Over 20 Years of Celebrating the Spring Carnival Ball

The best and most diverse annual party in Rhode Island!

The Spring Carnival Ball's rich history celebrating community and culture reaches farther back than many realize. In 1939 the Institute held its first Ball, featuring ethnic entertainment and food. The second Ball, in 1940, featured Armenian, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and American dances, including a square dance demonstration by Brown students, as well as a performance featuring a Harfa Polish choral group. German, Chinese, and Mexican dancers were added the following year. Many attendees proudly wore outfits of national dress that they brought from their native lands.

During World War II the Balls were no longer held on an annual basis, but by 1961, the Institute kicked-off the events once again. Immigrants of this time wanted sociability, and the Institute responded with teas, film festivals, travelogues, open houses, cabarets, picnics, and Balls, all of which were featured in the society pages of the Providence Journal. The Institute was, and continues to be, proud to highlight the cuisine, languages, and national dress of the communities it serves.

The official Annual Spring Carnival Ball was established in 1987 when Hilda Borem, a woman from Brazil and a talented mask and carnival costume maker, organized a Brazilian-style extravaganza. Hilda recruited Erminio Pinque, creator of BIG NAZO, and together they fabricated masks to be used as decorations on the tables and for guests to wear at the Ball.

Erminio and members of the famous Living Stage Theatre Company gathered in the NAZO lab and the mask making process became a social and creative endeavor. "It made a deep impression on me to see the mask-artwork we had created on the faces of so many dancing guests who had come to support the Institute and celebrate its mission," and 20 years later, Erminio is still one of the most dedicated volunteers for the Ball.

Each year he works with Institute's clients, students, staff, and families to create “cultural creations” that are larger than life ethnic images painted on cardboard and used as decorations. "It is the same spirit of communal art-making from those early days that drives and inspires me to conduct the ‘cultural creations’ workshops…creating the images which grace the balconies of Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet for the Ball each year."

Today's Spring Carnival Ball is more extravagant and culturally diverse than ever. It has become renowned as the best and most diverse party in Rhode Island with its high-energy musical entertainment and dancing. Risa Gilpin, a volunteer on the Event Planning Committee exclaimed, "It is fun to have a say in what band will keep me up and dancing all night long!"

Eva Hulse-Avila joined the committee ten years ago after she attended her first Ball and claims, "My favorite memory is from a few years ago, when La Fuerza Brava was the band, and our Master of Ceremonies, Dr. Pablo Rodriguez, got on stage and was dancing wildly with some of the children!"

Anne Maxwell Livingston, a board member involved with the Institute for over 20 years exclaimed, "There is no doubt that the best thing about the early Balls was the nearly naked dancing girls! Very exotic and out of this world!"

This year’s 22nd Annual Spring Carnival Ball features Grupo Fantasia, Erminio and the Big NAZOs, What Cheer? Brigade, a marching band out of Providence, Chinese Folk Art Workshop, RIC/JWU Ballroom Dancers, Tony Felix as DJ, and fine catering by Russell Morin.

The event is co-chaired by two of Rhode Island’s finest business leaders, Jopseh P. MarcAurele, President of Citizens Bank, Rhode Island, and John Hazen White, Jr., President of Taco, Inc. who will be co-chairing the Ball for the sixth year in a row.

Please join us on April 12, 2008 for a fabulous evening of celebration.

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