Latest news with #ProvidencePlace
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
POP MART set to open in Providence Place
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — The POP MART craze is coming to Providence. Providence Place announced that POP MART will soon be opening a store within the mall. The China-based collectible toy maker is known primarily for its plush monster-like Labubu dolls. POP MART also sells 'blind boxes' of different toys and figurines, some of which are exclusive collectibles. It's unclear exactly when POP MART will be opening its doors, but it will be located on the first floor near the LEGO store. ALSO READ: Providence Place changes visitor parking rates Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Secret Mall Apartment' and the Blurred Line Between Life and Art
What is art? Everyone has a different definition, not just at this moment in history but across eras. Art is a pretty picture. Art is what's in a museum. Art is what makes us human. Art is something to sell, or buy, or make, or make fun of. Art is everything, or nothing at all. Defining art isn't the stated aim of 'Secret Mall Apartment' (in theaters), Jeremy Workman's new documentary about artists who in 2003 managed to create and live undetected for four years in an apartment nestled in a shopping mall in Providence, R.I. That sounds bizarre because it is. Inspired by a commercial for the mall, Providence Place, in which a mother claims she wishes she could live there because it would make shopping so convenient, the artists found an empty, secluded space away from the retail corridors and planned a kind of performance art happening: They'd live there for a week, documenting it, subtly poking fun at developers' obsessions with so-called underutilized spaces. It seems like a practical joke, but the context was deadly serious, as Workman shows by structuring the film akin to a spiderweb. At the center is the mall apartment itself and the reasons the artists ended up staying several years. This story is built out with interviews with the participants — many of whom had never revealed their involvement — and with footage they shot on the tiny digital cameras we used to tote around back in the mid-aughts, small enough to fit in an Altoids tin. Sprawling from this central story — full of funny anecdotes about almost getting caught and their solutions to problems like an undetectable wall — is a sober set of concerns. Chief among them is the way that city officials and developers were addressing urban decay in Providence, and how the centerpiece of their solution was meant to be the mall. Workman makes ample use of news video to demonstrate how locals talked about the project at the time, including working-class residents who noted that the planned shops and the positioning of the mall entrance away from the less affluent part of the city signaled that it wasn't meant for them at all. He also enlists a crew to construct a full-scale model of the apartment so that the original dwellers can experience it again. But can an apartment be art? Yes, the movie suggests — if you understand art to be fused with life, a way of existing rather than just something you make and sell. Art can disrupt the ruling logic of whatever world we're living in. The de facto head of the project was Michael Townsend, who had taught many of the participants in a summer program at the Rhode Island School of Design and had imbued them with a sense that, as they put it, the lines between art and life were very porous and that aesthetics could be a good unto itself. To make something that nobody could own, that nobody could put in a museum, but that could perform its own small resistance against an economy that thrummed along on the rails of commerce, of buying and buying and buying: That was the good. Eventually the apartment was discovered, although Townsend was the only person linked to it (and remains banned from Providence Place). But 'Secret Mall Apartment' makes a compelling case that the project reverberates through the lives of the artists, and maybe even the city, to this day. Art doesn't have to be in a museum to be valuable; it doesn't have to be own-able, repeatable or even make sense to everyone. If it changes a few lives, then it's changed the world.
Boston Globe
25-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Providence Place mall bans unaccompanied minors after 5 p.m.
Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up Related : Advertisement Under the 'Youth Guidance Program,' minors must be with a parent or a supervising adult who is at least 21 years old in order to be in the mall after 5 p.m. each day, officials said in a press release. The policy change, which took effect on Monday, will 'specifically apply to the shopping center's common areas,' according to the release. Mall visitors are urged to 'check with stores, restaurants, and retailers regarding their individual policies.' 'Security personnel will be working diligently in the coming weeks to educate and inform visiting youth around the new policy,' mall officials said. Related : Other security changes announced include upgrades to the center's closed-circuit television system, extended hours for security personnel, an In addition, an independent firm is conducting a comprehensive security audit and a request for proposals to select a security service provider has been issued, mall officials said, adding also that Providence police are 'actively involved in addressing trespassing issues.' Related : Advertisement Providence Place also anticipates repairs to the complex's parking garage to be completed this spring, including 'the removal and replacement of related parking apparatus, such as parking gates and payment kiosks.' A contract for a new parking management service is expected later this year, officials said. In October, a Rhode Island Superior Court judge ordered the mall into receivership after lenders alleged the mall's management company, Brookfield Properties, Under Brookfield's management, hours for security personnel at the 1.4-million-square-foot property were cut. Dorsey said in December receivers were Mark Russo, an attorney who, along with Dorsey, was appointed to be receiver for the mall, said last year The mall, the largest in Rhode Island, opened its doors alongside Interstate 95 in 1999. Related : Material from previous Globe stories was used in this report. Christopher Gavin can be reached at
Boston Globe
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Artists look back at R.I.'s secret mall apartment as documentary debuts
On the Rhode Island Report podcast, two of those artists — Michael Townsend and Adriana Valdez Young — talked about what sparked the idea, and what they're thinking now that their little apartment is about to be seen on the big screen. Townsend said he was living at Fort Thunder, an artist collaborative in the city's Eagle Square, when the mall opened in 1999. Advertisement 'The developers came to our neighborhood and said 'Hey, we want to develop your spaces, we want to knock down your buildings and the places that you live,'' he recalled. 'We were trying to figure out how to respond to all of these threats, and during the course of these sort of ad hoc gatherings at Fort Thunder, the idea of moving to the mall or taking over the mall or living at the mall started to take place.' Get Globe Rhode Island Food Club A weekly newsletter about food and dining in Rhode Island, by Globe Rhode Island reporter Alexa Gagosz. Enter Email Sign Up Young said she and Townsend were working on an art installation when they heard a radio ad about Providence Place. The woman in the ad gushed about how much better her life was going to be now that she could get everything she needed at the mall, saying, 'If only I could live there.' 'I was like, wait a minute, guys, we should live in the mall,' Young said. Adriana Valdez Young Handout As a first step, Townsend, Young and other artists decided to try to live at the mall for one week, she said. As they searched for a place to sleep at the mall, they found the vacant 750-square-foot space that would become the apartment. 'You were witnessing a place lost to time,' Townsend said. 'It was ripe for exploration, ripe for, ultimately, development.' The group ended up bringing in a sectional couch, a dining table and chairs, a television, and a PlayStation. They also lugged in more than 100 cinder blocks and erected a wall with a locking door. Advertisement 'We thought, wait a minute, we should be developers — micro developers — and develop this into a condominium for artists," Young said. 'Let's turn the vision and lexicon of these real estate developers on themselves and take back this piece of land.' Noting that the mall project had received significant tax break, she said, 'This is public space, actually,' so 'we're going to develop it into something useful.' Security guards eventually discovered the apartment in 2007, Townsend explained, and he was arrested after violating one of the group's rules — never bring someone to the apartment who wasn't a member of the 'Mall 8.' He said an artist was visiting from Hong Kong, so he brought her to see the apartment in the middle of the morning. 'I was caught,' he said. Related : Townsend ended up being charged with trespass, placed on probation, and banned from Providence Place for life. But last week, the mall's new owners allowed Townsend to return to see the secret apartment space again Young said the secret apartment was no crime. 'If anything, I feel like it was a reverse crime,' she said. 'We were trying to give back to the mall. We were like putting things in the mall, right?' Over the years, the secret mall apartment has been described as a protest against gentrification, a punk prank, or a public art installation. So how do they describe it? Advertisement 'I think it was just our way of life,' Young said. 'I didn't even think about it as a project.' But now, she said, the secret mall apartment could turn the cash-strapped Providence Place Mall into 'the most interesting mall in the world.' 'I think that people would come from all over the world to visit the secret mall apartment,' Young said. 'This is the time to think about like, a new creative economic model. And there's no better way to get creative than to invite artists in and collaborate.' To get the latest episode each week, follow Rhode Island Report podcast , , and other podcasting platforms, or listen in the player above. Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Vintage market coming to Providence this weekend
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — The Little City Thrifty vintage market will be setting up shop in the Waterfire Arts Center at 475 Valley St. in Providence this weekend. The market will be open from 12 p.m. until 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. According to organizers, there will be more than 90 vintage booths selling clothing, records, books, home decor and more. ALSO READ: 'Secret Mall Apartment' documentary to premiere at Providence Place The event will also feature a free book swap, food and beverages. Entry to the market includes a drink ticket. 'Little City Thrifty is a community celebration for people who truly love vintage goods and the history behind them,' Little City Thrifty organizer Robin Dionne said in a press release. 'WaterFire Arts Center is a beautiful example of the adaptive reuse of old buildings that Providence is known for, which makes it the perfect location for an event focused on giving vintage items a new life.' General admission tickets cost $8 online and $10 at the door, but tickets could sell out. If you'd like to get into the event early, you can buy an early buying ticket for $16. Early buying tickets also come with a free tote bag. You can check out a full list of vendors and buy tickets here. Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
