WaterFire eager to take root in R.I.’s capital city

FROM THE ASHES: WaterFire purchased a 27,000-square-foot building at 475 Valley St. in November 2012 and has been awarded $600,000 in brownfield cleanup grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the building. / COURTESY WATERFIRE
FROM THE ASHES: WaterFire purchased a 27,000-square-foot building at 475 Valley St. in November 2012 and has been awarded $600,000 in brownfield cleanup grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the building. / COURTESY WATERFIRE

Amidst all the task forces, business groups and event planners making sincere efforts to kick-start Rhode Island’s sluggish economy and brighten the state’s public image, there’s one ongoing, dramatic event in Providence that’s a visible success on a monumental scale – WaterFire.
Now the 19-year-old public phenomenon that brings in thousands of people and generates an economic impact of $70 million a year is putting down bricks-and-mortar roots and envisioning its expanded role as a day-to-day neighbor.
With $600,000 in brownfield cleanup grants from the Environmental Protection Agency announced in May and scheduled to be presented ceremoniously at the organization’s new home at 475 Valley St. on July 22, WaterFire is beginning the process of consolidating its operations.
The vision for the building that will bring in WaterFire offices from other locations in the neighborhood and equipment from rented warehouses around the city is more than just a view of efficiency.
“It will be our headquarters and it will also be a multiuse arts space that will host exhibitions, performances and events,” said WaterFire Managing Director Peter Mello.
Being a good neighbor will mean being part of, and nudging forward, revitalization of the Valley and Olneyville neighborhoods and creating an incubator space for arts and education ventures.
“We’re doing two things,” said WaterFire creator and Executive Artistic Director Barnaby Evans. “We’re digging in to build a permanent infrastructure and home for the next generation so that WaterFire will be here for the future, to continue to be that incubating space that will help artists and others and WaterFire continue to be a symbol of the transformed city.
“Our goal has always been to revitalize the community, for all of Providence,” he said.
“In owning a building, it allows us to come up with other ways to revitalize an immediate physical environment that’s less ephemeral, and we’re as intrigued by that as the performative installation aspect that we do downtown,” said Evans.
The consolidation to the new building is in the beginning stages as WaterFire moves forward on the two-year project. There are still plans to be drawn, permits to be approved and an estimated $4 million to $6 million to raise, said Evans. The EPA awarded three brownfields grants of $200,000 each to clean up hazardous substances at 475, 485 and 495 Valley Street. The property is the former site of the Uniroyal US Rubber plant and several years ago housed the document-storage company Capital Records Management.
A portion of the property “was an integral part of a large, industrial complex that was subdivided a number of times over the past 50 years,” according to the EPA grant announcement in May. One of the structures is a warehouse built in 1929, with some of the property consisting of paved areas and a loading dock.
“Environmental concerns include the presence of metals, semi-volatile organic compounds and arsenic,” according to the EPA press release. One of the three parcels is also contaminated with PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, according to the EPA.
WaterFire purchased the property in November 2012 and has begun using it for storage of some of its trucks and equipment. Cleanup and renovation of the 27,000-square-foot building is expected to take about two years, said Mello.
The location of the WaterFire building on Valley Street is in the vicinity of other revitalization projects, including the residential and commercial Rising Sun Mills, The Steel Yard and the American Locomotive Works, called the ALCO building.
“The building we’re in is sort of in a space between ALCO and Rising Sun. It’s sort of a gray area that’s been missed by the progress so far,” said Evans. “As we string all these things together, the vitality of the neighborhood will improve.
Providence City Councilwoman Sabina Matos said she’s excited to have WaterFire coming to the neighborhood. She represents Olneyville, part of Silver Lake and part of the Valley neighborhood, including the section where the WaterFire building is located.
“It’s a neighborhood in transition,” said Matos. “WaterFire will complement the other organizations we have.”
The location of the building is near what Matos considers the entrance to the Olneyville neighborhood.
“I lived in the heart of Olneyville, on Florence Street, until last year. I just moved to Silver Lake. All my family still lives in Olneyville,” said Matos, who came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic with her family in 1994. “Olneyville has always been a community that welcomes new waves of immigrants,” said Matos. “The building for Olneyville Housing [Corp.] used to be the Polish social club. Olneyville had Italian and Irish. Now there’s a strong presence of Latinos.” At times, she said, the public image of the community concerns her.
“The frustration we have, the people who live and work there and love Olneyville, is that some people have a negative image of the neighborhood,” said Matos. “They’re not looking at the good people and the good things going on there.”
In that regard, WaterFire’s building will be good for the neighborhood, said Matos.
“They talked with me about the plans and they’re amazing,” she said. “There will be resources for students from the public schools.”
WaterFire already has offices in the Valley neighborhood on Regent Avenue, as well as four bays used for production and storage space in the Governor Dyer Market. The organization also has storage areas in other locations around the city.
Consolidating in the new building means efficiency and visibility, said Mello.
“This building is important to us because we throw this party for 50,000 people on a Saturday night and then Sunday morning, when you go to walk your dog, there’s no trace of it. You might even rub your eyes and say, ‘Did that really even happen?’ There’s no sign or scent of it until the next WaterFire,” said Mello.
“We have no continuous visible presence in the community and that creates challenges for an organization that’s interested in sustaining itself for the long-term,” said Mello.
Visibility will remind people WaterFire exists for more than the average 14 lightings a year.
“Barnaby and the team have a done a great job over the years of hiding how the magic is put together, so people may take it for granted,” said Mello. “They may not understand that we have 25 full-time employees, we have 20 trucks and 20 boats and all this equipment necessary to put on an event on the scale of WaterFire.” •

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