From January 10 to February 8, Wickenden Street was the scene of a mechanical feast. Under bright lights, giant claws methodically bit off chunks of the I-195 overpass that separates Wickenden from downtown Providence. Sunday through Thursday, between 8PM and 5AM, drivers slowed their cars in awe: everyone loves a good demolition.

The demolition is the latest chapter of I-Way, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT)’s $620 million initiative to relocate the intersection of I-195 and I-95. The removal of the overpass is the first step towards demolishing the old I-195 highway that currently cuts through downtown Providence, ultimately re-opening 36 acres of urban space and connecting segregated parts of the city. Although the demolition is an important step toward completing the I-Way project, the wrecking ball will also strike a well-loved Providence icon, the Wickenden Street Mural.

Community art
Featured as the “No. 1 Reason Why We Love Our City” by Providence Monthly magazine in March 2005, the Wickenden Street Mural has been a Providence hallmark since it first transformed the eyesore overpass into an art space in 1997.

Artist and teacher Brent Bachelder created the mural with then-Brown University students Lauren Reba and Alicia Woodley. “This project, even though it had my name and my face on it, [was the result of] lots of people coming together,” Bachelder said about the high level of community involvement in the project. In addition to the Brown University students who helped spearhead the project, local community members—including the Fox Point Boys and Girls Club and students from RISD, Rhode Island College, Johnson and Wales, and Wheaton College—also worked with Bachelder on the mural.

The artists chose to paint interpretations of Picasso’s “Guernica,” Michelangelo’s “David,” da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” and Munch’s “The Scream.” Bachelder explained this decision: “We asked around what people thought of when they thought of ‘art’ and based the images on these answers.” After the first wall of the mural received attention, the artists began work on the second wall of the overpass in 1998.

A changing landscape
The project was a long-term one. Like much public art, murals both change and are changed by their environment. Painted underneath an overpass, the Wickenden St. Mural was especially vulnerable to the environmental conditions affecting the work. “We knew that there would be upkeep but we didn’t realize how bad Rhode Island bridges were,” said Bachelder. Salt from the road above formed stalactites on the ceiling of the overpass, and moisture pushed the paint off the walls, he explained. Each spring, Bachelder repaired the mural with volunteers. But in 2007, RIDOT reinforced the overpass with steel beams, permanently halting restoration attempts.

While the City helped with the initial preparation of the walls, the rest of the project was run and financed independently. To fund the repairs, Bachelder sold advertisement spots to East Side stores. He revised these regularly, painting the advertisements at a cost of $100 to $300, depending on an ad’s placement.
Over the nine years that Bachelder maintained the murals, these advertisements chronicled the rise and fall of local businesses. From his position, Bachelder has observed a shift in Thayer and Wickenden, two streets that “used to be cool, with lots of mom-and-pop stores.” Particularly on Thayer, big name stores are beginning to move in, and Bachelder foresees this trend emerging on Wickenden as well. “Everything in this country starts to look alike after a while,” Bachelder added.

Arts condemned
“While I am sad to see [the mural] go, I can’t interfere with progress,” Bachelder said about the imminent destruction of the mural. He is principally concerned with the status of the arts in the city. “As much as Providence, and Rhode Island, likes to see itself as an art-friendly place, I don’t really see that, and I’d like to see that more,” he said.

Bachelder’s worries are not unfounded. On Tuesday February 2, Governor Carcieri proposed a new state budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. This new budget slashes $700,000 from the Rhode Island Council for the Arts, eliminating the grants program that finances major statewide arts initiatives. In addition, Carcieri’s proposal abolishes a 20-year-old law requiring the dedication of one percent of construction budgets on all state buildings to a public art project.

While funding for public art initiatives is often criticized, particularly when purses are as tight as they are now, Randall Rosenbaum, Executive Director of Rhode Island Council for the Arts, argued in an interview with The Providence Journal that the arts can help stimulate the economy. Opponents, however, have trouble stomaching the idea of investing in the arts in a state whose unemployment rate is the third highest in the country.

Bachelder received little government funding for the Wickenden Street Mural. While the initiative was a strain on the artist and teacher, who has worked diverse jobs over the years — including many positions funded by the Rhode Island Council for the Arts — his nine-year upkeep of the Wickenden Street Mural is a testament to the adaptability of an artist and a community.
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RACHEL LEVENSON B’10 will paint for free.