Subseries 1.7: Socioeconomic History, 2013 - 2014

Series 1 contains materials from UPP Arts’ creative projects, which include workshops that Holly Ewald and other teaching artists led in local schools; workshops, benefit concerts, and film screenings offered to the public; and the annual Urban Pond Procession. Documents include proposals and class materials from teaching artists as well as work done by their students, such as drawings, questionnaires, and video projects. The series contains drawings and silkscreened signs by students in Ewald and Andrew Oesch’s first workshops at Charles Fortes Elementary School; these served as the inspiration for new signs that Ewald designed for Mashapaug Pond in 2008-2009. Other represented projects include the design of a new playspace at Reservoir Avenue Elementary School; a ceramic timeline mural about the history of the Gorham site at Alvarez High School; and a floating sculpture designed by Sophia Academy students. This series also contains material from a workshop series and book Ewald completed in conjunction with the Tomaquag Museum, featuring collage work by members of the Narragansett community. Materials relating to the yearly processions include meeting notes and logistics, props, costumes, and publicity. The processions and other events are also well documented in digital photographs, mostly taken by Ewald (exceptions have been noted). This series has been divided into subseries that correspond to UPP Arts’ different programming years, which generally began in the fall and culminated with the procession held the following spring. Starting in 2011, the organization adopted explicit themes that informed its activities for the year.