RiverzEdge Announces Industrial Ball 2011

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

GoLocalProv Features Team

Only the creative minds at RiverzEdge would cast around for a true industrial spot for its annual ball. This year, it's a factory in Central Falls.

The nationally recognized arts organization announced the details of this year's Industrial Ball: Friday, October 14th from 7-10pm at the old Porino’s factory at 280 Rand Street in Central Falls. With “foodart” from Russell Morin Caterers, music from Extraordinary Rendition Band and DJ Unkle Thirsty, and the unique array of fun-for-all and all-for-fun activities that RiverzEdge provides, the good that comes from this event for teens will be priceless, say organizers.

RiverzEdge also promises a very creative pricing strategy. Tickets to the Ball are $50, but only $25 if you take a tour of RiverzEdge. That's a belief in the mission.

Why an old factory?

What is it about old buildings, dilapidated streets and the faded memories of child workers that gets artists and designers so excited at RiverzEdge Arts Project? Cara Blaine, Green Design Studio Director, puts it this way: “When I think of the Industrial Revolution, I think of billowing black smoke rising out of smoke stacks and pallid children never seeing the light of day… So to see an old space transformed by the brilliant artwork of our talented youth, and by the bling that we can’t help ourselves from creating wherever we go, reminds me how things are always changing.”

“It is a different world for kids today,” adds Executive Director Rebekah Speck, “yet kids today face enormous challenges too, not unlike the social factors that led so many to work in the mills. Most of our kids come to RiverzEdge because they need a job or because they are failing in school, but it helps all of us, teens included, to remember hard times passed and use those memories to transform life as we know it today. Of course,” adds Speck playfully, “we like to take the past, paint it, screenprint it, put something fluffy on it, and then sell it at auction for a better future!”

Long time Program Director and well-known artist, Brad Fesmire, puts it in simple and no uncertain terms, “We like to have parties in big old industrial buildings, because we are in the arts and design industry. We help our clients and communities do things like distribute resources where needed, create better and more beautiful and appropriate places to live, and get access to healthy food. The Industrial Ball is just good, inventive fun for a cause. Where else are you going to find fighting marionettes and belt sander races but a big old mill? You think we could do what we do at a hotel?”

From industrial to artistic revolution

Hearkening to the entrepreneurial aspect of work at RiverzEdge is entirely to the point of the Industrial Ball. If the 19th Century was the era of economic and technical advance through mass production and innovation in the mills, then the 21st is portending an Artistic Revolution, where creativity, good design and thinking outside the box incubate new abilities to solve local and global problems. If the artists young and younger at RiverzEdge had their way, every single youth who walks through the door would ultimately find a job in the creative sector and use art to make the world a better place.

Tickets can be purchased on-line and tours can be arranged by calling 767-2100. For more information on RiverzEdge, go here.