In Bannister's Footsteps

Bristol Art Museum Presents

In Bannister’s Footsteps

Exhibition, Speakers and Video Viewing

Exhibition and screening of a 9-minute video that documents the Bannister Community Art Project and highlights the vast accomplishments of this relatively unknown artist, followed by speakers and a lively audience conversation.

Reception and Viewing - Saturday, February 7, 2026 - 2:00-3:30 PM

Additional Viewing Hours: Feb 5 and 6, 1:00-4:00pm

Admission $10 for Bristol Art Museum members and $15 for general admission.

Guest Speakers: Theresa Guzmán Stokes, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society and Gage M. Prentiss, Sculptor

Facilitator: Dr. Victoria Gao, Director of the Bannister Gallery and Adjunct Professor at Rhode Island College.

Participating Artists: Darrel Perkins, ponnapa prakkamakul, and Michael Talbot.

Theresa Gusmán Stokes is a writer, historian, U.S. Navy veteran, and cultural preservation leader whose work centers African Heritage, Latin American, and diasporic histories. She is President and Founder of 1696 Heritage Group and founder of Historical Writers of America. Stokes serves as Executive Director of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society, the oldest African Heritage organization in the United States, where she leads efforts to preserve and embed African and Indigenous histories across Rhode Island’s cultural and educational landscape. A resident of Newport, Rhode Island, she is a community advocate, mother of four, and nationally recognized voice in public history and storytelling.

Gage M. Prentiss is a visual artist living and working in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He has a BFA in Sculpture from Boston University (1999). His sculptures invite a sense of presence, story, and wonder. Loosely representational and figurative, Gage has worked in welded steel, resin, concrete, and bronze. Gage’s oil paintings sway from the Barbizon to the Impressionist. Presence of place is most important in his works, landscapes, liminal nature, architecture, and light finding its way through shadow. Gage works primarily through private commissions, but has begun to explore public art.

Victoria Gao has served as the Director of the Bannister Gallery and Exhibitions at Rhode Island College (RIC) since 2018. She was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Chinese immigrant parents and grew up outside of Atlanta, Georgia. She received her PhD and MA in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester and her BA in Physics and in Art History from Cornell University. Victoria has had a longstanding interest in curating and in art exhibition spaces and previously interned at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In addition to managing the Bannister Art Gallery, Victoria also oversees the RIC Permanent Artwork Collection, chairs the RIC Committee on Public Art, and adjunct teaches art history courses.

Light refreshments will be served.

* Sponsored by Annie Castelnovo McMullen in memory of her mother, Providence Art Club artist, Mary Castelnovo.

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