WHO WE ARE
Divine Providence, Collective Wisdom
Richardson Ogidan, the SCCRI Executive Director, often speaks about the power of divine providence and trust in collective wisdom. This couldn't be more true for Southside Cultural Center of Rhode Island at this moment in its organizational development.
In 2015, the RI Foundation awarded SCCRI with funds to further develop its Board of Directors and begin a second strategic planning phase. To view our 2016-2019 Strategic Plan Map, click here.
That same year, Artplace America awarded the City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism and LISC RI $300,000 to lead a creative placemaking initiative called Illuminating Trinity in Providence's Trinity Square, a neighborhood gateway that connects the Upper South Side, West End, and Downtown neighborhoods of Providence. Southside Cultural Center of Rhode Island is a proud partner in this initiative. To date, Illuminating Trinity has provided SCCRI with capacity building and technical assistance, enhanced neighborhood strategic partnerships and brought a RISD design build into our parking lot, where SCCRI performers, audiences, and partners can soon share outdoor space. The Community Innovation Lab, an Illuminating Trinity project facilitated by EMCArts, has brought community members, social service agencies, municipal workers, public safety, community organizers, and artists together at SCCRI to talk about social and systems change in the neighborhood.
In early 2016, SCCRI was awarded with three major competitive capital improvement grants: Community Development Block Grant, RISCA State Cultural Facilities Bond, and Historic Preservation funds to develop critical improvements to our facilities, including the sound proofing of our main performance spaces, historic window restoration and replacement, and the building of an elevator. These critical developments will make our center more inviting to artists and audiences alike, and we are thrilled to be able to bring light to our institution and through us, the neighborhood.
HIGHER EDUCATION
Southside Cultural Center of Rhode Island has partnered with several area universities since its inception, providing students and faculty opportunities for learning and skills development in a robust, diverse and creative setting. Through partnerships with Johnson & Wales University, Roger Williams University, and Rhode Island School of Design, SCCRI has provided a canvas for project-based learning while attaining pro bono support in areas of marketing and communications, strategic planning and feasibility studies, technical writing and operations support, and research and design and construction. We continue our commitment to our partners in higher education by providing continuous opportunities for learning, growth, and mutual exchange. If you are a student or professor at a local university looking to explore ways to build SCCRI into your curriculum or project, please contact our Executive Director, Richardson Ogidan.
Cover photo courtesy of Elizabeth Succart | The Rhode Island Black Storytellers
MISSION, VISION, & VALUES
MISSION
Southside Cultural Center of Rhode Island connects, cultivates and engages community through the arts.
VISION
Southside Cultural Center of Rhode Island (SCCRI) envisions a vibrant, connected community engaged in discovering, exploring, and creating art. The supportive power of extended family in all its definitions is embraced, as is the belief that the spirit and energy of community, and our participation in it, empowers and transforms. The heartbeat of its Southside, West End, and Elmwood neighborhoods, SCCRI nurtures the voices of artists of color and cultivates leaders who lift up our people. The warmth, enthusiasm, and unity of our cultural hub echo throughout Rhode Island, and serves as an example of inclusive art making, kinship, and cultural expression.
VALUES & COMMITMENTS
Access SCCRI believes making, showing, performing and experiencing art should be safe, affordable and accessible to everyone. A community driven organization committed to those who live, work, study, play, and pray in the Southside, West End and Elmwood neighborhoods of Providence, we center and elevate the experiences, leadership and needs of people of color and POC-led arts organizations.
Art & Culture We believe art is essential for a healthy, loving, just community. SCCRI incubates and provides safe, welcoming access to space, experiences and other resources as a strategy to revitalize community and connect people. We embrace risk-taking in art, partnerships, programming and community building.
Collaboration We believe our success is tied to that of our partner tenants, artists of color and other members of the community. Our primary commitment is to support, elevate and engage organizations and individuals in, from, and serving Southside, Elmwood and the West End neighborhoods. We collaborate and coordinate with local, regional, and national partners in service of our community.
Community SCCRI believes in our community and the people in it. We foster belonging,
self-expression, interdependence, and engagement. We keep a hyper local focus on the Southside, West End and Elmwood neighborhoods of Providence, while breaking down boundaries and awareness throughout Providence, RI and New England.
Diversity SCCRI values and celebrates the diverse history, identities and cultures within our community. SCCRI embraces an intersectional, multi-issue approach to art, programming, partnership, inclusion and community building.
Education SCCRI believes knowledge and mutual respect are enhanced when we share space, create and learn together. We prioritize providing access to arts education to a community that otherwise lacks such resources within it and/or the schools serving our youth.
Inclusion SCCRI is committed to participatory decision-making. We value and welcome diverse people, art and ideas.
Trust SCCRI is a safe haven to create and explore art and community. We are trusted partners in growing artists and arts organizations, empowering youth and building community.