Assembly

Part of Locally Made's One Room.
In Assembly, gather for casual meetings of the minds and unexpected happenings curated by local artists and designers. Congregate for poetry readings, sonic performances, movement, projection, and more.
Melissa Withers and Allan Tear co-curate Entreprenuer Artist, Artist Entrepreneur: Building Beyond Business, Dreaming Beyond Art from 9/10 - 9/15. In this six-part series, co-hosts Allan Tear and Melissa Withers will feature six amazing local entrepreneurs who live at the intersection where art & design and business meet, their work serving as a powerful testament to the maker/artist culture that defines Rhode Island's DNA. With topics such as Medicine as Play, Making Metal Move, From Shape to Sound, and The Body at Work, the showings will enable participants to see, hear, interact and learn more about a new generation of startups and the artist entrepreneurs who drive them. — Melissa Withers & Allan Tear
9/12: Don NguyenUsing industrial machinery and methods to close the gap between Art and Industry. — Don Nguyen
Free with museum admission.
Betaspring Chief of Staff and nerd whisperer Melissa Withers (@mizwithers) manages Betaspring's Mentor network and coordinates programming for each Betaspring session. In her advisory capacity to Betaspring teams, her skillz are primarily in PR & media relations, customer experience design, and get-to-market communications. In 2011, Melissa served as communications director for the then newly-elected Mayor of the City of Providence. Prior, she was co-founder and Executive Director of the Business Innovation Factory, an organization that creates platforms to enable the design and testing of new business models in areas of high social impact. Melissa started her career in life science and previously served as Assistant Director of Communications and Public Affairs for Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, were she managed community relations and public communications, as well as Whitehead's pioneering science policy and advocacy program. She lives in Providence, and has soft spot for nerds.
Allan Tear is a founder and managing partner of Betaspring. Allan has founded three venture-funded startups: Elastic Networks, Incanta, and WhyData. He has raised over $15M from angels, venture capital, and strategic partners, including Slater Fund, Intel Capital and AT&T. He is an expert in new product and service launches. Allan is an active angel investor in early stage technology companies, and advises national, state, and local government on nurturing high-growth startup ecosystems. He helps students and schools with entrepreneurship through the Brown COE program, RISD Mindshare, and the Carnegie Mellon Dean's Leadership Council. He was selected in 2008 for the Providence Business News "40 Under Forty" list and in 2010 as "10 to Watch" by Providence Monthly. Allan is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, with B.S. degrees in Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Public Policy.
Don Nguyen is a Providence-based industrial designer, machinist and prototype fabricator. His broad portfolio includes new toothbrush designs and working electric prototypes for Gillette's Braun division; the design of a durable carrying case for a portable 3-dimensional ultrasound developed by Providence-based CyberMdx Co. He has also worked on projects for the Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institute, the Providence Journal and Lockheed Martin. Under Providence Machine & Tools Works, the business has been producing components for companies such as Halliburton, General Dynamics and Teledyne Defense Systems. Don attended the Rhode Island School of Design where he studied Industrial Design. He returned to teach design and manufacturing techniques at RISD in the Industrial Design Department from 2000 to 2004.