Boston Center for the Arts is now giving artists until March 2022 to vacate their South End studios. That pushes the timeline for implementing a controversial new artist residency program by almost one year.
Announced last September, the BCA’s Studio 551 initiative was conceived to create opportunities for visual and performing artists in an increasingly expensive city, offering a range of temporary residencies lasting six months to six years. To make way for the program, the organization initially planned to issue evictions by May 2020 for the 40 or so artists with long-term leases at 551 Tremont St. The date was pushed to June 2021 late last year, following an outcry from the Boston arts community. And again last week, the board delayed plans for pushing out current tenants.
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BCA codirector Emily Foster Day said the extension throws artists a much-needed lifeline while also giving the organization time to reevaluate finances. The BCA complex relies on rent from the studios, restaurants, and event spaces for 70 percent of its revenue in a normal year.
“As we looked at the program, this really did begin to make sense — not just from a financial perspective, but also from a human perspective,” Day said in a phone interview. “The only consistency right now is the inconsistency of our world. The last thing we would want to do for our artists is create even more instability and uncertainty.”
The revised plan shared with tenants via e-mail last week spelled out significant changes to the Studio 551 program. Instead of bringing in new tenants at once, the nonprofit now intends to take a “phase approach” — a measure Randi Hopkins, the BCA Director of Visual Arts, said tenants rallied for in February. That means 12 to 15 vacant studios may be occupied by summer 2021 while existing tenants continue to work in the building. The BCA hopes to begin fielding residency applications for these limited spots as early as November, after holding at least one town hall about the application process.
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In late 2021, a second application round will begin for the almost 30 remaining studios. The move-in process for these residencies would begin in summer 2022. As it stands, current tenants are eligible to apply for residencies only during the second round.
Hopkins cautioned that the timeline is subject to change given today’s economic realities. For example, a large portion of BCA staff is currently furloughed, with others working part-time schedules.
The newly released guidelines do not set aside residencies for existing tenants, many of whom have worked out of the BCA’s Artist Studios Building for decades. This contradicts a December plan where the BCA committed to hold 10 studios, or 25 percent of the space, for artists already in the building. In fact, details of the recent announcement were more in line with original plans for the residency program, the one that attracted broad criticism. Day said a fourth of the studios will be income-restricted under the new program, as originally announced.
While many artists and advocates disagree, Day stood by the organization’s assertion that the new residency program would benefit the Boston arts community. “We don’t think of this as evicting artists,” she said. “We think of it as making space for something new, something needed, in the city.”
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Diti Kohli can be reached at diti.kohli@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ditikohli_
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For a second time, Boston Center for the Arts delays artist evictions - The Boston Globe
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