As homegrown international sensation WaterFire closes up for another winter - the final lighting of the season was on Oct. 27 - preparations are already being made and proposals drafted for next year's program. Though the WaterFire season starts in May and ends in October, the behind-the-scenes work never ends, said Barnaby Evans '75, the creator of the phenomenon.
WaterFire has been a fixture of downtown Providence in the summer since regular lightings began in 1997. Described on its Web site as a "sculpture," it consists of 100 bonfires that dot the Providence River and lead to Waterplace Park.
Evans created Waterfire's forerunner, First Fire, in 1994 for a 10-year anniversary celebration of First Night Providence, according to the WaterFire Web site. Reception for the event was so positive that two years later, Evans created Second Fire for the June 1996 International Sculpture Conference. WaterFire became a permanent downtown fixture in 1997, attracting 350,000 people to 13 lightings of the 42 braziers used that year, Evans said.
WaterFire has grown rapidly in the decade since then. One production now takes two solid weeks of preparation, as wood is boated out to 100 braziers, streets are closed, garbage cans emptied and speakers set in place, Evans said. Twelve people man up to five boats during the week before an event, working every night to prepare each of the 100 bonfires. On the day of a lighting, 150 people work to set up, perform and eventually clean up and close down.
Jenny Filipetti '09, who volunteered for WaterFire last summer, said the camaraderie among volunteers makes setting up WaterFire enjoyable. Volunteers are asked for their job preferences, she added, and can usually choose from jobs such as feeding the fires from the boats, helping with audio equipment and manning "ambassador stations" that provide information to visitors.
Filipetti called volunteering for WaterFire "a good way to give back" to an event from which she took much delight during her first two years at Brown. Participating in the program offers "a really good way to be a part of the greater Providence community," she said, and events such as potlucks keep the volunteers in contact during the off-season.
Filipetti said she has gotten to know a number of regular WaterFire visitors, remembering a particular group of three elderly women who meet once a year to attend WaterFire together. Filipetti said stories such as this are the essence of WaterFire.
If nothing else, she said, "it's great to have an event that takes people away from the TV and computer and into the city."
While enjoyable, WaterFire preparations are laborious, which means Waterfire officials must plan well in advance for the lightings. Each year, WaterFire organizers must submit a proposal - complete with a performance schedule - to be approved by the Providence Tourism Council, a quasi-public agency that is affiliated with the city.
The proposal is basically the same every year, Evans said, but the city needs to make sure that the dates do not conflict with any other large events. The city council usually grants WaterFire between $50,000 and $70,000, but contributed $100,000 this year due to what Lynne McCormack, director of the Providence Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism, called WaterFire's "financial issues."
Specifically, private donations have not been as great recently as they have been in past years, McCormack said. Providence has more arts organizations per capita than Boston, which puts a serious strain on organizations that rely on individual giving, she said. "(Providence has) almost more products than the economy can handle," she said.
In the past five years, arts organizations have increasingly been passed over for other charitable causes, such as homelessness, McCormack added. Additionally, Rhode Island ranks almost last in the nation in terms of rates of philanthropic giving in general, according to a 2005 study by the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College.
This combination - the high number of arts organizations, the decline in donations to the arts and low giving rate of Rhode Island residents - leaves each individual art organization with a smaller slice of the economic pie. But "this isn't WaterFire's problem, because they have great corporate support," McCormack said, adding that the Tourism Council decided to increase WaterFire's grant because "we felt that it was so important for the tourism economy of the summer to have the event up and running."
McCormack reiterated that the city had "no issue" supporting WaterFire, assuring The Herald that WaterFire was not "about to close shop." McCormack said Providence and organizers of WaterFire are "partners in this event" and added that Mayor David Cicilline '83 was interested in formalizing a relationship between the city and WaterFire soon.
WaterFire has become a symbol of Providence's renaissance over the past decade, and has also contributed to the city's rebirth. The economic impact of the 2004 WaterFire season was studied by Acadia Consulting Group and former University of Rhode Island professor Timothy Tyrrell - their report, commissioned by WaterFire's organizers, claims WaterFire had a $33.2 million impact in gross revenues and contributions in 2004, according to a March 2005 article in the Providence Journal.
WaterFire is nonprofit organization and most of its budget comes from donations from individuals, though some comes from corporate sponsorships and about 20 percent comes from the city and state. WaterFire's board of directors is made up of representatives from the Providence arts and business communities, volunteers, donors and officials from several universities. Brown does not currently have a representative on the board - the last University official to serve was Constance Gee, a former assistant professor of public policy and education and now-ex-wife of then-President Gordon Gee.
In addition to the $100,000 that WaterFire received from the Providence Tourism Council for its past season, the state offered help as well. A $300,000 legislative grant to the Rhode Island Council of the Arts also went to support WaterFire this year, wrote Barbara Trainor, media coordinator in the governor's office, in an e-mail to The Herald.
Despite the financial issues referenced by McCormack, WaterFire proceeded this year with a budget of $1.65 million. Elements of the budget include $600,000 for labor, $100,000 for insurance, $60,000 for firewood, $45,000 for the rights to the WaterFire music and $30,000 for an annual audit.
Another issue looming in WaterFire's future is the high level of silt at the bottom of the Providence River. Creator Evans said the silt causes WaterFire's boats to run aground, increasing maintenance costs. The rivers are supposed to be dredged every five to eight years, Evans said, but the last time the Providence River was dredged was in 1998, for $1.7 million. Evans said WaterFire has notified the city of the situation, but that "they set their own priorities."
According to McCormack, the Providence Foundation, the city and WaterFire are currently working with the Maguire Group, an engineering firm that managed the Waterplace Park River Relocation Project, to create a proposal for federal assistance with dredging.
Evans described watching the growth of WaterFire, which he said has already been recreated in cities such as Houston and Kansas City, as "a gift." The event has also garnered attention from international cities, notably Rome and Barcelona, which both approached Evans about recreating the spectacle in their respective downtown rivers.
One mark of a good piece of art, Evans said, is that it touches a broad audience - and WaterFire has met this standard, serving as a "romantic," "beautiful" and "spiritual" hub for millions of visitors.
