Dominique Alfandre and Nancy McAuliffe, former President of the Alliance at a past ACA meeting. Harle Tinney, left.
A small group of artists, performers and managers of arts groups had one thing in mind when they formed the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Newport County in the early 1990s: Create a forum where people could share ideas and promote the arts in the region.
Slowly and steadily, they have reached well beyond those simple goals. Nearly 30 years later, the ACA awards scholarships to students pursuing the arts, makes small grants to help artists with projects, recognizes the contributions to the arts made by an assortment of people, serves as a clearinghouse for information for those working in the arts and keeps a regular online calendar of events.
Participation of local arts organizations is at an all-time high, as witnessed by last summer’s “Raise Up the Arts” celebration hosted by the ACA, where raffle prizes were donated by the Newport Art Museum, Island Moving Company, Newport Classical, and local businesses. The alliance boasts more than 80 supporters who contribute to its activities, most individuals but also some organizations and businesses.
Once a month, for most of the year, the ACA holds its “Arts Around the Fire” gatherings that reach back to their initial goal of a forum for sharing news about arts organizations, artists and performers. The next gathering is set for Jan. 17, from 6-8 p.m., at Cabana Restaurant, and it will feature Rebecca Bertrand, the new director of the Newport Historical Society.
“We started having guest speakers about 10 years ago,” said Dominique Alfandre, one of the ACA’s founders. “Attendance wasn’t great before that. Now, we get a regular audience, and it generates enthusiasm and sharing. There has always been a lot going on in Newport, but the alliance has become the center of sharing information about what everyone is doing.”
Recent guest speakers have included Lynne McCormick, the new director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and Catherine Carr, the new director of Newport- Film, an organization once headed by Bertrand.
Sculpture by Timothy Michael Hetland, an ACA grant winner.
As to the biggest project the ACA has lobbied for, the Newport Performing Arts Center, there is still much money to raise. Over $11 million has been spent to stabilize the building on Washington Square, but an additional $16 million is needed to make it into a theatre that can present concerts, plays and dance performances.
Over the years, the ACA has had a hand in supporting artists and organizations who have fortified arts education in local schools. Island Moving Company has gone into public schools for years to teach and perform. The late, venerable musician, Leroy White, was a pioneer in that regard, and his memory is preserved with an ACA award in his name created by his family.
“There is much more arts education in our schools now,” Alfandre said. “It’s a wonderful development, especially because the arts have been cut in so many school systems.”
Harle Tinney, among the ACA’s supporters, created a $2,000 annual Tinney Family Scholarship awarded to local college students majoring in an arts-related discipline.
After retiring this year from 22 years of teaching journalism at the University of Rhode Island, John Pantalone, the founding editor of Newport This Week, is happy to be writing for the paper again.
“Having these awards also helps us promote the arts in the county to an even greater degree,” Alfandre said.
The ACA definitely has a county wide reach. It has supported artists from each community, and it has worked with arts organizations in each town. Alfandre points out that in addition to arts programming in schools, the ACA has had a hand in promoting local arts activities to tourists. “It took us awhile to convince tourism officials, but they are promoting Newport as an arts destination now,” she said.
Last year, grants went to Middletown sculptor Timothy Michael Hetland, who is creating a piece of public sculpture from found objects. Another recipient, Katie Moorhead, is working on a collaborative improvised live work featuring the artist and a musician in a public space.
Earlier beneficiaries of the ACA’s Artist Award have included the Newport String Project, which gave four free community pop-up performances in local parks and green spaces last spring.
Taleen Batalian received an award in 2021 that led to a 2022 installation at the Jamestown Arts Center. And the DeBlois Gallery in Middletown received an award to support its public mural project that involved several artists.
The alliance was able to secure a grant for the Newport Women’s Resource Center from the Rhode Island Department of Health as part of its Health Equity Zone program. “It recognizes that exposure to and participation in the arts is a matter of personal health,” Alfandre said.
The grant allowed the center to create an equity zone in the North End. Eventually, the project was turned over to residents. The Newport Health Equity Zone includes a staff of resident consultants, a local action team of agencies and organizations, and community health workers.
The idea is to take a holistic, preventative approach to health in the equity zones that will empower people to build more resilient communities. With technical assistance from the health department, the programs identify unjust health disparities and work on solutions.
It might seem a stretch beyond the borders of the Arts and Cultural Alliance, but Alfandre points out the significance of programs that consider arts and cultural activities to be integral to a person’s health and to healthy communities.
“The support we have received in recent years has made it possible for us to award these grants and scholarships,” Alfandre said. “It is much more than we intended when we first started out in the ’90s.”
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