186 Carpenter Offers Community Art

Jori Ketten of 186 Carpenter

Brad Smith

Tucked into the quiet corner of Battey Street and Carpenter Street sits a bright red storefront with tall windows and no identifying signage. It’s called 186 Carpenter and at first glance, it looks like a gallery – lots of floor space, soft lighting and art on the walls. But a closer peek reveals it’s more than that.

Jori Ketten founded 186 Carpenter in 2011 with a friend while on the hunt for a new co-working space. Upon seeing the building Jori was smitten. The interior, which formerly housed a deli, had been completely gutted due to a fire. But something about the space called out to her.

“I’m not always able to see past the way something looks to see the [final] vision,” she says. “For whatever reason in this space, it just clicked.”

At first, 186 Carpenter was primarily a co-working office that held an occasional gallery show. Slowly, it grew. “We didn’t quite know what we were doing,” Jori says. “But we fell into a pattern of curating shows.”

Jori now solely runs the space and curates all the shows. Currently, local artist Beth Brandon’s February: A Hex is on display. It’s an interactive installment in which attendees can watch a horror movie while working out on a NordicTrack, build a small hut or eat a tablecloth made out of a giant pancake, depending on the day.

But art shows aren’t the only form of programming here. It’s also home to Girls Rock Rhode Island and the Frequency Writing Workshop – nonprofits that hold classes, performances and readings. In addition, Rhode Island’s Resources for Human Development, an organization that provides artistic resources to developmentally disabled adults regularly stops by, using the front room as both a studio and gallery. Jori also hosts musical performances and film screenings, poetry readings, a Tuesday night chess club and a CSA pick-up May through December.

Jori doesn’t take a salary, and doesn’t plan on it. That’s important to her, and central to 186 Carpenter’s mission. She says it was never about the money and was simply meant to be a welcoming space to engage the community, free of any alternative agenda. “It would be so cool if every corner had one of these spaces and they weren’t part of some master business plan.”

So, stop in. See art. Play chess. Grab some fresh vegetables. And maybe eat a pancake tablecloth.