Tell(er)ing History: A Portal to 15 West’s Past, 2023
Wood, paint, metal, desk, chair, books, paper, other props
Fleet Library at RISD, 15 Westminster Street, Providence, RI
Installed: December 2023–February 2024

The building at 15 Westminster Street currently holds RISD’s Fleet Library, but it was originally built in 1919 for the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company, a grand commercial bank. From a desire to inspire a sense of wonder and recontextualize RISD’s spatial history within the larger history of Providence, rose an installation and scavenger hunt that briefly served as a portal to the building’s past.

A reception desk recreated from archival photos and placed in its original location drew viewers into the installation. Ephemera on the desk introduced visitors to the function and character of the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company, and instructions and a map set them on a scavenger hunt. At four different locations, participants collected faux banknotes with information about the company and the building printed on the backs. Those who completed the hunt wrote their name on a blank check to enter a raffle to win an authentic safe deposit box from the vault that still exists in the building’s basement.