Historic Walking Tours of Narragansett Pier
Treasures The Towers HD map
Waves of Narragansett
Beach Street, opposite the southern end of the Town Beach
The Waves of Narragansett, by potter and muralist Mika Seeger and artist and educator
Peter Geisser, is a 92-foot stoneware and porcelain relief made entirely by hand and fired in
Seeger's Tiverton kilns. It is located beside Beach Street, facing the sea, below the Gilbane
Development Company's Surfside condos.
The piece took over a year to complete. The artists began working on the commission in spring
2007, meeting in design sessions with executives from Gilbane, town councilors, artists and
historians from Narragansett. They spent many months researching the history of the town and
talking with local experts. The mural consists of six vignettes that chronicle the town's history.
Panel 1, showing the imagined pre-history of the town, depicting its flora and fauna.
Panel 2, showing, perched on the wall, a young boy who is handing a Native American girl a
quahog, which was a customary Narragansett Indian greeting.
Panel 3 depicts a farming scene. In old Narragansett, farmers used to harvest seaweed to put on
their crops as fertilizer. Access paths to good seaweed farming were closely guarded. Farmers
used to pile the seaweed on hayricks to haul it back to their farms.
Panel 4 shows the heyday of Narragansett, when a large casino and many successful hotels lined
the shore. Narragansett was a vacation destination for people from all over the world. Women in
hoop skirts holding parasols are pictured walking along the shoreline. At one time Narragansett
had three piers and was the scene of bustling. People summered there every year, arriving by boat,
and also took the ferry across the bay to Narragansett's sister city of Newport. The famous casino
and many of the hotels were wooden and were lost to fire over the ensuing decades.
Panel 5 depicts the hurricane of 1938, with ships being tossed about on stormy seas. The picture
of everyday objects, wooden barrel staves, parts of ships, all being violently tossed about gives a
wonderful feeling of motion to this portion of the work.
Panel 6 shows a modern-day fisherman (said to be modeled after Seeger's father, Pete) sitting
quietly mending his nets, as things have settled down again.
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As of 2010: Mika Seeger is a ceramic artist of 30 years experience. She has been commissioned
to make work for the Chester Barrow School, the Essex Library in Tiverton, Hope Highland School
in Cranston, the Wyman School and the Oakland Beach School in Warwick, and India Point Park
in Providence.
Peter Geisser has worked in the arts and arts education for 40 years. He received the Pell Award
For Artistic Excellence in June, 2008. His commissions include Hasbro Children's Hospital, the
Cancer Center at Rhode Island Hospital, the Providence River Pavillion, and India Point Park in
Providence.
Text adopted from www.liveatsurfside.com
SCM photos-jrt 2014 (panorama) & 2010 (close-ups)