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The remaining businesses in the Arts at the Armory building since Eminent Domain will be coming together for a Town Hall Meeting in the next couple of days. Councilor Beatriz Gomez-Mouakad will be spearheading the meeting, while meeting logistics will be thought out through further discussion with her, the tenants, and Councilor at Large Willie Burnley, Jr. The Town Hall meeting will be held through Zoom, and details about the time of Town Hall Meeting will be released soon by the City Clerk.

The City has now owned the building for one year now. Originally, the City asked all businesses to leave the premises on December 31, 2021. Since then, a great deal of press, social media, lawyers, and politicians have been a part of the process of not throwing businesses out on New Years Eve. Tenants in “good graces” have been told that they can stay here now through December 31, 2022, but with absolutely no promises past that date. As such, we hope that there can be a larger discussion with the community, our clients, and the City to preserve the current businesses while new tenants move in through the “Armory Master Plan.”

I, business owner of the Out of the Blue Art Gallery, have one lease ending for a living work space in April 2023 and another for my business performance space ending in March 2024. Other businesses have similar lengths of leases, and are uncertain whether the City will honor them. Currently, the City has hired a “consultant” to determine our futures. No updates about this consultant were provided to us tenants since September 23, 2021, and we have yet to meet this consultant. Our hope is that this consultant will be in attendance at the Town Hall Meeting so that he/she gets the full picture of how the Eminent Domain process has impacted our businesses and daily operations. I, for one, just want to complete my 2 lease durations and then work with a rehousing consultant to move the Gallery and myself elsewhere.

In the meanwhile, Somerville Arts Council management has started to move in artists to the vacant spaces in the building. We have all found these artists to be kindhearted and forward thinking. I just hope us current tenants can work with the SAC management in the Armory to also be included in the future of the building. The businesses existing here before and since the Eminent Domain process include: Dead Moon Audio, Henley Design, Out of the Blue Art Gallery, Acoustic Strings of New England, and the Center for Arabic Culture radio station. We hope that there will be a fair process moving forward to help protect the current businesses through the duration of their leases while accommodating newer artists chosen by the SAC management team.

Thank you, community of Somerville, for taking the time to sign the petition for a Town Hall meeting. We have reached the threshold for registered voters, and we look forward to a future Armory where we “make new friends, and keep the old,” just like the Girl Scouts of America taught me! For more details about the nature of the petition, please find it here: www.outoftheblueartgallery.com.

The Out of the Blue Art Gallery is continuing to curate art shows specific to the Gallery artists on the Armory walls, while also providing a comfortable space for national acts to display their comedy, theater, music, and community gathering talents in our leased performance space. We look forward to keeping our presence in Somerville. However, if we or other current businesses need to move on as the “Armory Master Plan” develops, we hope the City can provide us with essential rehoming costs and support. If the intention in taking this building was to “preserve arts,” please note that small arts businesses live hand to mouth financially, and we need all the advice and mentorship for us to operate long term.

Sincerely,
Parama
Business Manager and Owner, Out of the Blue Community Arts Director, Violinist, Vocalist, Producer: Parma Chai