Celebrity Guided Tours + Events

The tours start from One Regency Plaza at 5:30 and leave every half hour until 7.

five tours offered each Gallery Night : Hop on an Art Bus at the Regency to visit contemporary art, emerging artists, artisan shops, international art, traditional/historic, or educational galleries.

Enjoy a private two-hour guided tour for FREE. The first bus leaves One Regency Plaza at 5:30, two leave at 6:00, one at 6:30, and one at 7:00.

Celebrity Guided Tours offer the public a chance to mix and mingle with people who care deeply about art. Guides run the gamut from the curators and academics who shape opinions about art to the artists whose life's work is giving form to their passion.

Take a tour and follow in the footsteps of someone who thinks a lot about art and enhance your personal point of view. Walking tours (unless noted otherwise) start from Regency Place at
6 pm and 6:30 pm and last about an hour. Tour will include stops at various galleries.

A typical Gallery Night tour might include a conversation with RISD president John Maeda or Channel 12 anchorwoman Karen Adams. Speak with Newport artist Robert Kalaidjian about the artists exhibiting at the Providence Art Club. Sip coffee with John Tessitore, Executive Editor of the Carnegie Council, New York City, on your way from one Wickenden Street gallery to the next. And if the latest trends in art mystify you, spend an evening with artist Nuam Panovsky talking about the social and political content of today's contemporary art. Whether you like traditional art on the wall or prefer a more contemporary interpretation, Gallery Night Celebrity Tours will expand your art horizons.

All in all, the Celebrity Tours are a lively and stimulating alternative to choosing your own route. Sculptor Kenn Speiser takes you on a mid-summer walk downtown, challenging you to see the artistry, accidental and intentional, vibrating in the urban landscape. Visit with Trinity Rep's artistic director Curt Columbus or managing director of Rites and Reason theatre, Karen Allen Baxter as they bring the dramatist's perspective to the distinctive artistic offerings of the city's best galleries. Listen to historian Nancy Austin as she shares her perspective on the past, present and future of the visual arts in Providence.

Join us each and every Gallery Night for thoughtful original guides and innovative exhibits. It's fun, it's inspiring and it's free!

November 17

Celebrity Guide: Frank Toti, playwright, director, and actor will be leading our very special annual shopping tour.

Frank has an MA in History from Catholic University and an MFA in Theatre Performance and Society from Rhode Island College.  He is a dramaturg, playwright, director and actor.

He has recently written and produced three plays written from oral history gathered in the community focused on the Homeless Community, Women Survivors of the Holocaust and the Rhode Island's older LGBTQ community.  Frank teaches Western Civilization, World History, Art History, and Theatre History at RIC, JWU and RWU.

Before Toti’s successful career in the theater, he was a retail whiz and the perfect choice to lead an art shopping tour!