About the Festival

History – 2001

In 2001, Pawtucket's Convergence Planning Committee hired Donna Rochon, a local Pawtucket artist, to serve as Program Coordinator. This year, Ms. Rochon successfully reached out into the artist and ethnic communities and to neighborhood groups, nonprofit (Boys & Girls Club, YMCA), and Pawtucket schools to recruit members for both the Planning Committee and the Programming Task Force. A Diversity Task Force, co-chaired by City Interpreters Carlos Lima and Al Montijo, assisted Ms. Rochon in publicizing the City's Arts Festival to Pawtucket's growing Hispanic population, and to the Cape Verdean, and Portuguese communities. The Program Task Force met monthly to develop the final programming and schedule for Convergence Pawtucket 2001 by May 2001.

While expanding on musical and performing arts, the installation of sculpture was a high priority for the City's Art Festival in 2001. The Programming Task Force sent flyers to local media and to hundreds of artist groups announcing a Commissioned Sculpture and Sculpture Competition. A six-member panel of artists selected two pieces of sculpture; Conocular; a work of welded steel by Rhode Island College arts professor William G. Martin, and Jacks, a three-piece environmental sculpture created by Providence-based sculptor Kenneth Speiser, a RISD graduate. Martin's work was permanently placed at the front entrance of the City's Visitor Center and Speiser's sculpture was placed at Slater Memorial Park. A $1,000 grant awarded by the State Council for the Arts along with donations from Narragansett Electric and the Pawtucket Teachers Alliance enabled Pawtucket Convergence to purchase the two permanent sculptures.

In 2001, Pawtucket Convergence gained Statewide recognition for its Arts Festival. With the guidance of more than 20 local artists, we booked great musical acts. At Slater Park, Duke Robillard, the internationally acclaimed "Ambassador to the Blues Concert," Planet Groove, voted the best band in Rhode Island by a Phoenix Newspaper poll, and Clave Logic, a band that uniquely blended Latin and Rhythm & Blues music played to hundreds at Slater Park. "Classical Strings" Heritage Music Series played classical music to a packed house in the City's Arts & Entertainment District.

Additionally, our 200 business sponsors allowed us to provide a wide variety of artistic programming that included a presentation by the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre, a film festival, a tour of local artist studios, and a performance of the Everett Dance Theatre, recognized as one of Rhode Island's finest contemporary dance companies. Additionally, more than 1,000 attendees at the opening gala viewed an art exhibit, sponsored by the Pawtucket Arts Collaborative and photographs entered in the 3rd annual photo contest, "Pawtucket: A City in Focus."

During 2001 Pawtucket Convergence, children and adults were captivated by puppets of the internationally-recognized "The Big Nazzo Puppets" who brought their larger than life puppets and mask performance artists to the City's Slater Park. Children also saw a great puppeteer from Yorick's Theatre. Lee Segal came back to teach children to make clay sculptures. We even had a popular program on making scarecrows. Local artists taught the art weaving, jewelry, woodcarving and glass making to thousands of people at Slater Memorial Park.

Our 2nd Annual dragonboat Race at the former State pier brought more than 5,000 people, some who came as far away as Philadelphia and New York, to watch this exciting all day races and to experience Chinese arts and music. American Airlines donated 18 free round trip tickets to Taiwan to the winning boat. The estimated value of this donation was $60,000. Additionally, the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in Boston sponsored the Chinese performances that were held throughout the day of the dragonboat races. Pawtucket's annual race is now being promoted nationally by other dragonboat festivals.

The Providence Journal called Convergence 2001 "more truly convergent than any previous one."

Pawtucket has taken great strides in offering a full range of arts at its Arts Festival, noted the August 28, 2001 editorial. "This year, Pawtucket shares top billing with Providence in its offerings of art, and nobody should be surprised. While Providence has been making its merry way as an arts venue, Pawtucket has taken great strides to overtake the capital in its commitment to art and artists."