Is there anything better than July in the garden? It may depend on who you ask, but for me it doesn’t get any better than this. After several summers of hot and dry weather, we now find ourselves fully immersed in a truly hazy, hot and humid summer. After a decade of tending gardens in San Francisco’s dry, Mediterranean climate, I became quite accustomed to managing landscapes with limited access to water. This skill came in handy when I moved back to the drought-laden East Coast in 2019 and the subsequent summers that followed. This summer of humidity, rain and dramatic thunderstorms evokes nostalgia for the idyllic Rhode Island climate of my youth.
For those of you unable to visit Rough Point this summer, allow me to share some reflections from the garden thus far. The first of the roses began to make an appearance on June 20th this year; a few days earlier than previous years. Although the grass and the gardens have benefited from the rain and humidity, the roses have made their sentiments known. Humidity and large amounts of rain can create a challenge for roses to stave off powdery mildew, black spot and rotten blooms. With nothing but pure synchronicity to blame, I had spent this past winter doing a great deal of research on how to effectively grow healthy and resilient roses using only organic methods. Going into the spring, I created a rose maintenance plan to assure they could thrive despite what Mother Nature threw at us. I was pleased with the blooms this year, and look forward to continuing to improve the health of the roses over time.
The restoration of the East Garden at Rough Point has evolved into a labor of love for me this season. Over a period of time, the garden had fallen victim to hungry rabbits and a number of underperforming plants. Starting last fall, I began working to create a bountiful collection of plants that would thrive in the space for years to come. For those of you who may need a refresher, the East Garden lies in the Northeast corner of the formal gardens. With kempt boxwoods providing symmetrical structure to the beds, my vision has been to create a naturalistic and eclectic collection of perennials that would be historically representative of Rough Point’s heyday. Reminiscent of traditional English country gardens, the formal structure is a lovely juxtaposition to the whimsical grasses, bee balm, and Russian sage that now inhabit the garden.
Did I mention how I feel about rabbits? This winter, I kept busy by installing rabbit fencing around the dahlia/annual flower garden. Feeling like I had achieved victory against these adorable yet destructive critters, I was bewildered when I witnessed a rabbit effortlessly squeeze through a corner of the fence. Armed with nothing but Yankee ingenuity, I was finally able to outsmart these furry residents of Rough Point by creating a barrier that rivals the security of Fort Knox.
On the subject of dahlias, it’s been a delight to see new additions to our tuber collection come to life this year. We have a number of aptly named ‘Doris Duke’ dahlias in the garden right now, which are always show stoppers. Be on the lookout for ‘Black Narcissus’ and ‘Cafe au Lait’ next time you visit, as they are just beginning to bloom. Annual flowers surround the dahlias this year bringing subtle hints of purples, yellows and blues creating a playful backdrop for the real stars, the dahlias.
With the arrival of August in a few weeks, I will be starting to prepare the garden for the bittersweet interlude to the autumn season. Please come take a look around, say hello and share highlights from your own garden adventures this summer!
Rough Point Museum is open—including the Grounds and Gardens—Tuesdays-Sundays from 10:00AM until 5:00 PM. Plan your visit at newportrestoration.org/roughpoint. For more garden-related content, follow us @nptrestoration and you can follow Ainsley @ains_bot
NRF President Frankie Vagnone sat down with Newport This Week to discuss the opening of “GAMES, GAMBLERS & CARTOMANCERS: The New Cardsharps” at the Vernon House, the founding of NRF, and the future of the organization’s work in Newport.
Art&Newport and the Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF) are pleased to announce the opening of a contemporary art exhibit at 46 Clarke Street, otherwise known as “The Vernon House.” The exhibition is titled “GAMES, GAMBLERS & CARTOMANCERS: The New Cardsharps,” and features the work of seventeen artists who have revisited the storied art historical trope of card play. The free exhibition is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from July 1 to October 1, 2023.
The exhibition, curated by Dodie Kazanjian and Alison M. Gingeras, uses Newport’s historical and contemporary card-playing customs as the basis to explore wide-ranging interpretations of cards and their associated cultures throughout history. Card games have been a mainstay of cultures around the world for centuries, a rich, global history that is reflected in the breadth of work in the exhibition.
Each of the artists in GAMES, GAMBLERS, & CARTOMANCERS has created work that engages with the iconography, mythologies, and practices of card play. The artists featured in the exhibition are Tina Barney, Cecily Brown,Francesco Clemente, Elizabeth Colomba, John Currin, Austin Eddy, Hadi Falapishi, Shara Hughes, Rashid Johnson, Sanya Kantarovsky, Karen Kilimnik, Sean Landers, Tala Madani, Rob Pruitt, Walter Robinson, Katja Seib, Katie Stout.
The venue for the exhibition, 46 Clarke Street (otherwise known as “The Vernon House”), is apt for an exhibition reflecting a complex and layered history. The Vernon House has housed generations of Newporters, and it has been witness to the evolution of Newport—from a thriving port-city reliant on the trans-Atlantic trade, to a depressed former economic-center, to the site of urban renewal projects and historic preservation efforts, to the modern, vibrant city today.
Colonization is present in the very fabric of the building and is a thread connecting the Vernon House to a wider conversation about the impact of colonization and globalization (both past and present). Many of the works in the exhibition engage with these same issues, as the evolution of card playing is tied into the history of colonization and cross-cultural exchange.
This is the first time The Vernon House will be open to the public following a multi-year project researching, investigating, and documenting the historic structure and the stories of the people who lived and worked in the house.
“The opening of the Vernon House, for this contemporary art exhibit, is really the first outward step, and a sign of the future, for the Newport Restoration Foundation,” said NRF President Frankie Vagnone. “Our strategic goal is to make NRF a deeply community based cultural organization that is open to a wide variety of voices and interpretation. For this reason, we’re not considering Vernon House as a traditional historic house museum, but rather a place for dialogue, education, and investigations into contemporary storytelling.”
Tickets for the free exhibition are available at www.newportrestoration.org/tickets/
About Art&Newport:
Art&Newport is a nonprofit that aims to develop and host a series of city-wide visual arts presentations in Newport, Rhode Island. The goal is to put Newport, with its unique institutions and natural riches, on the map as a place to learn about and share the ideas and visions that only art and artists can provide.
Art&Newport will build on and further establish our town’s reputation as a leading cultural destination.
Newport, RI— The annual Doris Duke Preservation Awards, a joint program of the Newport Restoration Foundation and the City of Newport, encourages excellence in historic preservation by recognizing exemplary preservation, restoration, and rehabilitation projects as well as education and advocacy initiatives that have taken place throughout Newport County. This year’s awards also seek to highlight innovative approaches to preservation, including new technologies, materials/products, excellence in practice, creative adaptive reuse, climate change adaptations, and similar progressive concepts.
Newport Restoration Foundation and the City are calling upon the local community to nominate innovative and best practice preservation projects completed within the last three years that have added value to the character of the community. The winners will be acknowledged at an awards event on Friday, September 8, 2023 (details of the event pending). Please see below for award criteria and how to submit a nomination. The deadline for nominations is July 17, 2023.
Award Criteria
Eligible recipients are individuals; non-profit or for-profit organizations; and federal, state, or local agencies.
A wide variety of nominations of varying project budgets are encouraged, from small buildings to large; major rehabilitations to minor restorations; landscapes or streetscapes; new technologies and materials; individual or company-level excellence in practice; and education or advocacy initiatives. Particular attention will be paid to projects that include the following criteria:
Adaptive reuse
Multi-family, affordable housing building adaptation
Resiliency and energy efficiency
Company, firm, or individual exemplifying preservation practice
New or emerging preservation technologies, materials, and/or products compliant in historic applications
All work related to the project or initiative must have been completed within the last three (3) years.
Nominations are welcome from Newport County (Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth, Jamestown, Tiverton, Little Compton).
Properties that are currently (or anticipated to be) listed for sale will not be considered.
One of our ongoing projects is to discover more about the people who lived, worked, and worshiped in NRF Preservation Properties like 46 Clarke Street—many of whom were enslaved women, men, and children.
While we do not have an illustrated likeness of Cato, he left behind a written record which helps reveal his lived experience.
[Exterior of 46 Clarke Street, 1933]
Cato Vernon (who also sometimes went by Cato Varnum) was an African-heritage man born in Newport around the year 1759. He was a skilled carpenter. Cato joined the 1st Rhode Island Regiment in 1778, which meant that he was manumitted and was “absolutely free” from enslavement through this military service. He served for five years and was granted a badge of distinction for “bravery, fidelity, and good conduct.”
After the war, like many of those who served in his regiment, he was owed back-pay from the military and he also never received a military pension. In 1793, he was imprisoned in the Newport gaol for his debts and he dictated a letter to William Vernon, his former enslaver, asking for debt relief.
Cato Vernon disappears from the known historical record sometime around 1798.
There is certainly more to discover about Cato’s remarkable life and legacy—not only his service in the Continental Army but also his shaping of the city of Newport through his carpentry work.
For more information about the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, visit BlackPast.Org
Image credit:
Ancestry.com. U.S., Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Microfilm Publication M246, 138 rolls; NAID: 602384; War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records, Record Group 93; The National Archives in Washington, D.C.
KHAW® was founded in 2016 by NRF to foster a national conversation focused on the increasing and varied risks posed by sea level rise to historic coastal communities. KHAW programs, conferences, and workshops focus on protecting historic buildings, landscapes, and neighborhoods from the increasing threat of inundation.
As one of the oldest port cities in the nation, Portsmouth has faced sea-borne challenges from the start. As its most historic neighborhoods and treasures find themselves increasingly threatened by sea level rise, more frequent flooding, and groundwater infiltration, the City, UNH, and Strawbery Banke Museum, a living history museum at the heart of that neighborhood – and at the lowest point in the city – are working together to collect data and test solutions.
KHAW: Portsmouth is designed to showcase the latest flood and climate data, discuss strategies and identify best practices, and bring new information to the dialogues on the impacts of sea level rise, recurrent flooding and climate change on historic resources begun at previous conferences. We seek to foster the discussion of how communities can adapt research data into actionable solutions and anticipate attracting presenters and attendees especially from the New England states.
Preservationists, public historians, museum professionals, archaeologists, planners, floodplain managers, engineers, architects, landscape architects, artists, conservationists, environmental justice advocates, government officials, property owners, resilience officers and other stakeholders are invited to submit session proposals.
Sessions may be individual presentations, panel discussions, or workshops, and will generally be scheduled to last 30 or 60 minutes. Please indicate in your proposal the length of your session.
We welcome proposals related to the theme “Water Has a Memory: Preserving Historic Port Cities from Sea Level Rise.” We specifically encourage sessions that:
Highlight adaptation, mitigation, and resilience strategies currently being employed to protect historic resources around New England
Showcase projects that encourage public outreach/education and/or attempt to effect positive change in the greater community
Discuss municipal concerns and processes for engaging stakeholders: residents, businesses, nonprofits and City government
Offer models for collaborative, “real world” solutions
Provide insights on resources and best management practices that foster affordable and equitable answers to sea level rise impacts on private and public assets.
