Interview conducted between Arley Rose, Morgan Calderini and Myself. Interview focused on Arley’s role at AS220.

Arley Rose
Working at AS220 for 4 years
Morgan Calderini
Working at AS220 for 2 years

What do you do?
Arley is the core to anything relating to design at AS220, she teaches classes at Broad Street Studios, and runs a program called, “Design Providence”. Design Providence is a “cottage industry”. “A cottage industry is an earned income program including education, resources, and space with artist of a particular craft or media” -Arley Rose Arley was first involved in AS220 as a “communication director”. Arley found working in her office, that people were always coming in with their laptops to work in her company. The office she worked in was not equip with space for this type of use. From this experience Arley came up with the idea of Design Providence. Design Providence is in a start up phase, currently it is a space for designers to go and work. Freelance workers who would normally work from home offices now have a space to communicate and have a fellow design community. As the programs becomes more established and needed, it will run on a membership fee base, and possibly relocate to a recently acquired building by AS220; the Mercantile block.
What space did you make?
Arley moved her office located in AS220’s main building to AS220’s Dryfus Building. She moved into a room coined the “archive room”, because of its use as a storage room. The new location made Arley’s Design Providence more accessible to an existing artist community at the Dryfus. Design Providence gained a “public element”. Arley made a space that offers new networking connections for designers. In a comparison to RISD, Morgan added that Design Providence will work to overlap departments, so each feels connected to each other, a problem she encountered at her education at RISD. The program offers artist who may have no technical skills in design, an opportunity to take a class, and/or have direct contact with graphic designers in the same building. Why is this important to you?
This question can not be answered fully in an afternoon. Arley loves her job. She benefits from a creative community is many ways. She feels no need to attend further schooling because she is learning everyday from her job. She gets to do what she loves, without having to work for something she does not believe in. Her job is meaningful and has purpose. Design Providence makes design accessible to communities who do not have funds to hire designers for work. She is connected to people who share her interests and beliefs. She is doing well for her community. She also gets to “work with her honey“(That’s Morgan)
How is this space appropriated?
The space is part of the larger structure; AS220. AS220 has purchased a few buildings where it uses the space to rent at market price to businesses and offer lower rents for artists and non-profits. Design Providence is located in the Dryfus building. Dryfus Building is home to Local 122 restaurant and bar, studios and artist live spaces. The new building that Design Providence will be moving to is the Mercantile Block. The building will keep Wheels Bar and the locksmith on the first floor. The print shop, darkrooms, fab lab, and music studios will be relocated to Mercantile. Along with studio departments AS220 will be renting space to Rhode Island council for the humanities. In the new location Design Providence will be connected with double doors to the print shop, Photoshop, and fab lab. The set up of the building is to encourage each section and group to work with one another.