LA PLAZA DEL ARTE Y LAS CULTURAS

Photo: Richard McCaffrey

It’s 140 feet long and 22 feet high, a mural dominated by the face of a sleeping woman who is dreaming a sweeping vista that pulls together streets and cityscapes, bay and bridges, even a gla-cier and the Amazon River, in an imaginative visualization. It brings together ecological concern and community awareness. Unveiled last September during Hispanic Heritage Month, it’s titled “LA PLAZA DEL ARTE Y LAS CULTURAS” (“The Plaza of Art and Culture”) and stretches down the heart of South Providence, emblazoned on the side of the Compare Foods Super-market. Things started out shaky with local graffiti writers, but once Providence artist Agustín Patiño got them to understand his intentions, they were no longer a threat. Patiño has painted public murals in Chile, Ecuador, and elsewhere in the US, but this is his first work in the city. | Broad and Ontario streets, Providence