Mission Statement
The What Cheer Art Company is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing support for Rhode Island artists, helping them bring their projects to fruition with production advice and financial assistance. Since its founding in 1994, the What Cheer Art Company has been involved in producing and presenting a wide variety of performing arts events in Rhode Island.
We actively seek out situations in which Rhode Island artists need technical, financial, and moral support to create artwork and events that they would not be able to do on their own. Past projects (such as the Pan-Twilight Circus, the Providence Circus School, and now Bright Night Providence) have a lot in common-- a group of artists who are seeking to work together to create lasting projects that have significant community and societal impact.
An important aspect of our work is to build and create communities of artists, to empower them to create and fulfill their visions by working together towards a common goal.
Description
Our largest project is Bright Night Providence, an artist-run arts oriented New Year's Eve Celebration that has become Rhode Island's largest New Year's Eve Party.
Bright Night began in 2003 when First Night Providence, a festival that had been going on for 19 years, announced that they were unable to continue due to financial reasons. A group of Rhode Island artists, not content with this outcome, banded together to ensure that New Year's Eve would not be dark in Providence. Instead of a dark night, a bright night. Hence the name.
Our festival features over 150 performers in a number of venues downtown, fireworks display, afternoon children's activities, and some of Rhode Island's best actors, singers, dancers, musicians, storytellers, magicians, acrobats, and clowns.
We focus on creating a family-friendly festival that showcases and celebrates Rhode Island's most important culture asset--its artists.
