The Zoning Board of Appeals was persuaded to ease restrictions on a number of important issues.

By Parama Chattopadhyay

The Center for Arts at the Armory is a longstanding organization for creative arts. In 2007, the Sater brothers decided to spend millions of dollars to renovate and buy the palatial building from the City of Somerville. Since then, it has been a home to circus arts, ballet, theatre, symphony rehearsals and concerts, farmers markets, herbalist conferences, Somerville Open Studios, blood drives, poetry readings, smaller cafe performances, yoga workshops, acupuncture and fitness classes, interior design companies, and much more. The Out of the Blue Art Gallery, which is a 501(c)(3) performance and educational non-profit, came into its doors in April 2020, just as the pandemic created worldwide financial and public health havoc.

What is most important about the Center for Arts at the Armory is that it celebrates and supports small businesses that are just getting off the ground or have already experienced financial pits and falls. For this reason, the Armory has had its challenges managing finances. However, it always pulled through because of its tenants’ passionate belief in art. Until April 2020, the Armory was a hub of artistic activity, bubbling with cultural events such as Center for Arabic culture and folk dancing classes.

During the pandemic, many of these events and rent for tenants became untenable. Businesses had to shut down and the Saters did not fight these businesses to stay on. Instead, tenants who manage organizations like Out of the Blue Art Gallery and John Lavoie Training decided to rent more space to keep the Armory alive and expand on their unique businesses as the world began to open up. At this time, the building is rented completely outside of the largest performance space by tenants who support small scale events and health practices whereas, earlier in the summer, the Armory had rooms for rent. The large concert hall has experienced unique challenges to raise necessary funds, but throughout the pandemic it has opened its doors to farmer’s markets and farm shares completely free of charge.

Cambridge Day on Monday of this week quotes George Proakis, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development for Somerville, as stating, “If you remove the capital cost of the building from the equation by putting it under city control, you can build a sustainable operating model.” It should also be noted that this most recent effort by the city to seize the Armory comes after a public statement by Mayor Joseph Curtatone on Monday that he would not be running for re-election. Proakis is also involved with Somerville Arts Council, a lively arts organization which promotes its own artists through a variety of events like the most recent Somerville Open Studios which took place outside the Armory on May 1.

Tenants in the current Armory building are confused as to why Proakis suggests that the Armory is not preserving art front and center. This is the very furthest thing from what you see upon entering the building. In fact, at this time, Dead Moon Audio on the basement floor is donating hours upon hours of free recording and audio engineering to broadcast virtual concerts to fundraise for ONCE Somerville Lounge & Ballroom to return. Acoustic Strings of New England on the first floor of the Armory has been offering contactless instrument pick up for all Somerville Public School students as well as low cost, in-person, and Zoom-based music lessons.

Out of the Blue Art Gallery began its SMART Academy (Science, Math, Art, Reading, and Technology) several months ago and now boasts students from all over the world and locally in person and on Zoom for educational donations. In addition, it hosts 30 artists from diverse backgrounds in race, sexuality, and abilities throughout the corridors and halls of the Armory’s four floors.

ROOTED Armory Café & Farmstand also has experienced unique challenges in the pandemic. The cafe hosts artisanal products for local businesses while promoting those businesses on their bulletin boards and the ROOTED Cafe newsletter. For two months, the cafe had to close and workers were temporarily furloughed so that the remainder of building operations could survive. However, they were able to return more recently with outdoor seating, despite many attempts by neighbors to halt this development.

However, there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel. The Center for Arts at the Armory was thrilled to host Somerville Open Studios this past weekend and has also been approved for an “entertainment by performers and devices” permit by the City of Somerville Licensing Commission. This allows up to 52 people for outdoor arts, cultural and community events in the lawn area to the left of the Armory building when facing it. As soon as possible, the Center for Arts at the Armory will book these types of events to generate revenue, and will be back in touch again once they have a preliminary calendar.

The Center for Arts at the Armory is a valuable organization that seeks to provide opportunity to artists and small businesses from all demographics. Though it faces its unique challenges by serving some small businesses that are underserved and underrepresented, it truly delivers a creative mecca for all to enjoy. From all my conversations with tenants in this building, I have learned that there is great concern and bewilderment about why the city feels it needs to seize the building when there has been little commitment thus far to preserving the current organizations who open their doors to the community while collaborating with one another.

My hope and the hope of several others is that, instead of seizing the building, the city can help promote the Armory and encourage outside renters to use the larger performance space at lower cost rentals so that the suggested, last ditch effort to preserve the building with a tech company in that performance space will be eliminated while reducing the emotional stress on current hardworking tenants.