The subjects interviewed for Underground Rhode Island were selected, among many possibilities, for several reasons. The eldest were likely to have been part or the "hip" scene around jazz and the Celebrity Club of the 1950s. More than a few had a connection with AS220 and its circle, at some time in the past. And the youngest members have been active in the Rhode Island arts scene, in one way or another, during the last twenty years or so. Not all are either "lost" or "unknown"; some of them have long been prominent. And yet they represent a self-consciously offbeat take on the mainstream culture of Middle America. They are "underground" even when "overground," part of a world more recognizable to Allen Ginsberg (or Bruce Springsteen) than the people in the White House or Wall Street. And they were intriguing to the students who chose to interview them.
You may expect to find a photo--not necessarily from the recent past--a short biography, a recording of the subject's own voice, a verbatim transcript of the interview, and links to related materials. Not all these are present for each interview--some are still being gathered (or recovered)--but they definitely represent a sense of a life and creative work within that life.
Peter Eiermann is the Executive Director of the Woonasquatucket Valley Community Build, a non-profit organization devoted to making community art possible in Providence. Through Tellart, a design company created by four RISD graduates, he met Clay Rockefeller in 2001. Rockefeller had just purchased Providence Steel and Iron and turned it into The Steelyard Industrial Arts Center, a multi-functional arts facility equipped with foundry, kilns and other donated machinery. He asked Eiermann to take over as Executive Director. Often spending long hours on site, Eiermann is a dedicated member of a tight-knit group of people working to make an arts center useful and accessible to the community. Since the summer of 2002, The Steelyard has offered courses to the public.
© 2005