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Behind the Scenes at the Old Stone Bank

Many residents and visitors to Providence are familiar with the Old Stone Bank building, located at 86 South Main Street, in Providence’s historic East Side, but few have had the chance to see the inside of this wonderful piece of mid-19th-century bank architecture. Designed in 1854 by C. J. and J. R. Hall the imposing granite edifice and wonderfully ornate golden dome make the Old Stone Bank the perfect setting for this weekend’s Red Fork Empire Embassy to Steampunk, almost…

Since the Old Stone Bank Corporation’s collapse in the 1980s the building has been mostly vacant and is slowly slipping into decay. By special arrangement with Barrett Bready, the building’s current owner and WaterFire board member, the Embassy to Steampunk will be the second large-scale event that WaterFire has hosted in the building. Before the installation of more than 150 works by Steampunk-inspired artists from across the country could begin there was a lot of work to do. Working tirelessly for the past two weeks WaterFire volunteers and production team members, under the guidance of executive artistic director Barnaby Evans have transformed the drab, dilapidated interior into a colorful backdrop fir for a steampunk emperor.

Check out our photo gallery of the transformation in progress. And be sure to visit our Ignite Providence website for more details about the Red Fork Empire Embassy to Steampunk gallery show opening on Saturday, August 24th at 2:00 pm.

2013-8-24 (Photo by Bill O'Brien)14

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I've worked at WaterFire Providence since 2003. For the first 9 years of my career, I worked in the Production Shop learning all of the details that go into the physical production of the event. In 2012 transitioned to the role of managing WaterFire's social media and web presence. I now head up WaterFire Providence's digital projects including, web, social, databases, and our physical IT infrastructure.

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