 | |
Former name | Children's Museum of Rhode Island |
|---|---|
| Established | 1977 |
| Location | 100 South Street Providence, Rhode Island |
| Executive director | Caroline Payson |
| Website | providencechildrensmuseum |
The Providence Children's Museum (PCM) is a non-profit children's museum in Providence, Rhode Island. The museum is located at 100 South Street in the city's Jewelry District. It occupied the historic Pitcher-Goff House in Pawtucket prior to moving to its current location in 1997.
Originally named the Children's Museum of Rhode Island, the museum was founded in 1977 and is the first children's museum in the state. [1] The Pawtucket Congregational Church leased its Pitcher-Goff House to the museum, and the building was renovated with exhibits, play spaces, and activities for children and opened in 1977. [1] Due to increasing attendance, in the 1980s, the museum sought out a larger site as its building could only hold 100 people at once and had 3,000 square feet (280 m2) of exhibit space. [2] It reported attendance of 40,000 in 1986. [2]
With the state's Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF), the museum began operating the "Families Together" program in 1991 to provide social services for families separated by the DCYF, such as managing supervised visitation between children and parents. [3] [4]
The museum moved to its current location on 100 South Street in the Jewelry District of Providence in 1997. The two-floor 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2) brick building was purchased for $650,000; the surrounding 27,000 square feet (2,500 m2) of outdoor space was intended to be used for exhibitions and car parking. [5] Prior to the reopening, the museum announced that it would rename itself after Providence in appreciation of the city's $450,000 donation to the capital campaign for the move. [6] A large sculpture of a colorful dragon, named Nori, is perched on a corner of its rooftop. Originally created for an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the sculpture was donated to the PCM in 1997 and given its name by an 11-year-old boy through a contest. [7] [8]
During the George W. Bush administration, in 2003, AmeriCorps funding for various local organizations including the museum was reduced or eliminated, while a new initiative by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence was financed. [9]
The COVID-19 pandemic led to the museum's temporary closure in 2020, and interactive online programs were offered during this time. [10] Later that year, the museum was impacted by a ransomware attack on Blackbaud, a software vendor. [11] Upon reopening in late 2021, the museum reported that attendance had greatly reduced, noting as an inhibiting factor that children younger than 12 years old could not yet receive COVID-19 vaccinations. [10]
The museum has had three executive directors:
Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Falls and Lincoln to the north, and North Providence to the west. The city also borders the Massachusetts municipalities of Seekonk and Attleboro.
The Pawtucket Red Sox, known colloquially as the PawSox, were a professional minor league baseball club based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. From 1973 to 2020, the team was a member of the International League and served as the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. They played their home games at McCoy Stadium, and won four league championships, their last in 2014. Following the 2020 season, the franchise moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, to become the Worcester Red Sox.
Howard Ben Tré was an American glass artist. He worked with poured glass, creating small sculptures and large scale public artworks. Glass magazine has called Ben Tré a pioneer in the technique of using hot glass casting in fine art.
The Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals (RIFTHP) is a statewide federation of labor unions in Rhode Island in the United States. The federation's local unions represent teachers and other educational workers, state and municipal employees, healthcare workers in the public and private sectors, and higher education faculty and workers in the public and private sectors. It is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the AFL–CIO.
The Rhode Island Historical Society is a privately endowed membership organization, founded in 1822, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing the history of Rhode Island. Its offices are located in Providence, Rhode Island.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Providence County, Rhode Island.
Collyer Monument is an historic monument to firefighters in Mineral Spring Park, at the corner of Mineral Spring Avenue and Main Street, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States. The monument was built in 1890 by the sculptor Charles Parker Dowler to honor Samuel Smith Collyer, a fallen Pawtucket Fire Chief. The life-size bronze sculpture stands atop a pedestal of Westerly granite, which has a bronze plaque depicting the fatal accident while the reverse bears an inscription. The memorial represents a significant example of monumental work of the period and an early example of local civic pride. The monument was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Pawtucket Congregational Church is an historic church building at 40 and 56 Walcott Street, at the junction of Broadway and Walcott St., in the Quality Hill neighborhood of Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
The Pitcher-Goff House, is an historic house at 58 Walcott Street in the Quality Hill neighborhood of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The house is architecturally eclectic, with a largely Italianate exterior, and a Late Victorian interior. The house was built for Elias B. Pitcher, a cotton textile manufacturer, in 1840. Later it was sold to Lyman B. Goff, another local industrialist, who made significant alterations to the interior, replacing a great deal of the older woodwork with more fashionable Queen Anne styling in 1881. He also modified the exterior, but these changes were largely limited to the porch, which also exhibits fine Queen Anne detailing.
Gina Marie Raimondo is an American businesswoman, lawyer, politician, and venture capitalist who has served since 2021 as the 40th United States secretary of commerce. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the 75th governor of Rhode Island from 2015 to 2021, and was the first woman to serve in the role.
William R. Walker & Son was an American architectural firm in Providence, Rhode Island, active during the years 1881 to 1936. It included partners William Russell Walker (1830–1905), William Howard Walker (1856–1922) and later William Russell Walker II (1884–1936).
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Providence, Rhode Island, United States.
Darius Goff was one of the foremost textile manufacturers in the United States and a leading citizen of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He is known for introducing the manufacture of worsted braids and mohair plush upholstery into the United States.
Umberto "Bert" Crenca is an American artist, arts administrator, arts advisor and educator. He is known for being a founder and long-time artistic director of the non-profit arts organization, AS220, in Providence, Rhode Island. He has been credited with helping to "lay the groundwork for much of the cultural development that shaped the Providence imaginary in the 1990s and early decades of the 21st century" by scholar Micah Salkind, and in 2010 was identified as one of Rhode Island's Most Influential People by Rhode Island Monthly.
Roberto "Bob" DaSilva is an American politician currently serving as the first Mayor of the City of East Providence, Rhode Island. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a State Representative for District 63 in the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 2009 to 2013.
Nicholas Alahverdian, also known as Nicholas Rossi and Arthur Knight, among other aliases, is an American sex offender who faked his own death in 2020.
Trista Piccola served as the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth & Families from January 2017 until July 2019. Her term was marked by the death and near-deaths of children, high staff turn-over rates, votes of no confidence, and high budget deficits.
Herbert "Herb" P. Weiss is an American author and journalist. He is best known for his work as a writer and as an arts and cultural ambassador for the city of Pawtucket.
Irving B. Haynes was an American architect and preservationist. He practiced architecture in Pawtucket and Providence, Rhode Island from 1961 to 1994 and taught at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1973 to 2005.