newport public art

2020 Artist award recipient

Newport, RI
nptpublicart.org

artists’ bio

For most of her life, Newport Public Art (NPA) founder and President Kristen Dupuis has lived and worked in the Broadway area of Newport, Rhode Island, and has always retained an active and productive role within her community. 

Dupuis graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, returned to Newport and opened her own clothing store on Broadway (where she additionally designed and created custom wedding dresses). Retreating from retail following 9/11/01 to spend more time with her infant son, she continued to contribute to the town’s creative community through the organization and execution of two fashion shows to benefit a local nonprofit.

Between her retail experience on Broadway, and a decade working at popular restaurant Salvation Café, Dupuis clearly knew the Broadway district’s potential, and with her husband purchased and refurbished a derelict laundromat adjacent to the thoroughfare. This provided the perfect blank brick wall canvas to organize and execute (along with students from the East Bay MET school) a public mural project. 

Motivated by the #GoVote art campaign, and aware that young people statistically have the lowest poll turnout during non-presidential elections, one month in advance of the 2018 midterm elections Dupuis coordinated a large scale stencil art mural with the students. The success of this project and the broad range of contributors pointed to the potential for future, similar projects, and so the NPA was founded in the early months of 2019.

about the project

Newport Public Art will create two murals in Newport painted by local artists.