Persephone Allen and Heather McPherson awarded 2026 Interlace Grants!

Congratulations to OPEN advisor Persephone Allen and future exhibiting artist Heather McPherson on being 2026 Interlace Grant Fund awardees. For those unfamiliar, Interlace supports local visual artists with grants, programming, and educational resources. Behind the scenes, Jori Ketten works incredibly hard to ensure Interlace’s mission is executed thoughtfully; beyond these awards they also offer critical emergency grants to help with utility bills, healthcare costs, eviction, and more.

Persephone Allen with Jazzmen Lee Johnson
Storefront for Works & Process

The Storefront for Works & Process (SWP) is envisioned as a multidisciplinary project space for visual art and participatory programming. With an emphasis on experimentation and process, this space will offer a valuable opportunity for local artists to lean into underexplored areas of their practice. Here & Elsewhere, the initial exhibition in Winter 2026, will bring together work by a group of local artists who live and work in Providence’s West End, catalyzing new connections, conversations, and community.

Heather McPherson
Painting as Absorption

Following feminist and anticolonial frameworks, Heather McPherson will create a series of large-scale paintings under the project Painting as Absorption. Using poured pigments on unstretched cotton, she builds initial layers outdoors, allowing the canvas to record traces of the geography. The work explores liquidity as both a material process and a metaphor for psychic indeterminacy. The project culminates in an exhibition, offering viewers a space for reflection amid contemporary conditions of overwhelm.

Bonus shout out to J.R.Uretsky for their awarded project, The Survival Compromise. While not an exhibiting OPEN artist, Ben did interview them as part of their work with Muscle Brunch. You can read that over on Myrtle’s site.