To Site
of Weston Gallery
By Susie
Davidson
CORRESPONDENT
Poets, storytellers, musicians, dancers, videographers, art students, senior artists, shelter animals, painters, sculptors, drummers, Tai Chi artists, healers, tarot readers, comedians and its satellite art galleries are gearing up to celebrate what is hopefully the end of the Out of the Blue Gallery’s relocation troubles.
Plagued
with a constant threat of eviction and accompanying financial and legal burdens
for over a year, Deb Priestly and Tom Tipton look to be assuming residence, as
of Sept. 1, in the space formerly
occupied by the Weston Gallery at 106 Prospect St. in Central Square.
Priestly
had heard about the space, which was first offered to a realtor, whose decline
made the opportunity theirs. They now need to change the licensing over; the
gallery is also waiting for their nonprofit status to come through.
“We’ll
be signing a five-year lease there sometime this week,” said Tipton, who
hopes for a grand reopening by the beginning of October, in time for the Oct. 4
and 5 CAOS (Cambridgeport Artists’ Open Studios) participation.
They’ll spend much of September renovating the façade repair and
painting outside and in.
“The
new space is a few feet smaller, but a numbr of feet longer,” he said.
“It has more usable floor space.
“And,
we plan on getting it air conditioned,” he added.
Their
present landlords, Jamal and Manal Abu-Rubieh, are presumably going to change
the zoning at the old gallery at 168 Brookline St. and turn it into a rental
residence.
“They’re
happy for us,” said Tipton. “They even offered to let us stay, but
since the insurance went up, they’d have to raise the rent. We’ve
made our peace with them.”
Two
months’ rent for the transition was raised through benefits and events as
well as an arts supporter benefactor.
“We will still have community
events and keep true to our mission,” said Priestly, “and provide
an inexpensive venue for all artists to promote their artwork and expression.
All artists and performers and hosts of venues being held at Out of the Blue
Gallery can feel confident that these activities will continue as planned.
“We
will continue to cater to all types of artists, young, old, new, polished and
disabled/challenged, giving a fair chance to all.”
“There are no steps,” added Tipton, “so it’s more handicapped accessible. And if the bathroom isn’t big enough for a wheelchair, we’ll fix that.”
“Within
our new move,” continued Priestly, “we will strive to have
volunteers help keep the gallery open, even at night. Everyone wants the new
Out of the Blue Gallery to succeed and make more sales, and so many loyal
artists have offered to help with the packing, moving, unpacking, office work
etc.”
Tipton
stressed that the new locale will be more accessible, and also safer for women
to walk there at night. “It’s in a very prime selling
location,” said Priestly, “which would be exciting to our artists,
and very convenient for the art consumers.
The site
features access to a free parking lot after 5 p.m. Many food options, including
Bread and Circus, the Harvest Co-op, Starbucks, the 1369 Coffeeshop,
Amelia’s Trattoria and Store 24 abound as well, by contrast to the fairly
secluded former venue.
Neighborhood
issues should also be minimal to nonexistent. “We don’t do loud,
noisy things, and we’re pretty cooperative,” said Tipton.
“Thus, we don’t expect any problems.
“We
think we will be able to do a better job servicing the arts community.”
The Senior
Art show will continue at the 168 Brookline St. space until the end of the
month. Presently, Out of the Blue’s weekly schedule features Stone Soup
Poetry on Monday, Drawing Classes on Tuesday, Acoustic Music on Wednesday,
Drawing Classes on Thursday, “Open Bark” Poetry on Saturday and
Drum Circle on Sunday, with Fridays open, and intermittent events filling in as
well.