Framed by two yellow banners bearing the words “Art Works Here” and “Art Stays Here,” a new exhibit at The Somerville Museum explores the impact that displacement has on artists and local communities.
Curated by the Art Stays Here Coalition, a volunteer organization that prevents arts and culture displacement, the “Faces, Places, and Spaces” exhibit showcases the numerous artists displaced by high rents or by new development and who have been helped by the organization since its founding in 2020. At that time, the 44-studio artist space Humphrey Street Studios in Dorchester was at risk of closure due to a pending sale of the space, but the Coalition secured a deal with the city, developers, and nonprofits to instead allow the artists to buy the space.
“When arts buildings and artist workspaces disappear, it’s [likely they’re] not going to be replaced,” said Ethan Dussault, a volunteer with the coalition. Dussault’s Somerville-based recording studio, New Alliance Audio, has been displaced twice before the Coalition launched, once when artist spaces in Kenmore Square being knocked down in the early 2000s and then again in 2018 with the sale of Central Square’s EMF building.
Art Stays Here works to preserve art spaces that already exist and “to create more inventory,” he said.
While the public is aware of gentrification and the rising cost of living, most are not aware that artist displacement is another component of these issues, said Ami Bennitt, a coalition volunteer and curator of the exhibit. An estimated 2 million square feet of artist space was lost in Greater Boston from 2013 to 2023, according to The Boston Globe.
The coalition hopes to educate exhibit attendees about artist displacement while highlighting the various artists the coalition has supported over the last six years.
“It’s not your typical art exhibition. It’s the story of a movement,” Bennitt said at the exhibition’s opening reception last week.
The exhibition, which includes portraits of 66 artists in their workspaces out of the approximately 3,500 artists the coalition has supported, explores the causes of artist displacement, said Stephanie Marlin-Curiel, the executive director of The Somerville Museum. Art Stays Here has prevented displacement in over 15 spaces across Massachusetts, she said.
The exhibition features six 8-ft. by 8-ft. vertical display boards with information about the preservation of those 15 spaces and local news coverage of the projects. Several of the preservation projects included Somerville spaces: Joy Street Studios, Washington Street Arts Center, the Somernova Development, and Central Street Studios. Milk Row Studios is potentially at risk as it’s not artist-owned, meaning its owners could sell at any time, and borders Somernova.
Lena Warnke, a member of the Somerville-based band Sidebody that uses space at Central Street Studios, is one of the artists featured in the exhibition. Warnke said it is “meaningful” to be included because it means she is “part of a lineage of people working really hard to try to prevent artist displacement.”
The exhibition also aims to promote the creation of policies that combat artist displacement. “It’s the artists, makers, and cultural arts that really create that magnetic energy that brings people together,” said Somerville Mayor Jake Wilson at the reception.
Somerville, which is home to the second highest population of artists per capita in the country, is the only town in Massachusetts to have a policy to prevent artist displacement.
In 2019, Somerville implemented a zoning ordinance requiring between 5 and 10 percent of space in new developments in dense neighborhoods be for arts and creative use. After its implementation, Somerville found a home for the youth program Parts and Crafts in Boynton Yards. Union Square’s Somernova development will now include artist studios and music venues.
At a table in the center of the exhibit surrounded by a circle on the floor with the words “Make Something, Say Something, Do Something,” exhibition goers can become what the curators call “ARTivists” and encourage the creation of similar policies in their hometown by designing and writing a postcard to local politicians. Those postcards will be displayed as part of the exhibition and then mailed out when it closes.
The approximately 40 attendees at the opening reception on June 5 took blank postcards from one of four display boards and drew colorful designs with messages such as “Art activates community,” before returning them to the display boards.
“Residents should care about preserving” arts and culture because it’s likely part of the reason they live where they do and it boosts the economy, Bennitt said. “By choosing to value artists, you’re making your community richer and healthier.”
On June 20, July 11, and Aug. 8, attendees will also have the opportunity to make campaign signs promoting the value of artists in local communities, signs that will be displayed in the exhibition and utilized at upcoming community events and meetings about arts spaces.
For Art Stays Here, the work will continue beyond the exhibit. On June 15, the organization will host a community forum on the state of the arts in Somerville and a meeting to discuss the importance of forming a cultural land trust — an organization to manage and acquire real estate for the arts. The coalition is also screening a short documentary on the founding of Somerville’s Vernon Street Studios in 1974, which currently hosts 100 local artists (date to be announced).
Art Stays Here hopes other communities can “create the conditions where [artists] can get back [their] imagination and focus on creating again,” Dussault said.
Faces, Places, and Spaces at The Somerville Museum at 1 Westwood Rd., Somerville from June 5 to Aug. 23. $8.
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