⚜ February 2026 NEWSLETTER ⚜ |
|
| | | | WEDDING CAKE RESIDENCIES!! |
|
| FEB 5THOPEN HOUSE 4:30-6PM (NO RSVP NEEDED)ARTIST TALKS: 6-7PM (RSVP IS A GOOD IDEA) |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Come hear from our stelar current cohort on Feb 5th! Dailen Williams, Giuliana Funkhouser, Kirstin Lamb, Liz Welch, Brooke Erin Goldstein, Jen Corace, & Rafay Rashid. Wander the house from 4:30-6. Artist talks 6-7 - RSVP to reserve a seat (weddingcakehouseresidencies@gmail.com) Bios for these artists and all future cohorts are up HERE on our website. We’re so thrilled to be kicking off 2026 by working with so many incredible New England Artists! |
|
| | | | | | | INTERVIEW WITH WINDOW ARTIST EDWIGE CHARLOT BY KATE IRVIN |
|
| |
God is good I won’t be dead, don’t be sorry. I will be protected god is good and great, 2025. Site-specific installation for Storefront Gallery at Dirt Palace. Photo credit Sindayiganza Photography
Check out the Interview between Edwige and curator Kate Irvin on our blog HERE. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | CURRENT WINDOW INSTALLATION: IRIS WRIGHT |
|
| |
COME VIST OLNEYVILLE SQ AND SEE IRIS’ INSTALLATION THROUGH THE END OF FEBRUARY!
Iris Wright (xe/xem/xyr) is a transdisciplinary artist who makes books, wearable sculptures, and many objects in-between to investigate failures in communication. These failures have included misrepresentations, archival absences, censorship, mistranslations, contextual rewrites, and lost traditions. Xe grew up in northern Illinois, graduated with honors from Brown University, and now teaches book arts in addition to maintaining an art practice. With xyr artist collective abcpvd (Art Book Collective, Providence), xe organizes group art shows and events to connect people through tactile and participatory artwork. See more of xyr work at iriswrite.com. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
ARTIST STATEMENT: A major theme of my work is failure in communication. As I conceptualized this installation and sewed its artworks, I thought about communicating with ancestors and what is lost in the gap between disparate times. I researched tactile traditions that are in danger of extinction when expediency is valued over care. Especially in this moment of uncertainty about the role of new, quickly advancing technologies, we are likely to lose cultural knowledge faster than we realize its value. These losses might include techniques only passed down through in-person study, willingness to seek answers without digital assistance, patience. For me, loss manifests in wanting to call my great grandmothers on the phone to ask them for quilting advice. They have already passed on, but I keep listening for advice from my ancestors. I am uncertain I interpret their messages accurately. Between their time and mine is a rift greater than physical distance. What is lost in translation? |
|
| | 2026 WINDOW AND WORD SHELTER |
|
| |
Beyond excited to announce the slate of our 2026 Storefront Window Gallery & Word Shelter artists!! This year’s window gallery will be graced by installations by: Iris Wright, John-Francis (Q) Quiñonez, Kendel Joseph, Anne Tait, Malda Smadi, Marianne & Quill Bullock, Aymar Ccopacatty. In the Word Shelter for 2026, we have: Ellen Zanhisser, Ren L[i]u, Rosalynde Vas Dias, Matthew Lawrence,Justice Ameer, Grace Talusan & Laura Marie Marciano Fonseca. |
|
| | | January - February Word Shelter artist: Ellen Zahniser |
|
| | |
Ellen Zahniser is a Providence-based performing artist and writer; through a process of research, writing, improvisation, and collaborative dialogue with other artists, they develop interdisciplinary, experiential performances that fuse language, movement, sound, and technology. Ellen has presented work at FringePVD, The Wilbury Group (PVD), AS220 (PVD), The Dirt Palace (PVD), Vanishing Performance Festival (NOLA), Philly Fringe, The Brick (NYC), Life World (NYC), and other delightful venues around the east coast! They also really love dessert!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | |
Hi y’all! I’m the newest resident here at Dirt Palace, and a smidge about meeee: I’m 25 yrs old/black & indigenous/& an ADHD girlyyy, I dabble in quite a lot of artistic specialties and still looking to learn more oof ;), and my pronouns are she/her. My specialties lie in writing, filmmaking, sneaker painting, and drawing. This year I hope to connect more with artists and establish a whole new portfolio! I look forward to doing more of these during my time here! Txau (bye in Cape Verdean Kriolu)! |
|
| | |
My piece “La Panthera is Cat” is on view at the RISD Black Biennial. This piece was made in response to the work of those who came before me: my mother’s old pearls, my old silk scarf, the collected buttons from my mentor, the Black Panthers movement, and the tradition of African American quilting. Although I made this piece in the later half of college, it still teaches me the importance of slowness and honoring the timing of the my hands. |
|
| | |
Natalie Robertson
Howdy friends of DP, I hope you are staying warm this winter! I have been laying low and learning skills. I am seeking free-reed machines! I had a blast at the Dirt Palace holiday faire. One of the most fun days ever, and my record collection and purple krautido got raving reviews!🤠The last show I played with The Bicentennial Memorial Accordion Choir was Non-Event’s epic end of year party of my dreams in Jamaica Plain, MA with many beloved people, great music, and dancing with my friends. This was days after I watched It’s a Wonderful Life for the first time on Christmas and sobbed. I felt so many parallels with my own life this year, run-ins with angels around town, and thought of the party at the end of the film at this Non-Event gathering and about how much the creative community has been my lifeline on the east coast for years now. I am approaching the time of year that I lost my mother last. I often feel the weight of knowing how vulnerable my family-members and myself have become since 2020 and have a sense of my home being even more broken than before. And on that note- I can’t stop hitting repeat, singing “I ain’t got no home” by Woody Guthrie and learning a handful of his songs. I can’t stop thinking about fascism and protecting immigrant communities. I can’t stop thinking about how my hometown in the Mojave desert is quite recently stolen land and is also so vulnerable to climate-change-related-crisis. Diaspora. History. How these ideas extrapolate out to everything else. The human trafficking economy, oh my Aside from what occupies my worries- I’m appreciative to be present in my community. I work at a family-run hardware store. I get to be a friendly face, learn things about supply chains, interact with a variety of people and laborers who make Providence infrastructure run, and improve my Spanish. I’ve recently learned how to do things like repair lamps and make screens and windows from scratch. In the evenings, I’ve begun fixing accordions on two accordions customers had donated to me! Also fixing banjos, other instruments, mixers, annnd related local involvements that I will talk more about when I make more progress by next time! As for musical involvements- a friend & I have started a mostly-ambient project called “I love chaos, hell, & garbage” with accordion + disintegrating tape loops. Chaos = divine feminine energy Hell= traversing life’s challenges & building character (but it’s largely cope) Garbage, well, that’s self explanatory Book us? Bring me broken shit &/or cabbages &/or music students, and Be well, friends!
P.S. I have paintings up at Anarchestra right now! My first time participating in a gallery :-) 
(springs are dunkies iced coffee cup) 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Q (John-Francis Quiñonez)Howdy there Dirty-boids,
Ohhhhh Winter in Providence, Rhode Island (center of the world) ~ what a time!
Dunkin Cups nestled in the murky drifts, awaiting their perennial rebirth.
Cigarettes burrowing into crotch-height heaps.
Truly stunning sunsets of sorbet-crimson and grimace-purple! Guau!
I am fresh off Tour Managing & Reading Poems with composer Bex Burch + Friends. If you missed the Dirt Palace debut, I’d highly suggest tuning in for our Brooklyn residency in July! It has been a true joy to be a part of this process.
Things at Big Feeling Ice Cream are beautiful. It is powerful to stand in a value system with this exceptional crew, and New Englanders can simply not be deterred from their cold season ice creams so we have been plenty busy!
Lost Bag & Binch Press/Queer.Archive.Work. are both chugging along swimmingly ~ plenty of good programming to keep an eye out for! I’ll attach our Figure Drawing Flier Below.
This year’s THING IN THE SPRING lineup is officially live! I love this Music Festival in Keene, NH and I am excited to return to Nova Arts and catch sets from Thanya Iyer, Nova One, Sammus, Natural Information Society, et all. This will be my 4th year in a row coordinating their Northeast Poetry Showcase and per usual it is a Shredders-Only affair featuring Jess Rizkallah (Boston, MA), Diannely Antigua (Portsmouth, NH), Maya Williams (Portland, ME), and Me.
I’ll be spending February piecing together my installation for the Dirt Palace Window Gallery in March! More on that soon, I am sure.
Be Safe & Kind out there, and Stay Sweet, Q |
|
| | | the time has finally come! i’m the next person to be leaving dp. pippi and xander will finally get to take me out back lassie style. hopefully everyone else only reads their own digest bc knowing this is what happens when it’s your turn to leave can be intimidating. i will remain strong. anyway! we’re doing two flash days for valentine’s day! 2/13 and 2/15<3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
i’ve also been doing little prints! these ones are all finished up and you’re welcome to grab one by emailing me! (fernfloods@gmail.com) |
|
| | some tattoos i’ve gotten to do that are So Cool!! |
|
| | it is SO COLD and i am officially pushing 30 <3 yay! here is cold me and a guy i have been thinking about A LOT! |
|
| |
Want to book a tattoo with me? DM me on instagram dot com (fernfloods) or click the button down there!!! |
|
| | |
Oh January: 2 burst pipes, 6 frozen pipes, frozen dishwasher, 100 snow piles, early morning insulating, a new set of tires, but still a bout of getting stuck in the snow. Hat all day. Fluffy neck warmer. 2 levels of snow boots, 3 levels of gloves. Rhode Island winters, so often mild until they’re not. So mostly I am heads down in work and hibernation. Occasional trips to the ocean.
Did you catch my last Wild Goose Chase about Louis Restaurant closing? If not, it is here. Mega Milk, by Megan Milks, a book that I had a blast doing a cover for just came out. My likely next public appearance will be at their Providence stop of the Mega Milk book tour. March 13th at RiffRaff.
|
|
| | | | It’s been a total dream collaborating with Kiki Sciullo and Howie Sneider on creating replacement panels to repair the mosaic facade at Dirt Palace. |
|
| | What a dream team. Super excited to finally repair the facade with something new!! Here’s a sneak peak! |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | | | | Also - if you are able to donate to the Emergency Grant Fund - please do - all funds go directly to artists. To donate to the fund, click below! |
|
| | CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2025/2026 INTERLACE PROJECT GRANT AWARDEES!!! |
|
| | 2026 Interlace Grantees (from back left): Megan McMillan, Vic Xu, Jeffery Yoo Warren, Norlan Olivo, Heather McPherson, Willow Giannotti-Garlinghouse, Jazzmen Lee Johnson, Enid Corcoran (front from left) Murray McMillan, Noah Emanuel Morrison, Persephone Allen, JR Uretsky |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | ·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚ BULLETIN BOARD ˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙ |
|
| | | We always love getting mail, but this package of posters for the archive from Lady Fingers Letterpress could not have come at a better moment |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | | Copyright © 2024 dirtpalace, All rights reserved. |
|
|
| You are receiving this email because you signed up at our website, or signed in on a visit to the Dirt Palace long ago. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
