A Busy Year for Exhibitions & Programs
August 9 – September 5, 2024
We All Live Here Together
Curated by Kotone Deguchi, Creature Conserve Curatorial Fellow
We welcomed Creature Conserve Curatorial Fellow Kotone Deguchi to our Joan T. Boghossian Gallery with a multi-dimensional exhibition featuring art and writing from open submission, public workshops in Providence's libraries, and a special performance by puppeteer Eli Nixon. The exhibition challenged the belief that “nature-culture dichotomy” makes us think “culture” is where we live with everything humans built and “nature” is far away somewhere totally separate from us. We All Live Here Together sought to bring representation of wildlife and conservation closer to home by asking Rhode Island artists of all ages and
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experience levels questions such as: “What’s something that makes Rhode Island’s wildlife feel special to you? What plants or animals might get overlooked in the representation of conservation and local wildlife? How can we bring conservation into our daily lives?”​
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This exhibition was part of Creature Conserve’s 2024 Curatorial Programs and made possible in part by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
September 2024
Wheel of Fortune, an Art Exhibition
Artwork by Eli Kauffman
Beginning in September 2024, PPL welcomed Eli Kauffman and their site-specific art installation Wheel of Fortune in the Ground Floor Lobby and the Updike Room, third floor. Kauffman's colorful, life-sized paintings explore the breadth and intensity of young adulthood, through self-betterment and collective perseverance. Kauffman makes paintings specific to the scenery and artifacts in their community, revisiting moments that feel profound in daily life. The work is like a soap opera; it is all about slowing fast moments down so that we can sit in them.
This activity was made possible in part by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Some of Kauffman's artworks remain on permanent exhibit in PPL's Ground Floor Lobby.
October 2024 – January 2025
Pied Type: Letterpress Printing in Providence, 1762—Today
Curated by Lois Harada
Artist and letterpress printer Lois Harada brought her exhibition Pied Type: Letterpress Printing in Providence, 1762 - Today – highlighting the robust history of commercial printing in Rhode Island – to PPL's Joan T. Boghossian Gallery in October. In a printshop, pied type refers to jumbled or unsorted letters – usually created by accidentally dropping or spilling metal type. The exhibition revealed the various roles of craftspeople in the letterpress printing process and delved into the techniques and equipment still used by contemporary printers in Providence today.​
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​​Pied Type featured materials from PPL’s Updike Collection, the Tomaquag Museum, Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, and Rhode Island Historical Society, as well as works from AS220, DWRI Letterpress, and artist Jacques Bidon.
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In November, in conjunction with the exhibition, Harada organized a panel discussion with fellow Rhode Island printmakers Andre Lee Bassuet, Jacques Bidon, and Dan Wood. Moderated by Jordan Goffin, Director of Special Collections, each printer shared spoke about their practice and journeys in print and why the letterpress medium is important to their work.
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In January, Harada and PPL’s Director of Special Collections, Jordan Goffin, held a one-day pop-up of PPL’s Updike Printshop where members of the public
were invited to an interactive workshop to try their hand on printing presses using moveable type. Participants were guided through printmaking techniques and fashioning one-of-a-kind postcards.
Pied Type: Letterpress Printing in Providence, 1762-Today was made possible in part through funding support from Rhode Island Humanities, an independent state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. RI Humanities seeds, supports, and strengthens public history, cultural heritage, civic education, and community engagement by and for all Rhode Islanders.
March 24 – June 3, 2025
Spaces That Hold Us
Artwork by Bhen Alan
PPL welcomed Bhen Alan and Spaces That Hold Us for its spring exhibition in the Joan T. Boghossian Gallery. In his exhibition, Alan explored how Filipino-Americans in Providence, Rhode Island, and surrounding areas shape their cultural identity within unexpected, everyday spaces. From Asian grocery store aisles, ice cream shops, university parks, apartment kitchens, dining tables to intimate community gatherings — Filipino-Americans claim these locations as cultural hubs, transforming them into places where heritage, community, and identity converge. These spaces may not be formally designated for cultural expression, but they have evolved into powerful sites of belonging and self-definition. Here, the mundane becomes meaningful. These spaces serve not only as reminders of the Philippines, but also as symbols of adaptation and pride, embodying the dynamic nature of Filipino-American culture.
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Spaces stemmed from Bhen Alan’s Interlace Grant Project, Interwoven Crossroads: Celebrations, Dreams, Sacrifices, and Struggles of Filipinos in Providence where it presents a series of banig installations and storytelling spaces. Each banig highlights a Filipino/Filipino-American life and story transformed into symbols, patterns, and images then embroidered, woven, or painted to a mat. These oral histories offer intimate glimpses into the challenges, dreams, and aspirations that shape the community. They are woven together, and reveal the community’s resilience and its commitment to fostering a space where Filipino/Filipino-American identity is both celebrated and continually redefined.
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In May, in conjunction with the exhibition, participants were invited to partake in a multimedia weaving workshop with MJ Sanqui and Audrey Buhain to provide an opportunity to engage with hand weaving as a new form of collage and image-making. With backgrounds in fiber art and poetry, MJ and Audrey — whose oral histories were represented in the exhibition — facilitated a guided exercise to create woven works out of existing fibers, images, and texts.
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The project was funded in part by the Interlace Grant Fund and The Williams-Watrous-Couper Fund at Hamilton College.
March 22 – June 30, 2025
Exploring the Archives: Sharing Stories/Building Connections
Curated by Wanderground Lesbian Archive/Library, Inc. / Mev Miller
​We welcomed the Lesbian treasure trove Wanderground to PPL's Rhode Island Room for a return exhibition. By themselves, the objects in the collection might be seen as mysterious or intriguing, but they each have a story behind them. The exhibit displayed items from the collector's project Exploring the Archives: Sharing Stories/Building Connections. Through interviews and conversations, the stories connected to the memorabilia add depth, breadth, and character to the selected items, affording the viewer a deeper connection.
Mev Miller, Ed.D. is the Instigator/Lesbrarian and founder of Wanderground. She was a Women in Print professional between 1981-2005. Since coming out in the late 1970s, she has always been a purveyor of Lesbian community activities in multiple states through various venues. She continues to be a private collector of Lesbian publications, ephemera, and art, much of which now can be found in Wanderground.
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This exhibition was made possible in part through funding support from Rhode Island Humanities, an independent state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
June - September 2025
GO HOME: Artwork by Robbie Sena
2025 Teen Creative Fellow
​As part of his Teen Creative Fellowship, Robbie Sena mounted GO HOME — which was on exhibit in PPL's Updike Room. Through his artworks, Sena explored his experiences and identity as a first-generation Filipino American youth trying to navigate his connection to his homeland and culture. During the opening, he led an artist talk discussing the historical research that inspired his showcased art and hosted hosted a collage workshop, where participants had the opportunity to create their own artwork.
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Thanks to the Providence Dept. of Art, Culture + Tourism for project funds and to artist mentors, Bhen Alan and Angela Crenshaw.
