WaterFire's mission is to inspire the entire city of Providence and to motivate our visitors to transform the urban experience by stepping forward and engaging with each other.
We are living in a time in which person-to-person connections are becoming more distant, in which we can purchase something with our mobile phone and soon find it sitting, waiting on our doorstep.
This is indeed a miracle, but as a result we have lost all connection to the people who made it, the farmer who grew it, the craftsperson or writer who imagined it, or even the driver who delivered it.
Life can become simply transactional, hollowing out the connectivity, interdependence and learning that are all so necessary to the vitality of any community. In these interactions, we weave together our society, bind all that is human, learn tolerance and love.
We can work remotely at great distance with just words on a screen, but it is difficult for new relationships to bloom at such a distance, for empathy to emerge, trust to ripen or strangers to become close.
Encountering art and beauty, light and music, and coming together in grace along a river can change all this.
WaterFire delights in surprising people and making moments memorable. Experience the entire city through your five senses, in real time. Commit to your companions. Open yourself to the vitality and grace of an illuminated city.
We must be bold, for only thus can we re-create our cities, together. •