Join Our Collectors Tour With Celebrity Guide Dolores Rovnack

DOLORES ROVNACK

is a patron of the arts in its many forms. While she hails from the corporate milieu of Los Angeles, her interests shifted to arts and culture when she relocated to Providence nearly two decades ago to further her education at Brown University. She began her passion of collecting works of local artists at the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts, of which she focused upon California coastal scenes in watercolors. Preferring unique characteristics inherent to handmade goods, she spent several years acquiring African basketry; South American and Southeast Asian pottery; Persian and Tibetan hand-knotted rugs; antique Chinese and Japanese furnishings; and, Central Asian tribal textiles. On one occasion she visited The Peaceable Kingdom on Ives and was delighted to find exquisite ethnic tribal textiles to add to her growing collection. She stumbled upon a little boutique shop on Wickenden well over a decade ago and began collecting stunning ceramic pieces from Dwo Wen Chen of Three Wheel Studio and continues to do so to this day. Her special love for art glass led her to Chris Belleau of Gallery Belleau, from whom she had collected quite a number of pieces with an eye on additional future acquisitions including custom orders.

With a corporate background in procurement at a Fortune 100 company coupled with art acquisition spanning over twenty years, Dolores has a keen eye with tremendous appreciation, and, is quite knowledgeable in purchasing the unique, creative, top-tiered quality work handcrafted by local artisans. More importantly, Dolores states:

In the realm of acquiring art, I made the surprising discovery that the most accessible, friendly, gifted, knowledgeable, and, humble artisans are right here in Providence.  These people create art out of their love for their craft. They continue to grow as artists, explore outside their comfort zones, and, expand their range of offerings. These artisans use top-quality materials, hand-craft every single piece one-by-one – which makes each piece unique unto itself. While there are similar pieces, they are not identical. These are not your mass-produced products using materials of unknown origin. These are top-shelf artisan-produced goods made of the best materials available on the market today. Often time, the artist produces many pieces before choosing the best-of-the-best to offer to their clientele. They represent their own work, stand behind it, and, typically make little profit, if any, as they need to cover their operating expenses while supporting themselves. For many, it is not unusual for these highly creative folks to simply break even, if that. Aside from my personal passion for their artisanal goods, I choose to support Rhode Island local artists to help ensure they continue their awesome crafts, their survival in the market place, and, to grow my collection to even greater heights.