PVD Artist Pamela Fernandez Talks WaterFire Group Exhibition "Lost & Found"

Lost and Found with Pamela Fernandez on WaterFire Accelerate

Bill Bartholomew speaks with artist Pamela Fernandez about WaterFire Accelerate, the professional development program for artists 30 and under, and the culminating group exhibition Lost and Found at the WaterFire Arts Center. The conversation moves from Providence’s creative ecosystem to Fernandez’s Dominican and Providence roots, and how both shape her work in textiles, printmaking, and painting.In this episode, Fernandez reflects on community, institutional support, and the challenge of making art that is both personally meaningful and socially responsive.

Key topics

• Pamela Fernandez explains that WaterFire Accelerate is a professional development program for artists 30 and under, offering mentorship, studio space, and a final group exhibition.
• The conversation highlights how the cohort became a real support network, with artists helping one another professionally and personally through an active group chat and shared resources.
• Fernandez talks about being born in the Dominican Republic and growing up in Providence since age five, and how that identity deeply informs her work.
• She describes Providence as a place where she wants to stay and create, while also noting that London has long felt like an interesting art destination to her.
• Bill and Fernandez discuss the role of Providence institutions and nonprofits in shaping artists’ careers, including WaterFire, RISD Museum workshops, libraries, New Urban Arts, and Project Open Door.
• Fernandez emphasizes that artist communities matter just as much as institutions, especially when peers offer studio access, screen printing space, or a wood shop for free.
• Her work is rooted in questions of Dominican history, Dominican presence in Providence, family history, and what it means to feel both connected to and distanced from culture.
• Fernandez says she is currently negotiating what her art should be about now, moving between printmaking, painting, and a return to textiles.
• She explains why textiles remain meaningful to her, especially because fabric can carry history through clothing, curtains, and inherited materials.
• The interview closes with a deeper discussion of art and politics, including how Fernandez balances making work in a difficult moment with staying intentional, authentic, and humane.

Timestamps

00:00 - WaterFire Accelerate and the Lost and Found exhibition
 00:39 - How the artist development program works
 01:41 - Why cohort support extends beyond the studio
 02:47 - Fernandez’s Providence and Dominican roots
 03:42 - Why Providence feels like the right art city for now
 05:21 - Building a career through nonprofits and local institutions
 07:35 - How Dominican identity and Providence shape her work
 09:28 - Choosing what her art should say now
 10:56 - Why textiles still matter in her practice
 12:17 - Artist panel details and exhibition closing date
 13:12 - Balancing political responsibility with personal expression
 15:51 - Why artists still matter in social movements
 17:46 - Closing thoughts on WaterFire and the exhibition

Notable quotes

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“I feel like community is what is gonna keep us all afloat, especially in these times.”

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“I feel like for me, Providence to me is the place where I wanna be.”

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“I feel like you gotta figure out how you wanna show up, even if it’s not in your work, like how are you showing up in your day to day?”

Transcript

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Bill Bartholomew 0:00

Welcome to Bartholomew Town. I'm Bill Bartholomew. We turn to Waterfire, one of our partners here on the podcast. I got a press release. Six artists all under 30 explore what it means to lose, find, and be found in Lost and Found. The culminating exhibition of Waterfire Accelerate's fifth cohort brings together six Rhode Island artists exploring identity, memory, mythology, displacement, and discovery. One of those artists is Pamela Fernandez, who joins us here on the show. Thanks so much for making the time today.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Thank you so much for having me.

Bill Bartholomew 0:31

Talk about what the program is, the Waterfire Accelerate program, just in terms of from your own experience.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

It's like a professional development for artists 30 and under. So we have we get mentorship, we get a studio space, and then at the end of it, we get uh like a solo, not a solo, so we get a group show.

Bill Bartholomew 0:53

Yeah, and that group show is ongoing right now at the Waterfire Arts Center. Um there's all that it opened uh uh earlier this month. Uh the I'm trying to find there was a date that I I know. Oh yeah, October 11th is when it wraps up. So make sure you get get over there. The The Waterfire Arts Center is a great facility anyway. I think a lot of people in our community, they hear Waterfire and they think of the event downtown with the obviously, I think a lot of people all over the world hear water fire or hear Provence and they think of that. But there's a lot more to it in terms of um programming and development, right? So you're you're you're basically doing something that is an incubator type program. Is that fair to say that in working aligned or alongside other artists kind of creates this incubation environment?

SPEAKER_01 1:38

I would say so. I feel like we've really created strong relationships with each other. We talk to each other every day. That group chat is active. And the support goes beyond stuff that is going on with the show. We support each other with things that are going on in our personal lives. If we need advice on anything. So I think it like has really fostered a relationship between each other because we are in this program that is meant to help us all grow. So we kind of see that support within each other outside of just what the program is supposed to give us, which has been really beautiful.

Bill Bartholomew 2:16

Yeah. I think in many ways, that's what in our community, by and large, we need more of that, more of people working on their work in tandem with other pe like-minded people or differently minded people that are kind of, I don't know, in clusters. It's like a little bit of competition, but also a lot of being able to absorb as a sponge. Is that fair to say?

unknown 2:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

I agree. I think community is what is gonna keep us all afloat, especially like in these times.

Bill Bartholomew 2:45

Yeah, it's wild. So there's that. All right, so you're back. Are you are you from Providence or from Rhode Island?

SPEAKER_01 2:52

I am. I was born in the Dominican Republic, but I've been in Providence since I was five. I've did elementary school, middle school, high school, college, post-college. So I love Providence. I I think of where would I go? But I don't know. I just I love it here so much.

Bill Bartholomew 3:11

Well, it's an interesting question, especially for an artist, because where do you go? You know what I mean? Like, what's the where where is it right now? Where where do you, if you were gonna go somewhere, like is it Berlin? Is it somewhere no one's ever heard of before? Like, where are you drawn to in terms of is there an epicenter outside of Providence or is Providence maybe one of the epicenters that it's kind of always been this way, but is it possible that this is the place to be? Is that real?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

I feel like this is. I don't know. I mean, I've always wanted to know what London was like. I feel like that seems like a like it has like a strong art scene. I've talked to some other artists that are from the United States that like have gone to London and have been received very well, or really felt like that was like a pivotal moment for them in their career. But I feel like I don't know, for me in New York, it's not for me. Um so I feel like for me in the when it comes to at least the United States, I feel like Providence to me is the place where I want to be.

Bill Bartholomew 4:15

Wow. I feel like the the Providence Tourism Department or Commerce RI or somebody would like you to say that into a microphone like a bunch of times. And you know, but it's true. I mean, honestly, that's like that is what from a pulse standpoint. I think that's why so much of the political stuff that happened in Providence recently was not surprising at all, because it's it is a a community of makers and artists and and people who understand the value there. And and so it does feel like the city is shaping up in a way that is going to possibly be more fertile or or more fertile ground for creators, and you need those pillars, those institutional partners like Waterfire, AS220, Newport Festivals, whatever it may be to strengthen. Um so for you as someone who grew up in Providence, how do you balance that relationship with making your own work with trying to interplay with the institutions that Providence has, some of which I just named, there are certainly many others, um, but not depend on them to exist because you want to exist as an independent artist as well. That's the idea. How do you how do you thread that needle?

SPEAKER_01 5:18

I feel like for me, like building relationships with some nonprofits that aren't maybe necessarily those really huge ones that we usually think of. But also I do have, you know, my own relationships where I've done workshops with the RISD Museum, where I've done workshops with the libraries, you know, being in Waterfire, I interned at Waterfire as well last year. Um, but I feel like for me, like having those relationships with other nonprofits, for me, like New Urban Arts was really big for me when I was in high school. And like they still gave support after high school. I worked there a couple summers, like there's still like check-ins, same with Project Open Door, which is like um portfolio kind of building program, at least the one that I did, that's a part of RISD and like the support that I've gotten from them after and the connections I've been able to make. So I feel like for me, it's kind of a balance of like been a balance of nurturing relationships that kind of have paved the way for me and kind of sustaining those, and then also building new relationships with maybe the larger institutions with the support of the the places that help me pave the way. I feel like also community being in community with artists has been so lot like so impactful for me. Sometimes we don't have the resources that maybe we want access to or can afford to have access to. But I feel like I've had friends that are artists that have been more than willing to be like, you could use my studio space for free. You could come and use my screen printing studio, my wood shop. And I feel like those relationships that maybe are not institutional have have meant so, so much to me.

Bill Bartholomew 7:08

Yeah. That's what is ultimately I mean that's what a a a creative cluster is all about, really. You know, at the end of the day, I think. What do you what's your background in terms of your own work? How does it impact your background, your story, providence, DR, all that? How has that impacted you and how you and how you make work?

SPEAKER_01 7:32

I feel like it's it's always in my work. Even when it's not necessarily specifically about these things, it's it's in my work. I feel like these are things that have shaped me and they influence everything that I touch. Um, I went to RISD for textiles, and I remember our first project was like pick a place, and my place was Providence in the Dominican Republic. Um, even like a few years ago, I won a grant from Risca, and it was about making work about the Dominican presence in Providence. So I feel like aside just from being Dominican, a Dominican immigrant, like being a Dominican-American immigrant from Providence specifically has had has had a large presence in my work because I don't know what it's like to be Dominican in New York. I don't know what it's like to be Dominican in Alaska, because we're there too. Um, I feel like the specific experience that I've had being in Providence, being Dominican in Providence with the the large community that we have, like the presence that we have um Broad Street and politics and like our schools, like my teachers, like people I can relate to, I feel like has shaped who I am and inherently has shaped my work. And the relationship that I have to my my culture or like the relationship that I form with people is influenced by like my upbringing and Providence and at the end of the day.

Bill Bartholomew 9:03

Yeah, that's amazing. And what so as a textile grad, like where where do you see yourself like trying to go as a as an artist in terms of aspirationally, you know, not necessarily from a career standpoint, because that's that's not it either, but but what do you want to do? What do you what do you want to do and what are you trying to make right now?

SPEAKER_01 9:26

So funny enough, I don't really make textiles um that often. I do like workshops concerning textiles. I've taught textiles um to like students in high school. But I feel like like I'm right now no like I don't want to say negotiating, maybe that's not true. I feel like I'm trying to have the conversations with myself of what what do I want my art to be about and look like now. I feel like when I was in college, a lot of my work was about Dominican history, um, things that like I could like you know relate to, but maybe things that also happened before me or um things that like interested me, but like I wasn't there, like I'm not living there. I don't really know how these things like permeate in the culture, um, like Indior. So I feel like I've been like through a journey, like do I make work about my relationship with being Dominican and feeling like displaced, but also kind of severed from my culture because I don't feel super Dominican. I feel like in comparison to some other like immigrants that I know, um, do I want to make work about like my personal like stories, like my familial histories? I feel like these are kind of things that I'm kind of negotiating right now in the place where I am with my practice. Um I kind of mostly like print make and paint now. I've been trying to get back into textiles because I think it is such like a beautiful medium, and I feel like fabric holds so much history. Um I mean, we wear clothes every day, right? Um we sleep in clothes, we sit in clothes, like not fabric, my we sleep in fabric, we sit on fabric. Like it's I feel like even in things that you don't really realize, like your curtain, that's a fabric. That could be a choice to like as an expression of who you are. That is something that could be passed down, like this is my great-great-grandmother's curtain from like 1920, you know? So I feel like I'm just kind of trying to think about the histories of things and like my relationship to them. And I don't know, I just feel like I'm negotiating a lot of things right now for myself and what I want my art to do and like who do I want it to serve.

Bill Bartholomew 11:59

Well, those are amazing questions to ask, obviously, right? To be able to get to a point where you can be that discerning about who you're serving and and how that reflects through you and even which medium you're choosing. I want to once again circle back just really quick here on because I kind of bungled it right out of the gate by not having this page open and tried to memorize the closing date of this exhibition. And let me make sure it is ongoing right now. Sunday, October 11th at 3 p.m., there'll be an artist panel. That's an opportunity to join the artist for a conversation about their work, creative practices, community, and experience in Waterfire Accelerate. That's kind of what we're doing right now, but you'll get that times uh, I would imagine six or more. Um and though there's going to be some additional details about upcoming workshops and programs. Everybody head to waterfire.org slash lost ampersand found for more details on this. Um lastly, Pamela, you know, just as an artist right now in this world, I mean, unless you're you have your head under a rock and are just like willfully blind to what we're seeing and experiencing in many cases, but certainly observing. Um as an artist, how where where the how much of your your work right now do you feel it there's a responsibility to serve as a mirror for the world, be it your immediate experience, your community, global affairs, planetary treatment, whatever it is, versus how much how do you balance that with also examining what's happening inside of your own soul, regardless of what's happening in the world? That that's a juxtaposition that's very serious. And sometimes you could just say, I don't, I just follow whatever happens in the moment. That's true. But I think a lot of people would love to hear from you how to balance that because even in not necessarily their own creative practice, just in their own day-to-day lives, how do you keep moving forward?

SPEAKER_01 13:54

I feel like it's a it's a hard balance. I feel like sometimes I can get maybe a little pessimistic and I'll be like, there's so much things that are so important. Like, what's the point of this like silly little painting I'm doing? Um, and like I try not to get stuck in those loops, but sometimes it's hard because there are such sad things happening all the time, like even in our own like providence community, let alone the world. And sometimes it feels like a little selfish to make work about things that are not highlighting those things. I feel like for me, sometimes the balance comes from like the decisions I make in my everyday, um, like not supporting certain companies or showing up to certain events or having certain conversations with people that how they see things isn't always in the most like empathetic way. Um, I used to make, I feel like, a lot of political work when I was in college, you know, like I made work about the school to prison pipeline and environmental racism, like especially like specifically in Providence. Um but I feel like sometimes like it like it takes a lot out of you, like if I'm gonna be honest. And that's a responsibility that sometimes can feel very daunting. And sometimes like I try to like it's like I guess like part of what I'm like what I was talking about earlier, like where does where does and where can politics lie in my work again in a way that feels responsible, in a way that feels intentional, in a way that feels genuine, in a way that feels authentic. Because like I would like my art to serve a purpose, especially like in this time I feel like artists are so important. Art has really changed and informed so many movements. Like the Black Power movement coincided with the Black Arts movement. You had like you had um like Bob Marley's like music um really like influence a generation. You had music, you had decisions like in South America, make music that was like revolutionary because there was a large like illiteracy rate, and it was a way that people in like rural areas could understand and like get revolutionized and like protest what was going on. So I feel like we shouldn't diminish the impact that we have as artists. Um and I feel like you you gotta figure out like how you wanna show up, even if it's not in your work, like how are you showing up in your day-to-day?

Bill Bartholomew 16:46

What an inspiring answer. That may be one of the best answers that I've heard to that question ever. And I mean that because it's just uh yeah, it's a it's extremely discouraging. You know what I mean? It's an extremely discouraging moment. And that's not from a self-loathing or a performative place. It just is. And I think anytime that gets like glossed over of like we're not, oh yeah, well, we're not really in the end stages of capitalism, you know, when that just gets pushed aside. Oh, well, we're not oh well, you know, South Providence, Washington Park, it's not it's basically a sacrifice zone, an environmental sacrifice zone, you know. But the tepid movement of the political slash uh uh uh economic engines of of reality make it so art is a space, perhaps the space to to bring attention to this stuff. But at the same time, it is also very important to protect the art and the artist from becoming uh pure politics. So it's very difficult. I thought you navigated that that answer was just like that's it. Thank you for that. Awesome. All right, well, Waterfire doing great work. It's not just Waterfire um downtown. Not that that is not worth your time as well, but I would recommend getting out to this exhibition. I'll be there. Pamela, thanks so much for your time today. Thank you so much, Go.