Masters of the Craft: Gallery of Memory Photo Exhibit Feb 6 2013

Claire Andrade-Watkins: Producer/Director(©2013, 7 min)

Documentary short of the opening of the exhibit, Wednesday, February 6, 2013, at the Gallery at City Hall for The "Masters of the Craft: Gallery of Memory" photo exhibition presented by City of Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and the Department of Art, Culture + Tourism. The exhibition commemorates the 80th anniversary of the founding of Local 1329 of the I.L.A.(International Longshoremen's Association) in Providence, Rhode Island, the first labor union in New England organized predominantly by Cape Verdeans. The formal portraits feature members of Local 1329 longshoremen, their families and descendants interviewed for "Working the Boats: Masters of the Craft" a documentary about Local 1329 by Fox Point native, filmmaker/historian Claire Andrade-Watkins, President/founder of SPIA Media Productions, Inc. The portraits in the exhibit were photographed by acclaimed photographer/filmmaker Liane Brandon.

"Masters of the Craft" refers to the men who were in charge of the gangs that loaded and unloaded cargo in the Port of Providence and vicinity. It was a job that demanded great skill, and it was a major mark of distinction to rise through the ranks and become a "walking foreman", or "Master of the Craft." Local 1329 was the "table that fed the community." It was a way of life, not a job, and the economic lifeline for the Cape Verdean community that once lived in the Fox Point section of Providence.
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The photo exhibit is part of the Fox Point Cape Verdean Project(FPCVP), an independent, community based research initiative launched in 2007 by Dr. Andrade-Watkins that is dedicated to preserving and documenting the history of the Cape Verdean community in Fox Point.

The photographs were first presented as part of "Whose History is it? Interpreting History, Memory and Culture," a series of panels, films, public events, music, dramatic performances, and non-linear digital installations held in May 2010 at various venues at Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design and the City of Providence. The conference was funded in part by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, including the prints that were custom made and installed as part of a gallery exhibit and non-linear installation.

New prints made for the Gallery at City Hall exhibit were made possible through a mini-grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.
The goal of both the documentary and photo exhibit is to create a sustainable legacy about the Cape Verdean community in Fox Point and their contributions to the history and patrimony of the State of Rhode Island.