[ minister: attend the needs of; provide something necessary or helpful ]
Supporting artists & community
A platform to bridge resources
The Ministry of Future Access (MFA) partners with organizations to design and implement cultural programs that create access to cultural, financial and structural resources. This has taken the shape of workshops; public celebrations; and artist-in-residency programs.
Moments of collective learning
To experience creative and learning processes together with others is one way of deepening our relationships with the stories and neighborhood that surround us. MFA believes in the intrinsic value of this, and in providing free and accessible opportunities to enjoy them.
2025 FALL | ARTIST RESIDENCIES
Two libraries were activated this year –with very different programming!
Visual artists Chris Tavares and Monica Hurley co-created a mural at Smith Hill Community Library, inviting participation from the people in the neighborhood. Please join us to unveil this special artpiece November 19th at 5pm.
In the South Providence Community Library, the theater group Arte Latino New England (ALNE) has been offering theater sessions for Spanish speaking neighbors workshopping scenes from the Birdcage.
From November 18th through December 15th, ALNE will open the doors of their creative process as they stage selected scenes from their adaptation in what they call “Jaula Charla Bar” –where participants will be able to bring their own stories into this famous play! Sign up here.
2025 SPRING | SHARING RESOURCES
“Sharing Resources” is a series of 4 gatherings designed to form new relationships, share our understanding of the opportunities and challenges around us, and chart tangible resources to support local creative lives.
ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
Each gathering will center a different theme as it activates specific videos from the series “Time Has Told Me” to open conversations, identify possibility, and organize resources within the Community Libraries and beyond. As we transition times of crisis and overlapping challenges, we hope this space will feel welcoming and nurturing to all of you invested in art, culture and strengthening local systems of mutual support. Facilitated by Hernan Joubá and guest collaborators.
SESSION #1 | Systems of Support
Mt Pleasant Library (03/06 – 6pm-7.30pm)
Join Stephanie Fortunato and Nan Joubá in exploring systems of support & opportunities for the new –both in the libraries and beyond.
SESSION #2 | Spaces of Practice
Rochambeau Library (03/08 – 11am-12.30pm)
Come explore how to access space, equipment and support for creative practices at the community libraries! Local-maker Alex Hornstein will also introduce us to the many ways in which he has succesfully ran Kickstarter campaigns to support his projects at the intersection of science, technology and art.
SESSION #3 | Arte y Salud (en Español)
South Providence Library (03/14 – 6pm-7.30pm)
En este encuentro conversaremos con Sussy Santana y Carolina Briones sobre las diferentes maneras en las que podemos mejorar nuestra calidad de vida a través de procesos creativos y artísticos.
SESSION #4 | Embodying Visions
Knight Memorial Library (03/15 – 11am-12.30pm)
In our last session of the series, we’ll discuss ways to approach and structure new projects and get them off the ground with tools at the Entrepreneurship Center and beyond. As usual, we’ll also watch a video from “Time Has Told Me” to anchor our conversations, and finish by sharing concrete resources available to library patrons.
2024 AiR | COMMISSIONING OF NEW WORK
Melanie Hicken and Christopher Ransom will begin work on a short-film project that invites a sincere confrontation with the history of displacement in the Lippitt Hill neighborhood through a careful and precise observation of present realities. During preparation and production, the community is invited to participate in a series of film screenings and discussions, with the hope that these encounters with the contradictions of the present, the stories and images of the past, and the disparate perspectives of the community can be a beginning of historical and political understanding.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Melanie Hicken and Christopher Ransom are educators, filmmakers, and parents residing in Providence. Their video work is an effort to situate themselves within history, observe the inhabited world precisely, and participate in the collective labor of video production.
ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
Continuing the “Art in the Neighborhood” initiative in partnership with the Communities Libraries of Providence (CLPVD), this year’s program offers structural and financial support for artists to innitiate a creative process within the Rochambeau Community Library, centering stories of displacement and gentrification experienced in the neighborhood of East Side/Mt Hope after the Lippitt Hill Redevelopment process. Read more about the program here.
2023 | PODCAST IN RESIDENCY
Hosted by artist Nan Joubá, these weekly gatherings offered techniques for capturing and editing audio recordings, and hosted a series of interviews for creating a new episode of the podcast show THANK YOU FOR LISTENING. Guest interviewees included: Julio E. Berroa, Atlas, Anabel Vázquez Rodríguez and Shey ‘Rí Acu’ Rivera Ríos.
Deepening the intersection between “Art in the Neighborhood” and Nan Joubá’s research into stories of migration from the Americas, this year’s program at the Olneyville Community Library was supported by the Community Libraries of Providence as well as by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (RICH).
2022 | ARTISTS IN RESIDENCY
The artist-in-residency program “Arte y Vecindario” (Art in the Neighborhood) is dedicated to strengthening the creative practices of local artists and giving neighborhood members access to experiental learning opportunities. This program is a collaboration between the Ministry of Future Access and host institution Community Libraries of Providence, with support from the Office of Library and Information Services (OLIS).
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
This year we are engaging Spanish speaking artists that work/live in Rhode Island, to develop a creative project open to the neighbors of three different libraries: South Providence, Knight Memorial, and Mount Pleasant. Artists will be in-residency at each library for 3 months (May-July); receive $4,000 in compensation for their labor; and have access to up to $500 in materials for project expenses.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ALFONSO ACEVEDO hosted weekly workshops to create “Mobile Murals” with the neighbors of Elmwood. These workshops were open to all ages, and offered an opportunity to decide and execute each mural collectively, with the technical assistance of the artist in residency. Alfonso has also hosted an artist talk with a guest artist about the role that art making plays in communities in Colombia.
FESTUM TEATRO has offered “Creation and Celebration”, weekly workhops for children and their families to learn how to play musical instruments, create masks, and eventually parade in the streets of Mount Pleasant. The artists in residence created a safe space for play and experimentation; and culminated their residency with a parade and bingo event that gathered all the families involved.
HERNÁN JOURDAN (Nan Joubá) hosted a series of movie screening events followed by activities and discussions with South Providence neighbors. The activities offered an invitation to draw (map-out) personal experiences of moving across space that participants felt relevant to each one of them, and informed the first part of the video-performance series Quikuchá (2022).
2021 | ARTISTS WORKSHOPS
The first collaboration between the Ministry of Future Access and host institution Community Libraries of Providence (CLP) was a series of bilingual workshops and public conversations offered for free to 5 neighborhoods of Providence RI. These collective learning opportunities compensated artists and cultural practitioners to approach a wide variety of topics, including:
- Creative Writing
- Local Filmmaking
- Project Production
- Art, Health & Activistm
- Dancing with Roots
- Immigration counseling
- Street Theater
- Every-day maps
This program was made possible with support from the Office of Library and Information Services (OLIS).
Nan Joubá 