The Providence Art Club

To kick off April (and my first post on Artclectic New England), I decided to reach out to one of the oldest arts organizations in the Creative Capital. As the gallery manager told me, "The Providence Art Club was founded in February of 1880 to ‘promote art culture’ in the City of Providence and beyond. Founded by six women and ten men, we are the first organization of our kind to be jointly founded by men and women and to include women as full and equal members from the start. We also count the noted African American artist Edward Mitchell Bannister among our founders. The Club is home to three gallery spaces, two classrooms, a café, and fifteen individual private artists’ studios.”

The Providence Art Club is still home to many artists in the state and host new exhibitions every three weeks (totally free and open to the public) and have various classes and workshops available for the accomplished artist and those just starting.

I was able to speak to Michael Rose, the Providence Art Club’s gallery manager, about his experience at the Art Club and the history behind it.

What have been the most fulfilling projects or shows you’ve been a part of?

In 2017, we hosted a series of exhibitions under the banner Making Marks, which explored the role of women artists at the Art Club from our unique founding to the current day. This series included a members’ exhibition in which we encouraged artists to honor women who inspired them. Then we hosted an in-depth historical exhibition of works by the women of the Club’s founding generation. And last we mounted a National Open Juried Exhibition focused on women artists juried by Kathryn Wat, Chief Curator of the National Museum of Women in The Arts in Washington, DC. This series highlighted many of the incredible and groundbreaking women who made the Club possible and celebrated the enduring contributions of women to the visual arts.


I’m sure you have a lot of special art pieces – what is one of your favorites?

In addition to our regular exhibitions, the Club owns a permanent collection of around 600 artworks by members dating from 1880 to the present. The collection is pretty wide-ranging with pieces in a variety of media. Some of my favorites are our woodblock prints by Eliza Draper Gardiner. Gardiner was a remarkable printmaker who drew inspiration from sources as diverse as Japanese woodcuts and the American Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. She was also a passionate educator who taught at RISD for over 30 years. One of our most evocative prints by Gardiner features a young student seated in front of the RISD Museum’s large Buddha Mahavairocana which was acquired during her tenure there.

The silhouettes in the Art Club restaurant are iconic; which is your favorite and what’s the story behind it?


The silhouettes are definitely a favorite bit of the Club that everyone enjoys. My personal favorite is the silhouette of Edward Mitchell Bannister, which is just inside the door to our Green Room and is marked with a little number 1 and a palette. Bannister was an African American painter who rose to prominence in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and was integral to the founding of the Club. He was revered by many of his contemporaries and the fact that he was honored with the very first silhouette – beginning this great tradition, is incredibly special to all of us.


Do you have any funny/little known trivia about Rhode Island?

A great piece of trivia I like to share is that the Providence Art Club was almost the home to the city’s art museum, which eventually became the RISD Museum. In 1887, Albert Jenkins Jones died, leaving a substantial monetary bequest to “establish an art institute in the City of Providence”. The ensuing lawsuit pitted the Art Club against the Rhode Island School of Design, with the Club actually establishing a legal entity called “The Providence Art institute” and hosting a major show of French paintings loaned by Seth Vose in an attempt to sway the judge. RISD eventually won the bequest and established the RISD Museum, within it’s “new” Waterman Building, constructed directly across from the Art Club and opened in 1893 – some seven years after the Club moved into our Clubhouse at 11 Thomas Street.


What are your hopes and dreams for arts & culture in Rhode Island? What are you excited about?

I think Rhode Island is uniquely situated to be a good alternative for creatives seeking a more affordable place within the Boston-New York corridor and beyond. There is already so much cultural programming per capita here, but it would be great to engage with a broader audience. One exciting show coming up at the Art Club will be in November and December of 2020 when we host our 116th Annual Little Pictures Show & Sale, the largest and oldest exhibition of its kind in the nation – which features nearly 700 small, affordably priced artworks by over 120 artists. This is always a favorite annual tradition of so many of our members, guests, and friends.

You can stay up to date with the Providence Art Club by following their Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn and by liking them on Facebook.

-- Lulu Amirault