Warren sculptor Allison Newsome has made a living and a name for herself crafting works of art that demand attention. That same skill and goal has coalesced into a unique sculpture concept that is equally as captivating as it is functional, and environmentally forward-thinking — which has recently earned international recognition as a game-changing idea for public green spaces.

“One of the only really positive things to come out of Covid in my mind, is that there has been an increased focus on providing open, green spaces for people to gather,” Newsome said. “The problem is, they’re using municipal water to take care of the plants and planters that occupy these spaces. It’s taking a toll on the municipal water supply.”

Years before the pandemic, Newsome had devised a conceptual sculpture as part of an art show at Blithewold Mansion in Bristol in 2014, with sculptures meant to harness the powers of, and represent the importance of, water, wind, and solar. When she saw that none of the sculptures planned focused solely on the theme of water, she stepped in to fill the gap.

“So I made three structures to harvest rainwater, with hoses attached for watering plants,” she said. The structures were such a hit that the Bristol Garden Club commissioned her to create a larger version for one of their public gardens at Thomas Park.

The prototypical structures were fragile, however, and not meant to withstand time or damage. So she reached out to Julie Blount, a longtime friend, fellow artist, and owner of the revered Blount Boats in Warren, to fabricate one from much sturdier aluminum. “She said I was lucky,” Newsome recalled. “They were in between making two boats, so they had room and time to work with me.”

The result is something Bristolians likely drive by most days — a metallic structure resembling a tropical flower that blooms amidst other flowers in the garden that sits in the foreground of Guiteras School, just across from Sip N’ Dip on Route 114. It holds 300 gallons of rainwater, which is utilized to water the surrounding green space with no waste, as all water eventually returns to the water table from where it originally came from.

She has created multiple structures, patented under the name, “RainKeep”, since then. They can be found in Chelsea, Mass., the center of downtown Olneyville in Providence, and at Casey Farm in Saunderstown. The latter is particularly special, as it was a collaboration with Deborah Spears Moorehead, a Native American Wampanoag visual and performing artist, to tell the story of “The Three Sisters,” three crops (bean, squash and corn) that are of great cultural and historical importance.

International recognition
When Newsome was asked to collaborate with New York City architectural firm re-a.d for an environmentally self-sustaining pavilion concept in the city’s SoHo neighborhood that utilized one of her RainKeep sculptures, things accelerated quickly.

That project won an honorary mention for Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards, which brought Newsome to Manhattan’s Javits Center for the awards ceremony. There, she met Jacquelyn Tran, an urban climate resilience professional who now works for Wavin, a Dutch multi-national company that focuses on water sustainability projects throughout the world. Tran was so impressed with Newsome’s sculpture concept that she invited her to be a keynote speaker for an event during New York Water Week — a series of events held in conjunction with the United Nations that brings together some of the most diverse and skilled professionals in water conservancy and innovation.

For Newsome, the marriage of intriguing art with environmental sustainability is a match made in heaven, and one that she sees endless potential for.

“I have a lot of different designs. This is just the tip of the iceberg with the flower design,” she said. “They can take on all different forms and shapes. They can be designed for a space. The whole idea is that they’re attractive and you may not even think about the fact that they work as rain storage.”

But at the same time, the fact that these eye-catching sculptures naturally draw attention is also part of the larger strategy to inform more people about the importance of developing the public spaces of tomorrow with the future of our environment’s health simultaneously in mind.

“It’s about using art to bring awareness to get people to think about the bigger picture,” she said. “My art always was environmental, always about the message…Now the idea is to be a part of the utility world, and the art world, and be a beacon.”

“We’re so drawn to art and design; humans,” she continued. “I don’t know of any other animal on the planet as obsessed with the idea of art and design as humans. We’ll build something so disruptive and harmful to the environment if it’s beautiful, and that needs to change. We need to build things that are symbiotic with nature and our concept of what’s beautiful.”