Next week marks the first of what the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) promises will be many community meetings aimed at gathering data on the housing needs of Boston-area artists. BRA has scheduled two meetings — on December 17 at 7 p.m. and December 18 at 9 a.m. — at its offices in Boston City Hall. (The second meeting is limited to 30 people and is already filled, but the December 17 meeting has no space limitation.)

The meetings are part of BRA’s effort to hear from artists, many of whom face the loss of their homes/work studios due to the steady gentrification of artists’ enclaves from Fort Point to Jamaica Plain. Former Boston Center for the Arts director Susan Hartnett, who was hired this year to head BRA’s Artist Space Initiative, calls these information-gathering sessions "pre-planning meetings," and says they precede a series of meetings planned for January and February in neighborhoods across the city. These meetings will provide BRA with important information to shape future policy, Hartnett says.

To that end, BRA’s Artist Space Initiative has commissioned Artspace Projects, Inc., a nonprofit organization that specializes in the development of low-cost housing for artists, to conduct a survey to determine the kinds of spaces artists need and what they can afford to pay. Artspace has conducted market studies of artists’ space needs in 50 different communities and developed 500 home-and-work spaces in 15 different cities, including Chicago, Seattle, Pittsburgh, St. Paul, and Portland, Oregon. (Visit the organization’s Web site at www.artspaceprojects.org).

Two Artspace members will attend the upcoming BRA meetings to discuss how the survey, which is slated to go out to more than 10,000 people in January, can accumulate helpful data most effectively. Announcement of the survey results is tentatively scheduled for April 2002.

"Commercial and nonprofit developers have said we can meet the need if we understand the market better," says Hartnett. But BRA isn’t interested in buildings alone, she stresses: "If we are successful, we must address the problem systemically. It isn’t just about more buildings."

At least one artist is convinced that BRA wants to make a difference for Boston artists. James Hull, an artist who runs the Gallery at Green Street in Jamaica Plain, says he was initially skeptical of the agency’s efforts to develop affordable housing for area artists. However, "it’s on their radar screen, which is a huge accomplishment," says Hull. "If they hold these meetings and no one shows up, or no one participates in the survey, we’ll never again be able to have this conversation with the BRA."

Hull, who has a studio at Fort Point with a lease that’s set to expire, says there is a "huge population of artists who need buildings to buy, rent, or to keep from getting converted" to uses other than artists’ studios.

His advice for artists who’d rather be painting than organizing is this: get to one of the meetings next week and make your voices heard.

"The BRA has been working hard at this," says Hull. "They’ve gotten the message. Now we need to show up and support this."

Those unable to attend the scheduled meetings can e-mail their opinions to Susan Hartnett at susan.hartnett.bra@ci.boston.ma.us or call (617) 918-4246.

Issue Date: December 13 - 20, 2001

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