Renaissance city Pawtucket’s buregeoning arts festival BY BILL RODRIGUEZ
	From dragons to duckies   As usual, there is something for everyone this year at the Pawtucket Arts Festival. Events will range from theater and dance performances to races by dragon boats and rubber duckies — although not against each other. Activities will take place around the city, with main events happening at the Blackstone Valley Visitors Center, Slater Memorial Park, Slater Mill, and the School Street Pier. Four art exhibits will be held: at the Pawtucket Arts Collaborative Gallery, the Rhode Island Watercolor Society Gallery, and two gallery spaces in Slater Mill. Below are some of the festival high points. Events are free, unless otherwise indicated. For a complete schedule of activities and the times of events not specified below, the festival has comprehensive information posted online at www.pawtucketartsfestival.org. September 10: Opening gala, 6-9 p.m. at the Visitors Center. As well as digging into a buffet provided by local restaurants, you can listen to the SOS Big Band and violist Consuelo Sherba, and look over a sculpture exhibit. MC will be Charlie Hall, of Ocean State Follies. Admission is $5. September 11: The 5th Annual Rhode Island Dragon Boat Race & Taiwan Day Festival, will take place from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at the School Street Pier. Dragon boat races will be conducted all day, with awards presented at 5 p.m. Events will include a kite-flying demonstration by a Taiwanese master at 9 a.m., a lion dance and martial arts demonstration at 9:50 a.m., a performance of the Kwong Kow Chinese School Dulcimer Ensemble at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., a Taiwanese puppet show at noon, and Chinese folk dancing at 2:30 and 3 p.m. September 12 : An Open Studio Stroll of more than 100 local artist and artisan studios will take place 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with shuttle busses leaving from the Visitors Center. The Slater Mill Ethnic Festival will take place 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the mill, presenting music, crafts, and ethnic foods. The annual Rubber Ducky Derby will take place 1 p.m. at Slater Mill. Participants may purchase ducks for the race, and the $5 donations will benefit Childhood Lead Action Project programs. September 17: An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen, will be presented by the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre at 8 p.m. at their 172 Exchange St. theater, in a pay-what-you-can performance. September 18: The Narragansett Bay Chorus will perform at 4 p.m. in Slater Memorial Park, followed by a Rhode Island Philharmonic Pops Concert and fireworks at 5:30 p.m. September 19: An "Update of Downtown" walking tour, surveying revitalization progress, will be conducted noon to 1:30 p.m., leaving from the Visitors Center. September 25 and 26: An Arts and Crafts Festival will take place both days, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Slater Park. A Stone Soup Folk Fest will take place at Slater Memorial Park 1 to 5 p.m., both days. Saturday’s line-up will be: Chris Thompson, 1 p.m.; Aubrey Atwater and Elwood Donnelly, 2 p.m.; Martyn Joseph, 3 p.m.; Jennifer Roland, 4 p.m.. On Sunday: Rachel Davis, 1 p.m.; Pat Humphries and Sandy O, 2 p.m.; Bill Staines, 3 p.m.; Patty Larkin, 4 p.m. — B.R.

Way to go, Pawtucket.

While annual arts events in Providence have seen stubborn little knots form in their purse strings, coins have been clinking into the coffers of the Pawtucket Arts Festival, which is celebrating its sixth program September 10 through 26.

Declining donations and city budget constraints have seen fewer WaterFire evenings this year and the demise of both First Night Providence and the Convergence International Arts Festival.

Compare that with the Pawtucket event increasing its budget from $20,000 in 1999, when it kicked off, to $105,000 this year.

"Of course an arts festival takes money," said Herb Weiss. "It hasn’t been easy in the last couple of years."

He is Pawtucket’s economic and cultural affairs officer, working out of the Department of Planning & Redevelopment. As a member of the festival’s executive planning committee, an important part of his job is to raise money. Apparently, he’s pretty good at it. This year Weiss has cajoled $72,000 from 147 businesses, with 18 other companies giving in-kind donations such as T-shirts, badges, and stationery.

When the festival began, all figures were lower, even the number of revelers. That first year, only 35 people showed up at the opening night gala at the public library, with departing guests begged to take home whole pizzas that would otherwise go to waste. Last year more than 1000 attended the gala, and this year more than 55 local restaurants have been tapped to feed the throng at the Blackstone Valley Visitors Center.

With major events backed by specific organizations, the modular design for the festival seems to have worked well. The Pawtucket Teachers’ Alliance, for example, has donated $15,000, and 46 businesses have chipped in for the popular Rhode Island Philharmonic concert, complete with fireworks. The greatest draw of the festival — attracting half of the estimated 30,000 participants last year — has been dragon boat races. Sponsored and organized by the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, this is an all-day feature of Taiwan Day on Saturday, September 11, co-hosted by the Rhode Island Association of Chinese Americans. The government of Taiwan has gone so far as to fly out a dance troupe. Twenty thousand are expected to attend this year.

There is something different about this year’s organization: more responsibilities have been handed to artists.

"They basically do the programming," said Weiss. "The bureaucrats sort of stepped away. We move the stages and raise the money, but we didn’t want to get into the programming. It’s truly artist-driven. The involvement with the artists’ collaborative ratcheted it up to a whole new level."

Patricia Zacks is president of the Pawtucket Arts Collaborative and chairs the planning committee this year. Her organization was formed as a result of the 1999 push by the city, of which the festival was only a part, to use artists as a draw for economic development.

"We’re kind of shifting gears," Zacks said. "So this has become a festival that is artist-driven. That’s a big change, which has been initiated by the city. We’re making decisions on programming and the quality of art. It’s artists working with artists, which is very exciting to me."