TinTown Studio brings new creative space to Knightsville

By Meri R. Kennedy
Posted 7/20/16

Paul Carpentier and Dennis DelSignore have a deep love of the Knightsville section of Cranston. It has been home for their families since their grandparents settled there in the early 1920s. On July 8, they opened the doors to TinTown

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TinTown Studio brings new creative space to Knightsville

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Paul Carpentier and Dennis DelSignore have a deep love of the Knightsville section of Cranston. It has been home for their families since their grandparents settled there in the early 1920s.

On July 8, they opened the doors to TinTown Studio, their new joint venture located at 40 Haven Ave.

TinTown is located at an address familiar to many It was the former home of Manzi’s Barber Shop.

In addition to featuring gallery shows, TinTown is continuously designing new classes, workshops, and other means through which people of all ages “may ignite their creative potential, adding excitement and wonder to life itself,” Paul said.

Carpentier and DelSignore have been collaborating and producing creative design ventures for over 25 years. They realized early on that their family experiences were quite similar.

“A common theme in our upbringing was to find excitement in being creative,” said Carpentier, who comes from a family of artists. His father, 90-year-old Peter spent nearly 70 years as a designer of a variety of things. His self-taught repertoire ranges from outdoor advertising design to home, boat, and furniture design. His mom, Mary, is also self-taught, has experience designing both interiors and gardens.

Carpentier received a bachelor of fine arts in film animation and a master of arts in teaching, both from the Rhode Island School of Design. For more than 20 years, he has been teaching the visual arts and design in public schools and museum settings across New England.

DelSignore has been the creative soul in his family from as early as age five, when he found himself redesigning the furniture layout in his family home, not far from TinTown Studio.

Not long after, he found himself using flowers and natural elements in his creative processes. He operated a successful floral and design shop in Cranston for eight years. He left it behind after several years when he was asked to join a locally based floral design team whose primary work was designing concepts for major corporations around the world.

“I have traveled to far away locales like Paris and Rome, Maui and Edinburgh, Big Sur and South Africa,” he said.

DelSignore brings more than 25 years of experience applying his skills to floral installations domestically and abroad. He is currently creative director at Stoneblossom Floral and Events in Warren.

Once the Haven Avenue space became available, Carpentier and DelSignore jumped at the opportunity. TinTown sits near the historic Sprague Mansion and Cranston Print Works properties, as well as diagonal to St. Mary’s Church.

When interested in acquiring the Haven Avenue space, Carpentier climbed a ladder left behind by the former tenant and poked his head through the drop ceiling, which was made of tin.

“Some may say this is most irrevocably the reason for the name. Careful. The concept of the TinTown name has more than the obvious connotation,” he said. “Tin is a malleable metal … As humans, should we not strive to be like this metal? Hopefully, we work well with others, but remain strong and willing when left to our own devices.”

Through July 28, TinTown Studio its running its first gallery exhibition of work by local artists, dubbed “Mother Child: Expressions of Devotion.”

The studio is open in July every Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. or by appointment. Additional dates and times will be announced. For more information, call Carpentier at 401-578-7871 or DelSignore at 401-258-3819.

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