PUERTO RICAN INSTITUTE FOR THE ARTS AND ADVOCACY , INC., (PRIAA)

The Puerto Rican Institute for the Arts and Advocacy, Inc., (PRIAA) is dedicated to promoting civic and cultural awareness services for the Puerto Rican community in Rhode Island.  PRIAA collaborates with state, city agencies, schools, universities, museums, galleries, and Non-Puerto Rican leaders to spread similar ancestral traditions in our cultural heritage.  We strive to reach our communities with lessons to immerse them in a sense of pride of their cultural identity, their language, and at the same time acquire the commitment to maintain, develop, and transmit that pride generationally. Our advocacy directs through the arts and expressions to maintain the heritage of the Puerto Rican population. We advocate for the respect we deserve as American citizens who contribute to the social, political, economic, and cultural well being of the entire nation.

We strive to extend our culture to other Latino nationalities, as well as other nationalities, as an integral part our own culture, in particular the Caribbean culture- creating from our culture a cornerstone of communication among our population which lets us feel identified and proud of our cultural values and morals; of our race, our language, and our idiosyncrasy; as a point of union and brotherhood.

(PRIAA) runs Caribbean Arts programs in the community and in education. We are a creative performing arts organization, and as an integrated arts and academic facility, we have nurtured future 21st century leaders at Hartford Performs in partnership with the Connecticut Public School System and in the Rhode Island After School Program.

Our Cultural Heritage Center is a new space available for teaching, learning, and cultural exchange in Rhode Island.  

  The New England Foundation (NEFA) for the Arts joined the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to announce 112 organizations, including 13 organizations in New England, have been recommended for awards under a new pilot program called ArtsHERE. The R.I. State Council on the Arts (RISCA) reported that only grantees from Rhode Island is Pawtucket’s Puerto Rican Institute for Arts and Advocacy (PRIAA).  The arts and advocacy organization was chosen from an applicant pool of more than 4,000 nationwide.   On October 22, 2024, PRIAA will celebrate its thirty-three (33) years of excellent work and three years of the Cultural Heritage Center. 

priaa-ri.org