PROVIDENCE’S grit and obscurity make it easy to underestimate. On the verge of bankruptcy, with a former mayor who served four years in federal prison for racketeering conspiracy, the capital of the country’s smallest state has something of an image problem. But like Portland, Ore., or Austin, Tex., it’s also a town many times more creative and cosmopolitan than its modest population and municipal troubles suggest. Home to an Ivy League college, one of the best design schools in the country and a major culinary institute, Providence, unsurprisingly, has exceptional food, compelling art and architecture, a thriving gay scene and an inordinate number of very smart people. Yet the city remains unpretentious and affordable, a place where even the best restaurants rarely demand reservations.

Friday



3 p.m.

1. ART THROUGH THE AGES

With 84,000 objects housed in its six stories, the Rhode Island School of Design’s Museum of Art (224 Benefit Street; 401-454-6500; risdmuseum.org; $10) could easily consume an entire day. The 135-year-old institution’s collection ranges from ancient Roman, Eyptian and Greek artifacts to midcentury modern Eames furniture and Frank Lloyd Wright stained-glass windows. Its newest addition, opened in 2008, is the 6,000-square-foot Chace Center (20 North Main Street), an exhibition space that is now hosting Spencer Finch’s Painting Air installation, a “sensory experience” that feels like stepping inside a Pantone flipbook.

5 p.m.

2. HIDDEN BEAUTY

Cross into downtown via one of the elegant bridges over the Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck Rivers. Both rivers were covered by concrete and rail lines until the mid-1990s, when a considerable effort was undertaken to unearth the city’s waterways. Knock on the door at Big Nazo Lab (60 Eddy Street; 401-831-9652; bignazo.com), where gleeful monsters and alien creatures — colorful wearable sculptures made of latex — peer from storefronts. Founded by Erminio Pinque, an instructor at Rhode Island School of Design, the studio has a gracious open-door policy: “Visitors of all shapes and sizes are welcome,” Professor Pinque said.

8 p.m.

3. BANK ON IT

In a lesser food town, the Dorrance (60 Dorrance Street; 401-521-6000; thedorrance.com) could rest on the laurels of its architectural splendor — stained-glass windows, gilded candelabra and elaborate, cake frosting molding. Instead, the restaurant, housed in the opulent lobby of the former Union Trust building, serves food as ornate as its surroundings. On a recent visit there was mild Peruvian ceviche with tomatillo, fried sweet potato chips and herbs ($8) and Rhode Island black fish crusted in quinoa, with quahogs, asparagus and sunchokes, drowned in grass-green ramp dashi ($21). The chef, Benjamin Sukle, 27, was nominated for this year’s James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef of the Year award.