30 Best Places to Shop in Rhode Island, USA

The adjoining 1661 Farm supplies wool from its alpacas, llamas, yaks, and sheep for North Light artisans to make beautiful yarns, clothing, and blankets. Classes are offered in knitting, crochet, and felting—and you can also tour the Micro Yarn Mill where the yarns are made.

Through a window in the gallery at Thames Glass, you can watch artist Matthew Buechner and his team working the forge and making blown-glass gifts. Sign up for a lesson to make an ornament, paperweight, or vase out of molten glass.

This 30,000-square-foot shop specializes in distinctive architectural salvage such as mantels, doors, stained glass, fountains, and garden statuary including items plucked from places like the Belcourt mansion.

At this shop, Tamar Kern displays her signature stackable cone rings, plus unique designs by a dozen other contemporary artists.

Built in 1828, America's oldest indoor shopping mall has a handful of restaurants on its first floor and one signature shop, the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences Council, for quirky gifts and books on the supernatural by Providence's own H. P. Lovecraft and other authors. The rest of the former retail space has been converted into microloft apartments. The Greek Revival building has entrances on both Westminster and Weybosset Streets. 

This gallery, which traces its origins to 1870, exhibits original paintings and prints of landscapes and seascapes by Rhode Island artists, and sells a full range of art supplies and gifts for the creatively inclined. The nautical collection includes oil paintings of America's Cup winning yachts.

This public gallery at Providence's private Wheeler School exhibits works from Rhode Island's extensive population of local artists, including past and current attendees of the nearby Rhode Island School of Design. Attached to Wheeler's library, the gallery features winners from about a half-dozen juried art shows it sponsors annually, in a variety of media.

Expect the unusual at this 35-year-old shop, which sells jewelry, gadgets, clocks, and gifts handcrafted by more than 100 artists.

Etsy fans will be delighted by the handmade wares at this colorful shop and gallery: jewelry, notecards, prints, silk-screened T-shirts, fashion accessories, bags, Rhode Island--themed trinkets, and other sparkly handmade objects by local artists are all for sale. You'll save money on every purchase, too, because there's no sales tax on art in Rhode Island.

Paintings, photography, sculpture, ceramics, and works in other media by southern New England artists are this gallery's specialty.

This boutique shop has been a mainstay in Wickford Village since 1971, selling a wide variety of local crafts, stationery, glassware, pottery, and quirky gift items. It's a delight just to stroll around and admire the collection of unique and curious goods packing every shelf, and while you can spend hundreds on some one-of-a-kind items, the shop isn't so precious as to eschew a few $10 touristy trinkets, too.

Inside this shop, you'll find an extraordinary collection of art nouveau Zsolnay pottery from Hungary, as well as museum-quality lighting fixtures, antique glass, fine porcelain, and vintage Newport postcards from the 1890s through World War II.

With a hippie vibe, the kid- and couple–friendly Fantastic Umbrella Factory contains a handful of rustic shops built around a wild garden and bamboo forest. Unusual flowers, succulents, and other plants are for sale, along with interesting clothing and jewelry, CBD products, soy candles, creative pottery, Native American handcrafts, quirky gifts, and incense. For a few bucks you can buy a bag full of feed to attract the fenced-in emus and roaming chickens. 

Clothing, housewares, fair-trade handicrafts, and novelty items can all be found at this small curiosity shop and gift boutique, which stocks one of the best collections of Rhode Island--made goods in the state. A second location is at 713 Westminster St. downtown.

You can pick up handmade pendants, rings, earrings, and bracelets with maritime (and Block Island) themes at this jewelry store.

Drop by HomeStyle for eye-catching objets d'art, stylish housewares, and other innovative, extraordinary, and whimsical decorative items, like popular Jellycat stuffed animals.

Books about Block Island history are a specialty of this shop, which also has a good selection of fiction and nonfiction for rainy day or beach reading on vacation. There are also art supplies and classes for adults.

This gallery specializes in the work of local and regional artists: photographs, sculptures, ceramics, and contemporary American paintings, often with coastal themes. Works from more than 30 artists are on display at the gallery overlooking Old Harbor from the second floor of the Post Office building.

Malcolm Greenaway has taken magnificent photographs of Block Island places and scenes since moving here in 1974. In his Water Street gallery, he sells prints in various sizes—print only, matted, or matted and framed. Come in and meet the artist himself: he's usually around when the shop is open.

You'll find a huge selection of maps, globes, and atlases at this shop. There's also a small treasure trove of early computer-generated maps.

Serious collector or casual art lover, you'll be mesmerized by the luminous maritime paintings exhibited within the 1772 Stephen DuBois House. Works by contemporary masters are strongly represented. Don't leave without making a voyage downstairs to the Constellation Room, a gallery space paneled in solid oak and modeled after the USS Constellation.

Antiquers (and maybe yard-salers, too) could get lost for hours in this three-story shop that offers a collection of "curiosities, oddities, and treasures from another time" for sale. Fed by more than 200 dealers, the shelves here burst with every imaginable kind of antique item, including clothing, furniture, statuary, mid-century appliances, housewares, and vintage swag from local schools.

This gallery stocks folk art from around the world, including carvings, weavings and rugs, clothing, jewelry, masks, and musical instruments.

Macy's, Boscov's, an Apple Store, and the new Level99 entertainment complex are among the anchor tenants at this large mall with dozens of restaurants that include the Cheesecake Factory and P. F. Chang's. Also here are Dave & Buster's and a 16-screen cinema and IMAX theater. Parking in the garage is free for the first two hours.

Whimsy and practicality converge at this shop devoted to goods lovingly conceived and handmade in little Rhody. Each item, whether something useful for your kitchen or baby or a decidedly frivolous indulgence, is curated to make you smile.

This shop associated with RISD's art museum has a selection of inspired toys, totes, gifts, and jewelry, plus accessories by Rhode Island School of Design students and alumni, including designer Andrea Valentini's sustainable-fabric bags.

This Rhode Island artists' cooperative, a working studio gallery, changes its shows frequently. One wall is dedicated to its members, who are primarily painters. The gallery's name is a nod to its original location at the corner of Spring and Bull streets. The juried Fakes and Forgeries exhibit, now in its fourth decade, awards prizes for the best copies and reinterpretations of popular paintings.

The gallery, located in a renovated horse barn for 40 years, exhibits paintings, photographs, pottery, and jewelry by island artists and artisans. The rustic gallery also serves as a community arts center, hosting artist openings, art classes, and workshops.

Gourmet treats and useful, whimsical, and always well-designed utensils, stemware, dishes, and culinary gifts are the specialty of this foodie paradise with an industrial kitchen vibe.

This high-ceilinged, multidealer emporium is a standout in a city known for its vintage boutiques. Walk your wardrobe back in time with colorful finds, from mid-century designer dresses to throwback Patriots merch and rock concert tees.