Jump to content

WaterFire

CtownMikey

By CtownMikey
in Providence

Recommended Posts

PVDJack Whistle-Stop

PVDJack

Posted
Posted

I am digging this up from the past because I just happened to stumble upon it.

I think that the whole WaterFire thing is dying, perhaps not so much in Providence itself, but in New England. But I think it isn't a problem with the concept but how it is being executed. It seems to have been caught in a tug of war - the artists is still trying to keep it as a piece of art, with the focus on the art instalation. But what it really became - where it's value lies - is as a backdrop - not so much teh center of attention but the visual draw.

If they try and keep it isolated, it is going to wither away. Already has been - look at how few showings they have had. But if they just keep it as a background and keep it fairly simple, then I think it can become pat of the fabric of the city.

I don't know if it's "dying" or "withering away", but I would agree that the city is not leveraging WaterFire enough, and that a "backdrop" strategy would make sense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 292
  • Created
  • Last Reply
jencoleslaw Town

jencoleslaw

Posted
Posted

I second that Waterfire isn't being leveraged enough... They need to program events to counter the increasing perception that if you've been to one Waterfire, you've been to them all...

- Garris

i used to really love the waterfire experience and i like it a lot less now that there are waterfire boat tours in the river, and all kinds of vendors and stuff. maybe i'm an elitest snob but i just don't like all that "junk" that interferes with the experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

Posted
Posted

waterfire as it is hasn't run its course. go down on any waterfire night and the riverwalk is packed full of people.

what they need to do though, is build upon it. as someone said, use it as a backdrop for other events in the city. the soundsession thing last summer was a perfect addition to waterfire. why not do more events like that? barnaby needs to open his eyes and realize that waterfire is no longer about the art installation, but rather about the community aspect of the event as a whole. there needs to be more to go with it than just the vendors and the occasional jazz concert and ballroom dance thing. they need to do more with it. the sound session thing was a start. do more with that...

do they light it for the gay pride day? if not, they should.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

Posted
Posted

do they light it for the gay pride day? if not, they should.

No they don't and yes they should, especially considering that Pride is a nighttime parade. But considering WaterFire cost $10k or something like that, Pride can't afford to sponsor it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

Posted
Posted

No they don't and yes they should, especially considering that Pride is a nighttime parade. But considering WaterFire cost $10k or something like that, Pride can't afford to sponsor it.

it costs $10k to burn a bunch of fires? they don't even need the background music most of the time (i would actually prefer they changed that a bit... all that stuff they play every time is getting a bit old).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MapmanNo1 Whistle-Stop

MapmanNo1

Posted
Posted

No they don't and yes they should, especially considering that Pride is a nighttime parade. But considering WaterFire cost $10k or something like that, Pride can't afford to sponsor it.

Just because WaterFire is expensive doesn't mean that Pride shouldn't go after it. Pride already has many sponsors; I'm sure there are companies out there that would be willing to work with Pride and WaterFire. After all, there is that lucrative gay market... ;)

I agree wholeheartedly that WaterFire needs to morph into more than just an art exhibit. It is a true community builder. While the vendors and the motor boat rides are commercial and annoying, I am willing to put up with it. The SoundSession/WaterFire night last summer was truly amazing...it is an excellent template for future collaborations.

PS: This is my first post; I've been a long-time lurker...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

Posted
Posted

Just because WaterFire is expensive doesn't mean that Pride shouldn't go after it. Pride already has many sponsors; I'm sure there are companies out there that would be willing to work with Pride and WaterFire. After all, there is that lucrative gay market... ;)

Week before last, the Phoenix did a Cover Story on the gay marriage movement in Rhode Island. The article went on to discuss the drawbacks and advantages of being such a small state. The advantages of course is that everyone knows someone who knows someone else and it's really a good networking environment. One of the drawbacks is that since there are so few people living here, there's only so much money that can be raised. A problem for Pride. I'd love to see Pride be able to pull off a WaterFire for Pride, but there's so many organizations looking for the limited pool of gay dollars in this state, I'd imagine it would be pretty tough for them to pull it off.

One of our members is on the board of Pride, maybe he can speak more to why they've never done a WaterFire.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PVDJack Whistle-Stop

PVDJack

Posted
Posted

Week before last, the Phoenix did a Cover Story on the gay marriage movement in Rhode Island. The article went on to discuss the drawbacks and advantages of being such a small state. The advantages of course is that everyone knows someone who knows someone else and it's really a good networking environment. One of the drawbacks is that since there are so few people living here, there's only so much money that can be raised. A problem for Pride. I'd love to see Pride be able to pull off a WaterFire for Pride, but there's so many organizations looking for the limited pool of gay dollars in this state, I'd imagine it would be pretty tough for them to pull it off.

One of our members is on the board of Pride, maybe he can speak more to why they've never done a WaterFire.

If RI becomes more of a front-line in the quest for gay rights, might there be out-of-state money available for such events?

As an aside, with the gay community overlapping so much with the "creative class", I think advancing gay rights is one of the savvier things that the government could do as part of an overall economic development plan, i.e. a lot of talent could be attracted to the State/City.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

Posted
Posted

If RI becomes more of a front-line in the quest for gay rights, might there be out-of-state money available for such events?

I think there needs to be a critical mass to see large corporate sponsorship of an event like Pride. Obviously in New York people come from around the world to attend Pride, so big national sponsors get in on it, to a lesser extent the same holds true for Boston. Regardless of how far we advance in the arena of gay rights, the number of people attending Pride will stay pretty much the same, and not too many people travel to RI for Pride, those who would are travelling to New York and Boston (and Montreal and Toronto) instead. So there's not really a lot in it for the sponsors. RI Pride has national sponsors, they just aren't writing the kinds of checks they do for larger cities.

Now if/when the General Assembly passes a gay marriage bill, all eyes nationally will shift to RI, maybe some sponsorship for Pride would develop out of that attention, at least for the one year.

Another advantage of our small size is media buys. We have one set of televsion affiliates and one major newspaper that covers the entire state. Even in a state like Massachusetts or Connecticut, not to mention New York or California, that's not the case. Even buying bus ads in RI covers the whole state. This makes media buying a much more cost effective tool for political/social movements. Witness Matt Brown burning through money in the media to boost his recognition, that wouldn't work for him in New York or California, he wouldn't have enough money.

As an aside, with the gay community overlapping so much with the "creative class", I think advancing gay rights is one of the savvier things that the government could do as part of an overall economic development plan, i.e. a lot of talent could be attracted to the State/City.

Your General Assembly members would be interested to hear your opinion on that matter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Frankie811 City

Frankie811

Posted
Posted

If I'm not mistaken, it cost $ 15,000 to sponsor a waterfire, but I believe the total cost is something like $ 60,000 to stage a full waterfire. :shok:

Sponsoring a full lighting of WaterFire costs a company $15,000, but that's only a small portion of the total cost. WaterFire's 2005 budget, for a schedule of 20 lightings, is $1.65 million. The two major cost categories, according to Ray, are overhead -- $712,000 -- and expenses relating to individual lightings (firewood, audio, police details, program printing, trash collection, food for volunteers) -- $612,000.

http://www.projo.com/art/content/projo_200...8.183987e1.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites
KBagley Whistle-Stop

KBagley

Posted
Posted

Sorry I hadn't chimed in before now on the Pride aspect of this thread...

It is correct that we cannot afford to sponsor a waterfire, and it is also correct that we have lots of sponsors, and Cotuit is correct in saying that those sponsors don't write very big checks for us like they do in NYC or Boston. We are just now meeting with potential sponsors for 2006, our 30th anniversary, and we are hopeful that we will be able to get some bigger checks this year than we have in the past.

Also, please, please realize that Pride is a year-round organization. We don't just produce the festival and parade, we also do a monthly GLBT Business After Hours, the Spotlight Awards, the Triple Crown Pageant (March 19th!), the Goddess Show (March 12th!), The Rainbow Flag Raising/Rally, etc etc etc... We are also trying to identify more education programs because that is where most sponsors want to see their money spent.

Additionally, we operate about 8 months out of the year with only about 8 or so dedicated volunteers, most of us who come to the pride office at 6pm several nights a week after working our day jobs and spend a couple hours trying to get things done. We JUST hired a part-time office manager, using a grant from Equity Action, but we are going to need to identify future funding for the position... so spending money on waterfire is not a concern when we need to have that year-round office support funded.

Getting back to Waterfire, from the perspective of Parade Coordinator, I'm not so sure that we can pull a night parade off if there is also a waterfire bringing an influx of traffic and bodies and additional street closings. It would definitely entail a whole lot more volunteers than the 20 I anticipate needing (and don't have yet). To my knowledge, I dont know that Barnaby has June 17th crossed off as a date to not schedule, so there very well could be a waterfire the same night as Pride... but I hope not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MapmanNo1 Whistle-Stop

MapmanNo1

Posted
Posted

Sorry I hadn't chimed in before now on the Pride aspect of this thread...

Much of the appeal for having a WaterFire with Pride was that it would extend Pride beyond the state's gay community. People like my parents, for example, would never go to Pride, but they would (and have) gone to WaterFire. Having the two events simultaneously would create some overlap and (hopefully) some understanding.

Though, as you've said, things are already stretched thin - funding for Pride, funding for WaterFire, and municipal services for the City during those events, as well.

Despite its elemental ingredients, mounting a full WaterFire, with all 100 braziers blazing along the Providence, Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck rivers, is expensive. Costs can run as high as $60,000 per event.

http://www.projo.com/yourlife/content/proj...e13.1098c1.html

Does the city license the motorboats and vendors that operate during WaterFire? If so, is there some sort of licsensing fee, and would that go towards funding WaterFire? Though I'm sure fees from vendors would be small, as they say, every penny counts...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

Posted
Posted

My point above was not that Waterfire should end, but that there should be other things going on in the summer along the river BESIDES Waterfire, for people who are interested in something else. Barnaby Evans may be an "artist," but he doesn't have sole right to the River 3/4 of the weekends of the whole summer and Fall.

How does a River Festival or a regular series of summer festivals like I proposed above constitute a "freak show"?

How about artists selling their wares SoHo style either along the river or on Westminster? We could have artists in Waterplace one weekend a month (to start), on Saturdays before Waterfire. Artists could set up in two locations in the Basin and up at Monument Park and/or infront of RISD if there are enough vendors.

During Waterfire artists could set up shop along Westminster and the retail down there could stay open late. Add some food vendors to Westminster too.

Another way to extend Waterfire earlier into the day is to have an afternoon Monday Market on Waterfire Saturdays (of course then it would be a Saturday Market). The market could run until sunset when everyone starts heading down to Waterfire. Those of us (not me) that are over Waterfire would have a reason to come Downcity on Saturdays, and the Waterfire crowds would help send business to the market.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Baines Hamlet

Baines

Posted
Posted

How about artists selling their wares SoHo style either along the river or on Westminster? We could have artists in Waterplace one weekend a month (to start), on Saturdays before Waterfire. Artists could set up in two locations in the Basin and up at Monument Park and/or infront of RISD if there are enough vendors.

During Waterfire artists could set up shop along Westminster and the retail down there could stay open late. Add some food vendors to Westminster too.

Another way to extend Waterfire earlier into the day is to have an afternoon Monday Market on Waterfire Saturdays (of course then it would be a Saturday Market). The market could run until sunset when everyone starts heading down to Waterfire. Those of us (not me) that are over Waterfire would have a reason to come Downcity on Saturdays, and the Waterfire crowds would help send business to the market.

I certainly like both ideas very much. I would attend as many as possible even from out of state.

But let me ask this--where are the concert promoters? Many years ago there was a well known promotion group called Frank J. Russo (I think). Getting the mid-range groups like Chicago and others in would be outstanding. Of course, admission fees - perhaps like for Bright Night - would be required.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
runawayjim Metropolis

runawayjim

Posted
Posted

Let's not forget that besides waterfire we also have cultural events happening in the basin area, mostly by caparts, Black Rep and Trinity. Plus the Soveign Bank Ballroom. But can you imagine waterfire in a city like, let's say San Antonio!? WOW!!!!

waterfire in san antonio would be amazing. they have one of the most beautiful river walks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cotuit Megalopolis

Cotuit

Posted
Posted

whats with all the graffiti along the riverwalk? theres always been quite a bit along the walkway walls and bridges but now its especially bad and theres even a few swastikas painted on the bridges. i get the sense the city has stopped maintaining the pathway

Wow, I hadn't seen the swastikas, but I have noticed a lot more graffiti lately in the basin. I do think the city does no maitenance during the winter. If you were down there you'll note that the riverwalk is actually closed, something that annoys me to no end. I know the DID clean and safe team (the yellow jackets) patrol down there during the summer, though technically it is outside of their jurisdiction. The Waterplace developers have made mention that they will become stewards of the riverwalk, they almost have to be in order to serve their residents and retail tenants. I'm not sure what that will end up meaning, and since they haven't even started going vertical yet, I don't think that stewardship has begun. It almost seems the city is doing as little as possible in advance of Waterplace and GTECH opening, at which point they'll probably do a lot to take care of the space.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
spanishboy Whistle-Stop

spanishboy

Posted
Posted

i love waterplace park...but i dont know...everytime i'm there , i just wish there was soo much more, like if theres a piece missing on a puzzle. I wish there was something to draw people year-round and was open late so it can become a 24/7 destination...wouldn't that be a nice way to advertise it....."Waterplace Park....Providences' 24/7 destination" :yahoo:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.