UPP Arts collection

Founded by artist Holly Ewald (1954-), UPP Arts was a Providence-based nonprofit organization that engaged a revolving group of volunteer artists, scientists, educators, students, and concerned citizens to build stewardship for Providence’s urban ponds. Formerly known as the Mashapaug Pond Procession (2008-2009) and the Urban Pond Procession (2010-2014), UPP Arts focused its activities on Mashapaug Pond and its surrounding neighborhoods. Ewald, a visual artist who blends studio work in collage, bookmaking, printing, and painting with community engagement, has been recognized with awards from the Rhode Island Council on the Humanities, the Tomaquag Museum, Save the Bay, and the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission. From 2014-2018, she served as a Community Fellow at the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage at Brown University.

UPP Arts’ roots can be traced to 2007, when residents living near Mashapaug Pond contacted the Rhode Island Department of Health with concerns that non-English speakers could not read the existing warning signs posted around the pond. The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts approached Ewald to design new multilingual signs that would alert visitors to the site’s health and safety hazards. This early project connected Ewald with local schools, community members, and artists. Together, they planned the first pond procession in June 2008. This event simultaneously celebrated Providence’s largest natural pond and raised awareness of its environmental precariousness. The Urban Pond Procession became UPP Arts’ signature public event, held each spring until 2017.

Following the sign project and first procession, Ewald continued to collaborate with residents, artists, and schools, as well as with organizations like the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island, the Tomaquag Museum, and Brown University’s program in Public Humanities. What began as an individual artist’s project grew into a grassroots nonprofit organization, with Ewald serving as its Executive Director and central facilitator. Dedicated to place-based education, UPP Arts recruited artists to design projects for students at local schools; by 2017, the group had partnered with 13 different schools and after-school programs in Providence and Cranston, engaging more than 35 teachers, 20 teaching artists, and nearly 1,000 students to create 24 unique projects. UPP Arts similarly expanded its public programming beyond the annual procession to include film screenings, artist residencies, and an orchard. UPP Arts established a formal board in 2014 and was granted 501(c)(3) status in December of that year. 2016-2017 marked the group’s 10th year of programming and community engagement, and the final Urban Pond Procession, held on May 13, 2017, celebrated the indigenous, industrial, socioeconomic, and environmental histories of Mashapaug Pond. In June 2017, the organization’s focus shifted to documenting these stories for the public and gifting its programs to partner organizations.