AS220’s wild ride (continued)

What are a few of the things that have most surprised you about AS220’s evolution?

Well, it’s growth — the fact that it’s still here 20 years later. That it has become a national and somewhat international model, because of its uniqueness with its unjuried mission and eclectic nature of it. And that people get equal pay on administrative staff, has become a model to the point where people like [the] Lila Wallace [Foundation] have granted us $625,000 over the last five or six years and sees us as an outstanding model of the merging of art and community — the democratization of art.

We’re really held up nationally as a powerful model, and this isn’t a huge organization. But if you look at our programming on any given week, you have anywhere from 10 to 15 live events a week, not to mention five to 20 artists exhibiting in the building that change constantly. And also the respect and tribute we pay to change, that we’re constantly undergoing changes and improvements. Every day, we keep asking the question, how can we do better? This is no exaggeration.

I got people here who could be making two, three, four times as much money as they do working here, but the variety of challenges that they face every day here, the community aspect, the fact that there’s very little hierarchy, the amount of consensus building we do, the amount of ownership that people have in the way the place is run, keeps some very, very talented people involved. Shawn Wallace, in particular, who’s the managing director and tends to most of the details here, has been working here for, it must be about 10 years now. I mean, this guy has two, three books that he’s authored for O’Reilly, the computer company. He’s brilliant, and he’s still here; he don’t get paid much. So the thing that surprises me is the power, and the strength, and the sustainability of the original simple idea, that something so simple, that the process was so obvious, had so much power.

What are some of the greatest challenges that AS220 has faced over the years, and how have they been overcome?

A major building expansion [at AS220] was an enormous challenge — we didn’t know what the hell we were talking about.

When we decided to get involved with the Rhode Island Training School and the group homes, and working with kind of disenfranchised youth, that still remains probably the biggest challenge that AS220 faces. It’s an enormous challenge. We teach 10 to 12 classes every week at the Training School, we have the Broad Street Studio, we have this very elaborate youth program, and great staff, and we’re doing great work, and the kids are great — and we’re just scratching the surface, and we’re not even close to where we need to be. We’re close conceptually, we’re close ideologically, but in terms of what we can accomplish with these young people, these are some of the most powerful people on the planet. These kids’ life stories and experiences, if that becomes a positive, if we can help move them to be proactive in their communities, and help to change things for the better. It’s an amazing dynamic force that we are contending with, but it’s like wrestling alligators at the same time, so that’s a huge challenge.

There’s an interesting challenge that I don’t talk about too much because it sounds a little too mercenary, a little too commercial in a way, but I think that at this point with the kind of cache, and the sexiness, if you will, that AS220 has sort of garnered through its experiences and by definition — how do we generate even more support and more interest out of that? How do we capitalize on the history that we have?

There are still people that you can go to in this community and don’t even have an idea of who we are, and it’s complicated to understand who we are. We’re not a one-trick pony. We’re like a multi-trick pony, and marketing something that’s as eclectic and expansive as AS220 is a real trick. So even though we do this great work, sometimes even in our community it’s difficult to get the powers that be to appreciate [the mission]. And I say the powers that be — that’s a very broad range of people. That’s people who have a lot of power in this community, and mobilizing that support to see the value of not just of AS220, but AS220, Perishable, the Black Repertory Theatre, the Everett Dance Theatre, the Steelyard, the Firehouse.

To get people really deeply to understand the value of those organizations and float those boats while we’re moving everything else along in the city, and understanding the synergy that exists and the critical importance of doing that — sometimes I see still [that] as a huge challenge.

How has Providence’s character as a hospitable environment for the arts changed over the last 20 years?

Oh boy, that’s a very good question. I think that 20 years ago, and even further back — the Rudy Cheeks era — with the Fabulous Motels and the Young Adults and Rich Lupo, and previous to that, there was a very strong beatnik culture in Providence. There has always been a kind of underground, post-industrial, funky cynical edginess that artists have enjoyed. Along with that was usually affordable space, very accessible community, but there wasn’t much recognition of those artists and there was very little support. Again, there was very little focus. It didn’t very often look like a movement.

Today, there’s a lot of recognition, and I can’t believe the kinds of conversations that I find myself in with politicians, with corporate people, who are talking about Providence as an arts-rich community and stuff like that. [Before] there wasn’t even a notion of that. You’ve got to understand, this was a dark, brooding — I don’t know if that’s the right word — self-loathing community in some ways not that very long ago. And there was a lot of ugliness in a sense.

Now, the question is, are we going to get too pretty, and price everybody out, and lose our edge, and lose the funk, and the exact qualities that drew artists to this community from all parts of the country, and the world for that matter? Are we going to start losing that appeal? I think there’s a balance to be had, but it’s very different from how it was 20 years ago in that there’s so much more recognition.