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The bleak beauty of the industrial landscape held a strange appeal for William Carlos Williams, who praised the gritty diversity of buildings overshadowed by factories and found aesthetic value in smokestacks. The detritus of urban industrial life–as contemporary cultural symbols, historical artifacts, and pieces of public art–engaged a group students at the Rhode Island School of Design in a similar way.
The students began hanging ”gallery-style” frames to highlight exposed brickwork, forgotten stencils, graffiti, and the features of old factories. The original Urban Curators project hoped to make viewers more aware of both urban blight and local history by inviting the public to actively engage the visual landscape, rather than allowing it to remain in the background.
The program’s creators believe that art rooted in the shared experience of creators and viewers strengthens community and leads to works that are made ”beautiful” by conscious contemplation. To broaden the project and encourage a more thorough exploration of the environment, the Urban Curators have opened the program to the public. The invitation to move and place frames allows viewers to create installations based on their own experiences and perceptions, and fosters a sense of participation in both the installation project and the preservation of memory.
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. Historian Shae Davidson's research interests include public policy and the relationship between culture and civil society. His publications range from articles on industrial history to absurdist poetry.
