With the emergence of Firehouse 13, an open format gallery space and artist-in-residency program off of Broad Street, one more piece of Providence history will be preserved against destruction and redevelopment. Rather than being priced to sell in the luxury real estate market, like many of its brick-façade neighbors, Firehouse 13 (formerly the Good Will Fire Engine Company No. 13) calls itself a “forward-thinking urban project” — an effort to provide experimental and collaborative space for performance, installation, music, and education — in a city where gentrification has made affordable live/work space increasingly scarce.
The muscle, brain, and wallet behind the operation is Nick Bauta, a sculptor, metal-worker, and 1999 RISD graduate, who bought the former firehouse five years ago to house him and his growing stock of steel. Based on the advice of AS220 creative director Bert Crenca, the building initially held the metalworking classes that would later find a home at the Steel Yard, the nonprofit industrial arts collective. “I stuck around Providence because of the artistic community that was here — kids with these great lofts lining Harris Avenue down to Eagle Square, putting a lot of energy into their environment,” Bauta says. After years of renovations, occasional informal shows, and a June 22 open house, the Firehouse is now open by appointment. It will officially open after obtaining a certificate of occupancy.
The first floor, a 2200-square-foot space with a hulking new sound system, will be rented out monthly. The Firehouse will take 20 percent of any profit made there (far less than the percentage claimed by typical galleries) through anything from avant-garde performance art to more traditional stuff.
On the second floor, Firehouse 13 (www.firehouse13.org) will host up to seven artists in a residency program, intended for aspiring, community-minded thinkers, for about $400 a month. The organization’s directors will choose residents with the goal of creating a collaborative environment, inspired and informed by the culture of the first-floor, much like AS220’s combination of gallery and residential space. Unlike AS220, however, the Firehouse is a private, for-profit organization, made possible by private investment. It encourages entrepreneurial thinking, and will host a yet-to-be-chosen creative firm (such as designers, nonprofits, community-savvy artists, or a dance studio) on the third floor.
With the demolition of the Fort Thunder a few years back, the heyday of underground loft spaces in Providence may have passed. Bauta, though, is determined to find new means to foster creative collaborations and to preserve artistic space from encroaching development. The old firehouse, which is celebrating its sesquicentennial (150th birthday) this year, is “tapping into a hub that’s already here,” according to director Anna Shapiro. “Our non-reliance on a traditional model of the gallery, where the gallery takes 50 percent of the profit made on a given piece, allows artists to promote, curate and devise ideas in a sustainable way.”
