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Arts-space blues

Boston isn’t the only city that’s suffered the closing of its arts spaces. Last February, building inspectors shut down the Fishtown Artspace, a 10-year-old alternative, community-orientated arts space on the third floor of a building in downtown Gloucester, for not meeting requirements set by the fire department. As Shep Abbott, the executive director of the Artspace, recalls, after a fire up the block, police and detectives descended. "They started clamping down and putting requirements on us that were difficult to fulfill," like maintaining a 50-person maximum capacity, and not allowing kids to linger on the street in front of the building.

The Artspace had been running a successful music program for the previous seven years, attracting bands from all over the country and audiences from across the North Shore. "We gained a reputation for being a friendly place to play music," says Abbott. "It’s a drug- and alcohol-free space committed to the empowerment of kids." One night, however, not long after the fire, the space had reached its imposed capacity for a show, and teenagers not admitted had congregated outside the building. A policeman and fireman happened along, saw kids hanging around and filing out of the building, and reported overcrowding, and, says Abbott, "the building inspector just closed us." The fire-code violations forced the Artspace to suspend its musical performances.

Since then, the Artspace, which also offers art classes for teens and adults, open mikes, and programs for the mentally impaired, "has been limping along" while looking for a new venue. Now it’s found one. The large workshop of a man who tunes, sells, and repairs pianos became available when he moved, and the Artspace jumped on it. The space is removed from the town center, near the Gloucester train station and adjacent to conservation wetlands. Abbott explains that "as soon as we raise $150,000 to do the renovations [including providing handicapped bathrooms and restoring the heating system], we’ll be able to move in." To help raise those funds, Inman Square’s Zeitgeist Gallery, which has been battling its own set of inspectional hurdles, is hosting a benefit concert this Sunday with Cul de Sac, Tim Mungenast, and Paraffin Section.

"I didn’t think we’d ever find a space as right as this one," Abbott says of the new location. "Now we can do so much more. Just by virtue of being there, we can influence the direction of the neighborhood and the community, be a force for positive thinking."

The Fishtown Artspace benefit concert takes place this Sunday, March 7, at 9 p.m. at Zeitgeist Gallery, 1353 Cambridge Street in Inman Square. Tickets are $7; call (617) 876-6060, or visit www.artspace.org.

— Nina MacLaughlin

And in Medford . . .

Medford isn’t exactly a mecca for artists looking for space where they can create and display their work. But that could change if the Medford City Council agrees to sell the decommissioned Swan School at 65 Park Street in East Medford to a group of artists. The proposed Medford Arts Center would provide stable, long-term, affordable studio space for 24 artists as well as a base for the TV3 local cable-access channel. The decision to sell to the artists, which the city council will make on March 9, will be based primarily on financial considerations. The building was appraised for about $1 million; the artists’ group is offering $400,000.

Some 12 of the studios have already been claimed by Medford artists; the Center is looking for visual artists in the Boston area to fill the other 12. "We’re interested in finding people outside of Medford who’d be interested in stable, long-term space below market rent," says Peter Houk, a member of the screening committee, which is hoping that a proposed 100 percent occupancy will sway the city council. "We want to convince city council that it’s a good time and place for this. Once you have an organization like this, people start to move to Medford — there’s a transformation that goes along with having an arts center. Medford needs this."

The studios will rent for about $7.50 per square foot. Interested artists should contact Houk at (781) 396-5767 or pbhouk@aol.com, or Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano, the treasurer of the Medford Arts Center, at (781) 395-4036 or sylvia@stagg-giuliano.com.

— Nina MacLaughlin