Jamestown Arts Center

Free | All-Ages | Drop-in


In addition to our annual Kite-Making tradition, artist Angelica Vanasse will also be facilitating a Jamestown Nature Walk, zine-making, and map-making. JAC will be activated with a different nature-inspired craft activity! Kite Making will be happening in the Main Gallery for the duration of the event. 
Any families who are interested in participating in the Jamestown Nature Walk are asked to join us at JAC at 11 AM and to RSVP. Angelica will lead a family friend nature walk from 11:30 AM–12:30 PM. 
Starting at 12:30 PM, Angelica will facilitate zine-making and map-making in our studio spaces.
Families are encouraged to come at any time to join us for these drop-in style craft activities.
More on the Nature Walk, Creative Nature Zine, + Art Maps:
Come along on a creative journey with artist <a href="https://instagram.com/angelica.vanasse" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Angelica Vanasse</a> to explore springtime with our creativity. We’ll make time and space to create in harmony with nature in this creative session for all ages to make artworks big &amp; small. Participants can get immersed in what spring looks and feels like in Jamestown on an explorer walk from the arts center to the shore. We’ll see what our senses can find - colours, textures, smells, sounds and shapes. As we go we’ll gather sketches, textures and ideas to pop into mini zines together back at the art centre using colorful artistic techniques. You can also help us make a big collaborative art map that shares our explorer walk discoveries which we’ll display in the workshop at the arts centre in the afternoon.
Zines are little DIY booklets - quick and easy to make and fill with your art and ideas. You’ll learn about how to make a zine, and get to have time back in the workshop to fill it with drawings, mini paintings, collage &amp; printmaking. You can also add your artwork to our big art map that shares our creative journey and everything discovered along the way. Even if you don’t participate in the nature walk, you are encouraged to join us for the drop-in activity portions!

About the Artist:
<a href="https://instagram.com/angelica.vanasse" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Angelica Vanasse</a> is an artist with roots in New England and (old) England. She has been an artist educator for over 25 years and loves to make welcoming creative spaces for people of all ages. She works with many different artistic processes and techniques to collaborate with people, places and the living world. She creates in harmony with nature’s seasonal cycles of change &amp; growth through making artwork, gardening, seasonal food celebrations and nature connection.

Local Event: Family Day: Kite-Making + Jamestown Nature Walk

Washington County

North Kingstown

Rhode Island

Family Day: Kite-Making + Jamestown Nature Walk

Free | All-Ages | Drop-in


In addition to our annual Kite-Making tradition, artist Angelica Vanasse will also be facilitating...

Free | All-ages | All are welcomeIn celebration of Pride Month, JAC has partnered with the Providence-based Haus of Glitter to create a joyful afternoon. Pride Arts Day invites families to engage in activities that center creativity, self-expression, and community connection. 
Designed as a drop-in event, JAC will offer a range of hands-on art-making activities led by its teaching artists, alongside movement-based experiences—including yoga and dance—facilitated by Haus of Glitter. Activities include monoprinting, air-dry clay sculpture, chalk drawing, face painting, and mermaid-themed art, alongside yoga, storytelling, and a Queer Afro-Latinx dance workshop led by The Haus of Glitter. 
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ABOUT:
<a target="_blank" href="https://www.hausofglitter.org/" rel="nofollow noopener">The Haus of Glitter</a> is a RI-based dance company&nbsp;+ performance lab&nbsp;+ preservation society working, through artistic and social/cultural practice, to shift the energetic center of the universe towards care, healing, justice. and freedom. &nbsp;
How can we work together to rehearse for ancestral liberation, healing and love in every step and every breath of daily lives?

Local Event: Pride Family Day

Pride Family Day

Free | All-ages | All are welcomeIn celebration of Pride Month, JAC has partnered with the Providence-based Haus of Glitter to...

Film screening of Stonewall Uprising with performances by spoken word artistsFree and open to all | RSVP RequestedOn June 10, <a href="https://www.newportprideri.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Newport Pride</a> and Jamestown Arts Center will present Voices of Uprising: Art, Pride &amp; Protest at 250, a collaborative community event exploring the powerful intersection of art, activism, and LGBTQ+ history as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary. The evening will feature a screening of the PBS documentary Stonewall Uprising, which chronicles the pivotal events of the Stonewall Riots that ignited the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. In addition, guests will have the opportunity to view archival footage from the Rhode Island Historical Society documenting Rhode Island's first Gay Pride Parade, highlighting the state's own history of courage, protest, and community organizing.
The program will also feature local spoken word artists sharing poetry and reflections on protest, resilience, and the ongoing pursuit of equality. Through film, historical documentation, and live performance, the event will create a dynamic space for reflection on how protest and artistic expression have shaped both the LGBTQ+ movement and the broader American story. Following the formal program, community members will be invited to gather, connect, and celebrate over shared food and conversation.
This event is free and open to all.Together, Newport Pride and the Jamestown Arts Center aim to create an engaging and thought-provoking evening that honors the legacy of LGBTQ+ activism while celebrating the role of art and community in shaping a more inclusive future as the nation approaches its 250th year.

Local Event: Voices of Uprising: Art, Pride & Protest at 250 With Newport Pride

Voices of Uprising: Art, Pride & Protest at 250...

Film screening of Stonewall Uprising with performances by spoken word artistsFree and open to all | RSVP RequestedOn June 10,...

Voices of Uprising: Art, Pride & Protest at 250 With Newport Pride

A showcase of one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays with Gamm on the GoFree | RSVP requested<figure data-scrolled="" data-test="image-block-v2-outer-wrapper" data-sqsp-image-classic-block-layout="card"><div class="embed-content"></div><figcaption data-width-ratio=""><div data-sqsp-image-classic-block-content-container=""><div data-sqsp-image-classic-block-subtitle=""><div data-width-percentage="30.2"><a href="https://www.gammtheatre.org/communityprograms" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Gamm on the Go</a> will present an abridged version of William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. Enhanced by a lively post-show discussion, the showcase focuses on comprehension, performance, and artistic response to the text. Audience members will learn to engage with theatre not only as entertainment but as a medium of self-expression and civic engagement.One of Shakespeare's earliest plays and his most farcical comedies, The Comedy of Errors is full of mistaken identity, mischief and lighthearted humor. With an uplifting message about belonging, individuality and family, this play will delight audiences of any age while introducing them to Shakespeare's language and building comprehension skills.&nbsp;</div></div></div></figcaption></figure>
Separated from their twins in a shipwreck, Antipholus and his servant Dromio of Syracuse travel the world in pursuit of their lost brothers only to find themselves taking their place when they arrive in Ephesus. A series of misadventures, slapstick comedy and chance happenings bring a grief-stricken family together again for a second chance at happily ever after.&nbsp;

Local Event: The Comedy of Errors: Family, Separation, and the Search for Belonging

The Comedy of Errors: Family, Separation, and...

A showcase of one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays with Gamm on the GoFree | RSVP requestedGamm on the Go will present an...

The Comedy of Errors: Family, Separation, and the Search for Belonging

The Summer Soirée is JAC’s most anticipated event of the year and a celebration of creativity and community.
This unforgettable evening features captivating art, delicious summer fare, a lively auction, a raw bar, and most importantly, your support. Your generosity helps JAC continue to be a place where creativity thrives through art exhibitions, live music, theatre and dance performances, film screenings, and educational programs for all ages.
The Summer Soirée directly funds our scholarship program, ensuring that children, teens, and adults have access to the classes, workshops, and events that make art and education accessible to all.

Local Event: Summer Soirée

Summer Soirée

The Summer Soirée is JAC’s most anticipated event of the year and a celebration of creativity and community.
This unforgettable...

RSVP encouraged | Pay-what-you-can | Walk-ins welcomeAn evening with acclaimed writer Brad Gooch, this talk celebrates the release of his new memoir, Good Morning Moon: A Snapshot of an American Family. The book is more than a chronicle of a modern family, it is an unflinchingly honest account of Gooch’s decision to start a family later in life—an unexpected leap following decades in which such possibilities were unimaginable. Gooch movingly describes living through the AIDS crisis in New York, the loss of his first great love, and a surprise second act that includes finding love again, marrying his husband Paul and welcoming two boys through surrogacy.
Gooch writes with vulnerability about all that parenthood brings: not only joy and wonder, but also anxieties, night frights, money worries, and many universal themes that parents of children young and old will recognize. As with many parents, the arrival of children invites us to question our own mortality. Children become “living chronometers,” marking time in a way that reignites Gooch’s curiosity about his own upbringing as an only child in Pennsylvania. What he doesn’t expect to find is a mystery hidden in plain sight , one that only a DNA test can solve.
Brad Gooch&nbsp;is a poet, novelist, and biographer whose previous ten books include&nbsp;the bestselling&nbsp;Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring, winner of the 2025 Lambda Award for Biography, a&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;Book Critics Favorite Pick of the Year, and soon to be a television series from Andrew Haigh;&nbsp;Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor, which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and a&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;bestseller;&nbsp;City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara;&nbsp;Godtalk: Travels in Spiritual America; and the memoir&nbsp;Smash Cut. He is the recipient of National Endowment for the Humanities and Guggenheim fellowships, and lives in New York City.

Local Event: JAC Talk: Brad Gooch’s Memoir “Good Morning Moon”

JAC Talk: Brad Gooch’s Memoir “Good Morning Moon”

RSVP encouraged | Pay-what-you-can | Walk-ins welcomeAn evening with acclaimed writer Brad Gooch, this talk celebrates the...