Back

Fall 2004 Workshop Series

Pawtuxet Village: One Space, Many Places. In response to the positive reaction to the Pawtuxet Village Freedom Project, Voices and Visions of Village Life offered a nine-week fall program entitled “One Space, Many Places.” Artist Holly Ewald and scholar Michael E. Bell collaborated with educators, historians and community scholars to guide children and adults in using and creating maps to explore selected village sites in depth. The workshops were open to children, ages ten to thirteen, who live or attend school in the Pawtuxet Village/Edgewood neighborhoods. There were concurrent workshops for interested adults. All workshops were held on Saturday morning, from 10:00 a.m. to noon, at the William Hall Free Library, Broad Street, Cranston.

September 18 - The World of Maps. Andrew Nosal, Holly Ewald & Michael Bell. The first session met at William Hall Library where Nosal, a map specialist and owner of The Map Center in Providence, introduced participants to the world of maps, using a variety of maps showing Pawtuxet Village. This hands-on workshop dealt with such topics as the various kinds, functions and scales of maps and their conventional symbols. The session provided participants with some basic concepts and choices for conceiving and creating their own maps.

September 25 - Walk and Talk. Michael Bell & Holly Ewald. The second session took place at the Pawtuxet Park gazebo, where participants listed the places that are personally significant in the village and drew a personal map of the village in a journal. Having identified significant collective sites, Bell made a quick map and took the adults on a walking tour using the map. Cameras were available for documenting the sites and participants were encouraged to take notes in words and pictures and share their stories about places. Ewald led the children in creating a map of the park, where many have come to play over the years. They marked sites and told stories, through drawings, photographs and writings, of personally significant sites. The two groups reassembled to share the stories of their maps.

October 2 - Today’s Places. Holly Ewald & Pat Huntington. Participants collated their personal maps to create a community map of the Village today.

October 9 - Historical Walking Tour of Pawtuxet. Michael Bell & Susanne Benoit. In the fourth session, participants returned to the park, where Bell and Benoit led the groups on a tour of existing and invisible landmarks dating from the period c. 1750 to 1950. Participants collected information through observation and viewing historical photographs, adding their own interpretations through drawing and writing in journals and photography.

October 16 - The Village 1700-1950. Holly Ewald & Pat Huntington. In the fifth session, participants brought their collected material to the Hall Library to begin a map of the village encompassing the period of 1750-1950.

October 23 - Historical Resources I: Print and Electronic. Michael Bell & Susanne Benoit. The sixth session convened at the main branch of the Providence Public Library. Participants were introduced to the card catalogue portion of the “Rhode Island Collection,” which contains numerous references to Pawtuxet Village in local newspapers. We recorded those references and selected several to view on microfilm. We also searched the on-line Clan catalogue (a state-wide resource) and undertook an internet search for materials relating to Pawtuxet Village. These materials were incorporated into the maps.

October 30 - The Village 1700-1950. Holly Ewald & Pat Huntington. At the Hall Library, participants continued to work on their 1750-1950 map of Pawtuxet.

November 6 - Historical Resources II: Oral and Community. Michael Bell & Marta V, Martinez. The eighth session was a story circle at Hall Library with several long-time residents of Pawtuxet, who shared their stories of the Village with both children and adults. Participants were be encouraged to record this event in words and pictures.

November 13 - Completion of Maps. Holly Ewald & Michael Bell. In the ninth session, participants made final additions to their maps and presented them to each other through dialogue.

One Space, Many Places was presented by Voices & Visions of Village Life under the sponsorship of the Cranston Public Library with funding from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.