But, no worries -- the cutting-edge arts center isn't about to grow up

10:10 AM EDT on Sunday, July 10, 2005

BY BILL VAN SICLEN
Journal Arts Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Looking back, AS220 co-founder Bert Crenca readily admits that holding a floor-shaking, window-rattling house party might not have been the best way to endear himself to his new landlords at the Providence Performing Arts Center. After all, the ink was barely dry on the lease.

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"Yeah, that was probably a mistake," says Crenca, now AS220's artistic director, between sips of a late-afternoon iced tea at downtown's Tazza Caffe. "We'd only been there about a month when we had this totally crazy party. I mean, you could literally feel the music vibrating through the building. That's how loud it was."

A few days later, Crenca got a call from a PPAC official. AS220, which had opened in August 1985 as Rhode Island's first "unjuried and uncensored" contemporary arts center (and which had arrived at its unusual name by combining the initials for "art space" with PPAC's address at 220 Weybosset St.), would have to find another home.

"He said he was sorry, but they were canceling the lease," Crenca recalls. "After what had happened, I couldn't blame them."

Now fast forward to the summer of 2005.

On Saturday, the same AS220 that was once booted off Weybosset Street will celebrate its 20th anniversary as the state's premier showcase for cutting-edge art, music and performance. What's more, the celebration comes as AS220 is undergoing its first major expansion since 1993, when it purchased its current home at 115 Empire St.

The centerpiece of the expansion effort is the Dreyfus Hotel, a former Johnson & Wales dormitory at 121 Washington St. Built in the early 1890s, the four-story building will eventually provide three floors of loft and studio space for artists, as well as a basement coffeehouse and ground level cafe.

Crenca says the $4.5-million project could be ready as early as the fall of 2006.

"Basically, it's a continuation of our original mission: to provide low-cost, unjuried space for artists in downtown Providence," he says. "Is it a big step up in terms of financial commitment? Definitely. But in terms of the basic goals and methods, it's nothing we haven't done before."

At the same time, AS220 is also renovating its Empire Street headquarters.

The work, which includes a complete makeover of AS220's first-floor cafe and performance stage, is part of a separate $6-million renovation and capital campaign that Crenca and other AS220 staffers say is needed to keep up with the rapid pace of development in downtown Providence.

"In 1993, when we bought the Empire Street property, we were the new kids on the block," Crenca says. "Now, we're the ones scrambling to keep up with places like Tazza, Black Rep and the Hotel Providence."

AS220's Empire Street neighbor, Perishable Theatre, is part of the fundraising campaign. Like AS220, Perishable plans to use the money for a mix of capital improvements (notably, replacing its 65-seat space with a larger, 100-seat facility) and mortgage-reduction.

Asked about the Perishable/AS220 relationship, Perishable's new artistic director, Jason Nodler, cites his experience running a small theater company, Infernal Bridegroom Productions, in Houston.

"Collaboration is a powerful thing," Nodler says. "At Infernal, we had relationships with most of the arts organizations in Houston, and it really paid off. The relationship between Perishable and AS220 is the same. Working together makes us stronger than we would be otherwise."

The two arts groups also share another bond: despite their cutting-edge credentials, both AS220 and Perishable have made the transition from struggling nonprofits to established pillars of the local arts community.

One of a kind

Perishable, at least, knew it could be done; after all, it had the example of Trinity Rep as inspiration.

AS220, on the other hand, still seems an anomaly -- an outpost of New York-style avant garde and '60s-style counterculture that blossomed, improbably, in conservative Rhode Island.

"They really are one of a kind," says Dan Beaudoin, executive director of the nonprofit Providence Foundation.

"Certainly, there were places where artists worked and hung out before AS220 -- places like The Foundry and School One, and even the old Leo's restaurant on Chestnut Street. But nobody tried to do it all in one place before. That's one thing that sets them apart."

Another asset, says Rick Schwartz, communications director for the Rhode Island Foundation, is AS220's ability to keep innovating.

"One thing you see over and over again in cultural nonprofits is a period of intense growth and creativity, followed by stagnation," Schwartz observes. "But that hasn't happened at AS220. These guys have been around for 20 years and they're still incredibly vibrant and exciting."

Both foundations have backed their words with actions.

Beaudoin and the Providence Foundation, for example, helped broker AS220's bid for the Dreyfus Hotel. Schwartz, meanwhile, estimates that the Rhode Island Foundation has contributed more than $100,000 to AS220 in the last three years, including a recent $25,000 gift to its capital campaign.

"As far as we're concerned, it's money well spent," says Schwartz. "One of our mandates is making sure that downtown Providence remains a vital, active place, and AS220 is certainly a key part of that effort."

AS220's reputation has also spread outside the state.

"I think they've had a tremendous impact regionally," says Will K. Wilkins, of Real Art Ways, an alternative arts center in Hartford.

"Part of it is the whole Providence Renaissance thing. Everybody wants to know what's going on in Providence.

"But it's also AS220. Any time you have an organization that can be as successful as AS220 has been without compromising its artistic integrity, people are going to take notice."

Another fan is Rory MacPherson, a senior official at the New York City-based Wallace Foundation.

"In many ways, AS220 is the epitome of what we're looking for in community-based arts organizations," MacPherson says. "They are deeply engaged in their community. They appeal to a broad range of people. And they're a resource for both working artists and arts audiences."

One of the top cultural philanthropies in the United States, the Wallace Foundation has also been a strong financial supporter of AS220: Since 1998, it has awarded the organization more than $600,000 in grants.

Mr. AS220

So how did AS220 go from homeless pariah in 1985 to national prominence in 2005?

One reason, observers say, is Crenca. With his shaved head and trademark goatee, Crenca is the antithesis of the standard suit-clad, wine-and-Brie arts official. Yet beneath the bohemian exterior, Crenca is as skilled at lobbying and networking as any politician.

"He's a wild man, in a good sense," says Schwartz, of the Rhode Island Foundation. "I think Bert is constitutionally incapable of being bland, boring or conventional on any subject. And yet he's an amazingly capable administrator. I mean, AS220 would not be where it is today without him."

MacPherson, of the Wallace Foundation, agrees, citing one incident in particular to illustrate Crenca's unique networking skills.

"I can remember one year when we invited Bert to attend a foundation meeting in New Jersey," he says. "At one point, he came up to me, asked if I could get him some paper and pens. I thought he wanted to take notes. But I found out later that he had organized a drawing class for some local kids. The guy just has a wonderful rapport with people."

Crenca, now 54, plays down such accolades.

"Frankly, I don't think the focus should be on any one individual," he says. "That's not what AS220 is about. We're about empowering people and giving them the tools to be creative. We're not just a one-man show."

True enough.

A smooth, well-oiled nonprofit machine, AS220 currently boasts a $1.1-million budget and employs 10 full-time and 25 part-time staffers. It operates two art galleries, a cafe and a community darkroom.

On any given evening, its first-floor stage might host a poetry slam, a rap concert, a Celtic jam session or, as it did a few years ago, a traveling group of performance artists from Cracow, Poland.

Famous alumni

In addition to its gallery and performance venues, AS220 also offers residencies to local artists, writers and musicians. Folksinger Erin McKeown, for example, credits the three years (1998-2001) she spent at AS220 with helping her to launch a career that has since brought her critical raves and sales of nearly a million records worldwide.

"I really do feel like I started at AS220," McKeown writes in an e-mail from Montreal, where she is on tour. "While living there, I learned how to be an artist -- how to get up every day and fill my time with thought, work, conversation and lots of spontaneous fun. It was like a 24/7 block party where everyone you met was incredible. I soaked it all in happily."

(McKeown, by the way, will be part of AS220's "20 Fest" celebration on Saturday. According to the "20 Fest" schedule posted at www.as220.org, McKeown's set will start at 5:30 p.m.)

Providence artist Catherine Hamilton, meanwhile, rented a studio at AS220 from 1993 to 1997. Hamilton, whose recent drawings show at the Providence Art Club was one of the highlights of the spring art season, says the chance to meet and mingle with other artists helped sharpen her own work.

"When you get right down to it, being an artist is a pretty solitary profession," she says. "So having the whole social structure of AS220 around me was a great thing. In a sense, it was like a mini-graduate school, with people talking about each other's work, sharing ideas and being supportive."

Growing a future

Another AS220 initiative is the Broad Street Studio.

Launched in 2000, the program offers hands-on training in publishing, filmmaking, recording and other arts-related professions to "at risk" youths from the Rhode Island Training School, state Juvenile Detention Facility and the Department of Children, Youth and Families.

The $450,000-a-year program also includes a documentary photography project, Photographic Memory, and two literary magazines, Muzine and Hidden T.R.E.W.T.H., published by the student-run Broad Street Press.

"In some respects, I think the Broad Street Studio is a good indication of where AS220 is headed in the future," says Crenca. "We identified an area where we thought we could make a contribution, we partnered with DCYF and the Training School, and we put together a program.

"And, like a lot of the things we get involved with, it just keeps growing."

AS220's "20 Fest" takes place Saturday from noon to 1 a.m. More than a dozen bands will perform on three stages, including The Slip, Lightning Bolt, Mahi Mahi and Gloria Deluxe. There will also be food, games, dancing and art exhibits. Admission is free.

In honor of its 20th anniversary, AS220 is mounting an archive installation, and asks that people come to the fest with AS220 memorabilia: posters, videos, recordings, costumes, etc. All items will be returned.

For more information, call (401) 831-9327 or visit www.as220.org.