View the Exhibition
September 10 to October 9, 2026
An exhibition featuring Holly Ewald's 45-year evolution as a studio and community engaged artist. Her practice grows from co-facilitating collaborative art making and storytelling about under-recognized places, to multidisciplinary projects that raise awareness and understanding about natural systems that support all life.
Opening Reception in First U’s Atrium:
September 17, 2026, 5:30 – 7:30 PM. In Partnership with Gallery Night Providence
Two Exhibition Events on October 1, 2026 (6 – 8 PM)
6 – 7 PM
Blessing and Land Acknowledgement by Lorén Spears
Gather at the Intersection of Planet Street and South Water Street, Providence
Procession from the Providence River ends at First U Atrium.
Recognizing and learning from the First People of the land on which we live has been a significant part of Holly Ewald’s community engaged projects. Following the Land Acknowledgement and Blessing, participants will proceed to the Atrium, serenaded by musician Phil Edmonds, echoing a tradition of the Urban Pond Procession. Walk ends at First U’s Atrium. The event is led by Lorén Spears (Narragansett Niantic, Executive Director, Tomaquag Museum) and Holly Ewald (Founder and Executive Director, UPP Arts).
7 – 8 PM
Stories Behind the Artwork - Conversation with Holly Ewald
Following the procession, in First U’s Atrium.
Holly Ewald will share stories that lie behind the community engaged projects on exhibit. The audience will be encouraged to ask questions and engage in conversation as to what resonates for them in the approach and content of the artwork. Light refreshments will be served.
About Holly Ewald
Founder and Director of Urban Pond Procession Arts
Holly Ewald‘s sense of community grew from living on a Native American Mic Mac reserve in New Brunswick, Canada, for two summers in high school. She received a BA in Art from University of Oregon in 1977 and an MFA in Painting from Brooklyn College in 1986. Visiting the Reggio Emilia schools in Italy in 1992 confirmed her artist approach to teaching and inspired an element of play and discovery in her studio work, which serves as both an inspiration for and a response to the arts-based programing she initiates with communities. Since moving to Rhode Island in 1998 with her young family, her work has been driven by collaborating with others to research histories of less recognized places near where she lives. Her handwork often provides a setting or platform for communities to come together to celebrate and share stories and reflections about these places.
Founding what is now UPP Arts in 2008, she encourages other artists to use the history and environmental challenges of Mashapaug Pond, in Providence, to engage the public in creative responses to this neglected site. The environmental plight of Mashapaug moved her work in a more activist direction bringing businesses, government agencies, environmentalists, students (from elementary school to college), and residents together to raise awareness about Providence’s urban ponds.
She has received numerous awards for her work including the 2014 Tom Roberts Prize for Creative Achievement in the Humanities from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, the 2013 Environmental Achievement Award from Save the Bay, and a Sandra Olsen Award in Recognition of Extraordinary Commitment to New Urban Arts in 2013. In addition to being Artistic Director of UPP Arts, she is a Community Fellow at the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage.
About Lorén Spears
Narragansett Niantic, Executive Director, Tomaquag Museum
Lorén Spears is an enrolled citizen of the Narragansett Indian Tribal Nation and the Executive Director of Tomaquag Museum. She has been an educator for over 25 years and served as an adjunct faculty member at Brown University and at the University of Rhode Island. Spears earned a B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Rhode Island and her M.S. in Elementary Education from the University of New England. She received a Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa, from the University of Rhode Island in 2017 and a Doctor of Education, Honoris Causa, from Roger Williams University in 2021.
Under Spears’ leadership, Tomaquag Museum received the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ National Medal presented by First Lady Michelle Obama in 2016. Through the museum, she shares her cultural knowledge and traditional arts, which she has learned from her family and community. Spears also empowers Indigenous youth and educates the public on Narragansett and other regional Native history, culture, the environment, and the arts. She founded and led Nuweetooun School from 2003-2010. She also founded the Tomaquag’s Indigenous Empowerment Center to create educational, professional, and arts opportunities for the Native Community. To ensure Indigenous representation, she serves on many boards, including the RI 250 Commission, URI Native American Advisory Committee, Papitto Opportunity Connection Advisory Board, and the South County Tourism Council.
She has contributed to a variety of publications, including Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing of New England; Through Our Eyes: An Indigenous View of Mashapaug Pond; From Slaves to Soldiers: The 1st Rhode Island Regiment in the American Revolution; and Repair: Sustainable Design Futures. Spears co-edited a new edition of A Key into the Language of America by Roger Williams, and recently co-authored “As We Have Always Done: Decolonizing the Tomaquag Museum’s Collections Management Policy,” published in the Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archive Professionals.
Spears has received numerous awards including the National Association of Secretaries of State 2024 Medallion Award; Association of Tribal Archives and Museums’ 2022 Guardians of Culture and Lifeways Leadership Award; Mashantucket Pequot Museum’s 2022 Three Sisters Community Meesumôk Neetop Award; the RI Council for the Humanities 2016 Tom Roberts Prize for Creative Achievement in the Humanities, and the New England Museum Association 2016 Excellence Award, to name a few.
She was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2025.