Providence, RI: Artsy Fartsy New England

Have you ever been to Providence? If not, you should plan a trip there, now. This is one of the most unique, quaint little towns I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. Unfortunately, I only had about 2 hours in the rain there and my camera battery died after only an hour or so. But I still managed to get a few pretty sweet pictures.

The town seems like a cross between New England Port town, Portland, ME and artsy-fartsy Asheville, NC. With its quaint, beautiful New England architecture and carefully-planned squares, as well as its narrow streets, Providence reminds me of a magnified version of Boston’s Little Italy (minus the good planning).

At first glance, Providence seems like your typical homogenous New England town. But after wandering around for an hour or so, I began to notice little artsy stores and cafés run by people with tattoos and alternative styles of dress. I spotted murals like the one above scattered around the city, their designs far from the pleasant unassuming murals of many NE towns.

Later, I mentioned my observations of Providence to a friend, “Well, I guess that makes sense what with the Rhode Island School of Design located there and all…” Huh, right. Then I remembered that Brown is also located in Providence – arguably the Ivy League with the most alternative methods of education.

Thinking about it now, it actually makes a ton of sense that Rhode Island would be a more liberal/free-thinking state. It was, after all, the first state to truly embrace the concept of religious freedom.

After wandering a while, I ducked into a coffee shop called Small Point Café, ordered a latte and set up my laptop. Later, I headed to the bathroom before leaving and was surprised by the artwork that greeted me.

Bathroom Creatures! How cool! There were about 6 of them scattered around the bathroom, each with a unique space-robot look to it. At this point my camera had died, so I had to bust out my cell phone because these guys just could not go undocumented!

After only a couple hours in this cool little city, I unfortunately had to continue my journey – staying in Hartford next! Can’t wait to make plans to actually stay in Providence sometime!