate and develop programs with The Wheeler School's Cityside, a groundbreaking 8th grade community-based, experiential education program in the WaterFire Arts Center.

While the coronavirus pandemic has put our 2020 WaterFire season on hold, we remain committed as ever to creating relevant and important art. Frankly, this has been a tough way to celebrate WaterFire's first 25 years, but we are determined, resilient and excited about how our talented and dedicated team is adjusting and continuing to create meaningful art like the WaterFire Beacon of Hope, a dynamic installation that honors Rhode Island lives lost to COVID-19, and #StayHomeWaterFire, our first virtual event that gathered 15,000 online viewers for “the largest and greatest co-created art experience in the history of humankind.”

WaterFire has been doing important creative placemaking work in our community for 25 years and during this time has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts and ArtPlace America, among many others, as a leader in the field. WaterFire’s community connections run deep and wide and its partnerships make its work more diverse and stronger.

Over the past 9 years, WaterFire Providence has been lead by the coCEO team of Barnaby Evans, Founder and Executive Artistic Director, and Peter Mello, Managing Director. Paul Kochanek, Director of Events and Operations and Laura Duclos, Director of Creative Services.

WaterFire Arts Center has rapidly become an important community resource hosting a wide variety of meetings and events including the City of Providence’s Public Art Master Plan Community Workshop and Woonasquatucket Vision Planning meetings.

Over the past 24 years more than 15,000,000 people have come to Providence to experience the art of WaterFire. We are constantly experimenting and iterating to keep the event fresh for tourists and RI citizens alike. Over the course of the season we work with hundreds of artists and dozens of community organizations, integrating their programming into the event and giving them a platform to reach much larger and more diverse audiences than they could on their own. In 2017 WaterFire moved into the WaterFire Arts Center, its first permanent visible home in the community and a new multi-use arts center that host exhibitions, performances and events of all kinds. As called for by our strategic plan, WaterFire is in the middle of an important transition from from an improvised arts event to a Rhode Island institution in an effort to sustain and increase our proven economic and cultural impacts for the community.