In this photo taken on Jan. 20, 2010, yachtsman and graphic designer Will Sofrin displays a drawing in his workshop at the Newport Shipyard, in Newport, R.I. Sofrin is using records owned by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology to create prints in 2010 of two dozen of Nathanael Greene Herreshoff's most heralded yacht designs. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
NEWPORT, R.I. – Eric Tucker, of the Associated Press’ Providence bureau, has a good write up on local designer and licensed captain Will Sofrin, who has begun to create construction plans for two dozen of Nathanael Greene Herreshoff’s most heralded yacht designs, including a few that were commissioned for the America’s Cup.
As Tucker explains, “Sofrin is deciphering tables of boat measurements left with a museum at MIT, which Herreshoff attended, and using the numbers to create mathematically accurate ink drawings, including of seven yachts designed specifically for the America’s Cup.”
But some, including Herreshoff’s grandson, are objecting to the effort.
Halsey Herreshoff, a Bristol resident and the president of the Herreshoff Marine Museum and America’s Cup Hall of Fame Museum, fears that the plans could lead to replicas being produced and passed off as sanctioned Herreshoff designs, the rights to which are highly coveted and rarely approved.
For their part, Sofrin and MIT say that such concerns are unfounded.
Sofrin plans on creating 100 signed and numbers prints of each of the 24 yacht designs. Prints of the America’s Cup designs will sell for $2,300 a piece.
Plenty more here.
If you have a phone, you can keep up to date with the latest from NN via Facebook and Twitter.
NEWPORT, R.I. – For a brief spell on Saturday night, what police described as a small underground explosion knocked out power to much of the city’s Historic Hill neighborhood. The outage, which took place shortly after 6 p.m. was over by roughly 7:26 p.m. and was more of an inconvenience than anything else.
Residences that were affected were isolated to an area above Spring Street and between Touro Street and Memorial Boulevard. Several businesses along upper Thames also reported a brief power surge which caused them to have to reset their cash registers and television sets, but overall business went on as normal for the downtown area.
Why is this important? Well, if you’re like many of our readers, you keep up with us over Facebook and Twitter. And, if you have a smart phone like a Blackberry, Droid, or iPhone, you would have known about the blackout, what areas were affected, and also, which areas weren’t – proving that even when in the dark, the flow of information doesn’t need to stop.
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AI Youth kicked off their first meeting on Friday. (Photo via Facebook by Suzanne Escobar Bang Kane)
NEWPORT, R.I. – A menagerie youth groups from multiple churches across Aquidneck Island will come together Friday nights for a new program entitled AI Youth (Aquidneck Island Youth).
The program, which kicked off on Friday evening at Evangelical Friends Church in Middletown, invites junior high through high school students to enjoy games, skits, a live youth band and a message. “We will be coming together once a month to gather all students of the faith in Christ, to provide a platform for relationships, growth and unity overall in the family of God,” says Ed Pichette, Youth Pastor at EFC Newport.
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MIDDLETOWN, R.I. – Two teenagers are being charged with armed robbery after allegedly holding up the Domino’s Pizza parlor on West Main Road at One Mile Corner.
Middletown Police Department responded to Domino’s Pizza, located at 19 West Main Road, for an armed robbery just after 1 a.m. Monday morning. Domino’s employees stated that two males wearing all dark clothing and ski masks entered the business with a firearm. The suspects left on foot with no direction of travel mentioned with an unknown amount of money.
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Ann L. Daum's portrait of a migrant blueberry picker took Best in Show at the Newport Annual.
NEWPORT, R.I. – Ann L. Daum’s oil painting Portrait of Migrant Blueberry Harvester has won the two top prizes in the Newport Annual Members’ Juried Exhibition, which opened on February 6 and runs through May 23 at the Newport Art Museum.
Guest Juror Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, Curator of The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, selected Daum’s painting for Best-in-Show and Newport Art Museum Curator Nancy Whipple Grinnell awarded the Newport Art Museum Award. Executive Director Lisa Goddard and Grinnell announced award winners in multiple categories during a reception at the Museum on Friday evening, February 5.
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Rep. Peter Martin has been appointed to the House Committee on Small Business
STATE HOUSE – Rep. Peter F. Martin (D-Newport) has been appointed to the House Committee on Small Business for the 2010 legislative session.
The appointment was announced this week by Speaker of the House William J. Murphy.
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NEWPORT, R.I. –It has become one of the city’s largest public infrastructure projects in decades; required by federal mandate and a centerpiece of the city’s desire to improve its public reputation.
And while it’s a top priority for the Department of Utilities, oversight of the project is beyond the scope of the city’s limited staff. And so, on Wednesday, Feb. 10, City Council members will be asked to approve a $4.3 million contract for professional services to engineering firm CH2M Hill of Boston, Mass., to oversee the implementation of the city’s long term combined sewer overflow (CSO) plan.
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Photo by Tom Shevlin
NEWPORT, R.I. – Whether you’re looking for a place to watch the big game, or a night out on the town to do some good, there’s plenty of ways to fill your calendar this weekend.
Here now, our Best Bets:
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NEWPORT, R.I. – Results of the fall 2009 New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) tests in reading, mathematics, and writing were released Wednesday, and the results were mixed for Aquidneck Island schools.
According to the Department of Education, while Newport saw gains in its reading comprehension, scores declined slightly on the math side, and overall scores still lag behind the statewide average in both categories.
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Attorney General Patrick Lynch testifies before the first hearing of a special Senate Task Force on LNG.
STATE HOUSE – Picture Jamestown Harbor shut down; the Pell Bridge cleared of vehicular traffic; and armed security forces shutting down three-mile swaths of Narragansett Bay without warning. Now picture that happening twice a week, and you get a sense of what brought Attorney General Patrick Lynch to testify before the first hearing of a special Senate LNG Task Force on Tuesday.
“Just stand at Ocean Cliff and look out at Jamestown,” Lynch told task force members on Tuesday, and imagine the entire East Passage in a virtual lockdown.
That would be the case dozens of times every year should a proposal by Weaver’s Cove Energy LLC to construct a liquefied natural gas terminal in the middle of Mount Hope Bay receive federal approval. [click to continue…]
Puma's il mostro takes off from Narragansett Bay prior to setting sail in the 2009 Volvo Ocean Race. (Photo by Tom Shevlin)
NEWPORT, R.I. – It’s down to two. Bidding for the 2011-12 installment of the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) has reached its final stage – with Newport left competing only against Miami for rights to the sole North American stopover of this epic round-the-world sailing competition.
In a posting on popular boating Web site RIYachting.com, Sail Newport Executive Director Brad Read said reported that Friday, Jan. 29 was the deadline for ports interested in hosting a stopover of the VOR to send a signed “Host Port Contract” to Volvo Event Management.
The Host Port Contract details the commitments expected of a host city, and does not secure a stopover. But it does get you closer to achieving that end.
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The old Sakonnet River Bridge is being replaced. Could tolls be on the way too?
STATE HOUSE – Seeking to close a more than $350 million budget gap, Governor Donald C. Carcieri yesterday unveiled plans to install tolls on the new Sakonnet Bridge as part of his FY 2011 budget.
The sure to be controversial plan would mimic the toll structure on the Pell Bridge, charging motorists $4 each way or 83 cents for Rhode Island residents with an EZ Pass account. Ownership of the bridge would also be transferred to the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority (RITBA), which currently owns and operates the Pell and Mount Hope Bridges.
Under the plan, RITBA would buy the the yet-to-be-completed span for $164 million, paid for through a revenue sharing agreement in which 70 percent of toll collections would be directed to the state over an estimated 20-year period.
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The 33rd America's Cup is set to begin Feb. 8.
NEWPORT, R.I. – Finally, it’s time to race. The 33rd running of the America’s Cup is set to begin next week off Valencia, Spain. But with over two years of legal wrangling between syndicates carrying on through the best of three series, it’s unclear whether anything will be resolved after the Auld Mug is hoisted.
That’s right, the legal manueverings that have thrown the cup into disarray over the past two years, will, fittingly continue straight through the competition. On Monday, a New York State Superior Court judge said that she wouldn’t have time to rule on the latest challenge between Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi team and challenger Larry Ellison, owner of the BMW Oracle trimaran.
That means, no matter the outcome of the races, the Cup may ultimately be decided in a court room.
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Newport, RI
Commentary: Cutting Off Your Arts to Spite Your Face
by John Pantalone on February 6, 2010 · 3 comments
Here we go again… Rhode Island is broke, so how do we stem the tide? Cut spending for the arts.
Good grief. In the grand context of the state’s budget troubles, support for the R.I. State Council on the Arts seems like small potatoes. This week Gov. Carcieri submitted his budget to the General Assembly and with it a 58 percent cut in funding for the arts council, which funnels money to non-profit arts organizations throughout the state.
Why do we have to go through this every year? Even in some years when the state has been flush, political leaders have tried to reduce spending for the arts. When you consider that most school systems have stripped arts related programs to the bone, it makes you wonder how any kid attending public schools will ever be inspired to embrace art, music, dance or theatre as essential to their quality of life.
Beyond philosophy, cutting the meager amount spent by the state on the arts makes no practical sense. It isn’t going to have any impact on the state’s deficit, nor will it help re-direct the negative economic trends that have catapulted the deficit into the relative stratosphere. In the long run, a cut of this magnitude in the Arts Council’s budget will cost the state jobs, not to mention part of its cultural fabric.
According to R.I. Citizens for the Arts, a non-profit advocacy group that is leading the charge against the proposed budget reduction, every dollar invested by the state through the Arts Council generates $21.55 in funds from other sources (mostly matching grants from foundations and other donors). Even more to the point, arts activities in Rhode Island generate millions of dollars for businesses throughout the state.
Citizens for the Arts claims that in Providence alone non-profit arts and cultural organizations generate over $111 million in economic activity for hotels, restaurants, shops and others. They say that the state has more than 2,000 businesses that are directly or indirectly involved in creative industries, and these businesses employ nearly 12,000 people.
Can Rhode Island afford to lose half of those 12,000 jobs? Why would you cut arts and cultural investment when that sector of the economy has grown while others have shrunk? It makes no sense, especially when you consider how small the investment is compared to the overall size of the state budget.
Every community stands to lose in this scenario, especially Newport, where cultural tourism forms one of the foundations for the city’s economy.
Anyone who is concerned about the proposed cut in arts and cultural funding should make themselves known to legislators and state leaders. Fixing Rhode Island’s fiscal problems isn’t a simple task, but chipping away at good investments like arts and culture shouldn’t be part of the solution. There are much bigger fish to fry, and some of them take far more from the state than they contribute.
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