Spring 2005 Workshop Series

 

In the Fall workshop series, artist Holly Ewald and folklorist Michael Bell collaborated with scholars and educators to assist children and adults in using and creating maps that explore selected sites in Pawtuxet Village. Begining in the present, we traveled back in time to 1750.

The Spring workshop series continued this exploration into memory and place, focusing on material culture below ground during the period 1600-1750. Bell, Ewald and the educators collaborated with anthropologist William Simmons and Native American ethnohistorian Ella Sekatau to explore archaeological interpretations of both historic and prehistoric sites. Participants created visual story maps that illustrated this early period in Pawtuxet.

The following sessions were held on Saturdays between 10:00 AM and Noon at the William Hall Library, Broad Street, Cranston.

March 5 - How Can We Know the Past and Its People? Carole Bell, Michael Bell, and Holly Ewald focused on ways to understand people who lived before their history was recorded in writing. For example, we asked, What can we learn by examining the things that people throw away as trash?

March 12 - Drawings and Map. Ewald and art educator Pat Huntington used materials available to Narragansett Indians in the 1600s to begin creating the visual story maps.

March 19 - Archaeological Evidence. William Simmons, educator Susanne Benoit, and Bell presented a sampling of artifacts actually excavated from prehistoric Native American sites and assisted participants in exploring, through drawing and discussion, what the objects might tell us about the people who made and used them.

April 2 - Field Trip/Walk in Village Area. Simmons, Benoit, and Bell led a walking tour to the Pawtuxet Industrial Park area to explore the Narragansetts’ seasonal use of natural resources, how they organized their villages, and where they might have settled in the Pawtuxet area.

April 9 - Drawings and Map. Ewald and Huntington assisted participants in adding information to the maps.

April 16 - Site Visit to Archaeological collections at Brown University. Simmons, Benoit and Bell led participants through an examination of actual Native American artifacts excavated from an archaeological site adjacent to Pawtuxet Village.

April 30 - Native American Perspective. Ella Sekatau led a discusssion of what life was like for Native Americans in the Pawtuxet area prior to European contact.

May 7 - Drawings and Map. Ewald and Huntington assisted participants in adding new information to the maps.

May 14 - –Sharing Resources and Completing Maps. Scholars, artists, and educators assembled the resources needed for completing the maps.

June 6, 6:00 to 8:30 p.m.- An exhibition of six maps (in three sets) that illustrate the history of Pawtuxet Village from the pre-contact era to the present, created by children and adults participating in the One Space, Many Places project, was held at the Aspray Boat House, Pawtuxet Park in Warwick. The event was free and open to the public. After the unveiling, the maps were on display at the William Hall Free Library, 1825 Broad Street, Cranston, from June 7th through July 31st.

This project is part of Voices and Visions of Village Life, whose goal is to enhance our connection to Pawtuxet Village through discovery of a sense of place. One Space, Many Places was sponsored by the Cranston Public Library and supported by grants from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.

Back