Art works

Lessons from the Fort Point fiasco

Fort Point Channel is widely recognized as New England's largest community of artists. The area is home to the Revolving Museum and Mobius -- two institutions that have championed the region's alternative art scene for decades. It also happens to be located along the strip of waterfront now being developed with projects that include luxury housing and a new Institute of Contemporary Art. By the end of this month, a number of artists will lose their work space on Stillings Street to make way for a new parking garage. Barring an extremely unlikely change in development plans, the area soon to house the new ICA may lose the Revolving Museum, Mobius, and hundreds of artists whose leases on work and living spaces are expiring over the next three years. This is an outrage that shouldn't be repeated -- ever -- in the ongoing development of the city. Toward that end, the Fort Point fiasco offers a few lessons.

* The city must take the initiative. Zoning and planning boards are used to dealing with stubborn neighborhood groups that raise a ruckus at the first hint of change in their community. The Bay Village Neighborhood Association provides an excellent example: the nightclub Jacques can't file an application to extend its hours past midnight without the BVNA crying foul. Though the Fort Point artists weren't organized enough to approach city officials and lobby for their housing early on in the planning process, they shouldn't necessarily have had to -- there are times when the city should be the first to cry foul. And this was one of those times. It's truly shocking that although city officials seem to recognize the contributions that Fort Point artists have made to the community, they haven't been able to do more to preserve the neighborhood. It was artists, after all, who helped make the Fort Point Channel area safe and habitable to begin with. Not only that, but they created a distinct, grassroots cultural district within the city.

Esther Kaplan, special assistant to the mayor on cultural affairs, says that the city recognized "a good nine or 10 months ago" that it needed to do a better job of supporting the arts community. A 13-member advisory committee has been formed to look at the issue; Kaplan met with 50 cultural leaders, convened 13 community meetings, interviewed 25 city department heads, and looked to examples nationally of urban areas that have supported their arts communities. Her department will release a report on its findings within the next month. We hope it includes a plan of action to preserve artists' communities in other areas of the city, such as Jamaica Plain, Allston-Brighton, and Roslindale, and to deal with future development in Fort Point -- some artists and organizations have three more years left on their leases, which means there's still time to work out a solution.

* Artists must be better organized. When multimillion-dollar developments that will bring in mega tax dollars and create construction jobs are dangled in front of the mayor of a large city, artists really have to make their case. They need to remind local leaders of the benefits they bring to a city. The most obvious is the culture. Less obvious is the work artists do in renovating less desirable areas and making them habitable. If the Fort Point neighborhood is any example, artists are passionately devoted to their communities. They work with young people -- Artists for Humanity, a nationally recognized youth program, is in the same building as the Revolving Museum. "That's one way to deal with violence and racism, you use the arts," says Jerry Beck of the Revolving Museum. This is not to say that artists are more entitled to housing than other groups. But artists can revitalize an urban area and make it more livable in a way that other groups can't. "It doesn't matter what neighborhood they go into, artists are always on those peripheral transitional border sites that no one else wants to go into, and they start developing culture in those areas," Beck says. "If you look at artists across the board, you'll find them to be some of the most active citizens around. They're very well informed, they're passionate about a lot of issues and very involved in their communities."

* Learn from how other cities are supporting the arts. Lowell and Providence provide examples of how cities can accommodate artists -- and why they should. Lowell mayor Eileen Donoghue lobbied to have zoning regulations changed downtown so that developers could convert two manufacturing buildings into artists' lofts. The long-term project involved defining what an artist is and finding developers who would agree to sell to working artists. "I know what artists bring to a community," she says. "From the city's perspective, having artists living and working in your downtown area brings a vibrancy that's good for the city." Donoghue has met with members of the Fort Point Artists' Coalition in the hopes of luring them to Lowell. "I see this as being a great opportunity for the artists and the city. I think it's a perfect partnership," she adds.

In Providence, Mayor Buddy Cianci lobbied the Rhode Island legislature to give artists living downtown an exemption from the state income tax and an exemption from taxes on the sale of their art. The city has poured millions of dollars into the development of the Trinity Theater, the Perishable Theater, AS220, and the Performing Arts Center. Cianci has also appointed a poet laureate for the city. "Artists empower the economy," he says. "What they do and what they make and what they create generates not only interest, but also a different cultural climate that distinguishes us from other American cities."

Of course, some may say, Good for Lowell and Providence -- they need artists to rejuvenate their downtown areas. Boston doesn't. But that's not only shortsighted, it's absurd. Abandoning the art community when development is strong is akin to cutting taxes when the kitty is full. Soon enough, there will come a time when we will all wish we hadn't squandered this opportunity.

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