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By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

A world without art is madness. Fortunately Somerville has a thriving arts community that breathes vitality and sanity into our city. But if we don’t plan an arts and maker community into our future, we risk losing it. It can be difficult for artists to find the space they need in a small, in-demand city. That’s why we wrote incentives to support the arts and maker communities right into our proposed zoning code. Think of it as a very dull way to do something exciting—and critical.

Artists played a key role in our city’s modern success story. As others fled, artists flocked here and put their stamp on the city—and stayed. Somerville now has one of the highest concentrations of artists in the entire country. They acted like an impromptu urban revitalization program, beautifying our neighborhoods, adding flair to our city squares and infusing our community with creative energy.

Somerville has since become a city about making and doing: a place where creativity flourishes. It’s a community ethos every municipality wants and that money can’t buy. As a parent, I can’t put a price on the inspirational value of my children growing up in a place filled with people who got an idea and ran with it. Our artists and makers bring originality and fearlessness to our community. Making sure that extends on into forever is one of the highest priorities in our attempts to update the city zoning codes.

I’ll add there is some urgency here. We do not want to see a swath of development without these regulations on the books. We have spent years formulating the ideas that can ensure a bright future for our arts and creative economy. Now we need to put them in place.

One of our main proposals is that new developments in our major transformational districts like the Inner Belt, Brickbottom and Boynton Yards devote 5% of their gross floor area for arts and creative space. That way our arts community grows along with our business and residential communities. We want studio space and performance/exhibit space. Just having the provision on the books that developers need to account for the arts opens up a whole set of discussions about how they can incorporate creative and public spaces into their building designs.

Another big idea we’re trying to move forward is the expansion of what we call a Fabrication District. Rather than concentrating it one spot, we’ve identified 78 parcels of land all across the city, encompassing 27 acres that would form this “district.” It would allow for a wide range of artist and maker uses: art galleries, artisan enterprises, creative studios, a culinary incubator with shared kitchen space, a design/fabrication center with shared tools, DIY workshops, broadcast/recording studios, small-scale manufacturing. We’ve seen the shared, co-working space concept take off with the Artisan’s Asylum, the Greentown Labs tech incubator and Canopy Somerville startup accelerator. To a degree, it’s modeled on what you see at art schools, which combine classical arts with print shops and metalworking and high-tech design. The idea is to have a space where everyone’s creative juices are flowing and you can develop unexpected and game-changing synergies.

Our estimation is the Fabrication District can sustain 3,000 jobs. We also want to create a special permit for live-in studios inside that district. I won’t bore you with a recitation of the regulations around it, but the main idea is that work-live spaces are crucial for the artist and maker communities. We also have proposed zoning rules for artists to use their neighborhood residences, garages, and carriage houses as creative/studio spaces. This is the sort of thing we all get to take a peek at during open studios and the goal of the zoning here is just to make sure we’ve got our regulations around that activity up to date.

We’re also looking to foster the adaptive reuse of older buildings, like the Arts at the Armory. If an old storage or industrial site, or an old civic building, can be transformed into a creative space, we want the way to do that written into our zoning code.

Our zoning code is where we put our values into action. It’s easy to say we love our artists and makers communities, but that’s just empty words if we don’t plan for the future of those communities.

Right now we don’t have a firm plan for our arts and creative economy ensconced in our bylaws and it is one of the many things we need to address with a new zoning. If you care about these issues, get involved and make sure Somerville updates its zoning in 2016.

 

9 Responses to “If we don’t plan for our artist and maker community, we risk losing it”

  1. BMac says:

    “Think of it as a very dull way to do something exciting—and critical.”

    I think George and Dan might disagree on the “dull.”

    The new Zoning does need to be passed.

    And soon.

  2. MarketMan says:

    I think it’s a good idea being proactive in preserving the arts in Somerville, but please don’t overdo it. Somerville also should attract people that have other interests/professions. Greentown Labs is a perfect example of one way we strive to achieve balance.

  3. A Moore says:

    Yup, put this ahead of children going to bed at night without food. Homeless people. Okay, I know I keep bringing it up and I will keep it up until we take care of those worse off than ourselves. The priorities of this city are out of order. Some cities are even allowing tent cities and tiny shelters for them while we sit here and do nothing.

  4. Jim G. says:

    Well said, Mr. Mayor. Somerville is in a unique position as it stands with its thriving arts scene. We need to help sustain and grow it as a community. We certainly do not live by bread alone.

  5. Freebie says:

    “Inner Belt, Brickbottom and Boynton Yards devote 5% of their gross floor area for arts and creative space.”

    That’s a great idea!

  6. andrea g. says:

    the devotion to keep the community vital with arts is hugely important and appreciated. but creating space is one thing, making it an affordable place to live is another. many wonderful people i know (gifted artists and social workers and teachers who work here) have been forced to leave this community they have loved because of the outrageous and oppressive rent spikes.

  7. What is with the people who show up to every article about maintaining the arts community in Somerville to talk about other people in poverty? These are both important and completely unrelated issues. Every time you mention a false dichotomy of “make Somerville a place that is possible for artists to exist” and “feed the hungry and homeless,” you invent a completely fallacious and objectively absurd conflict. We need to do both of those things. Working on one has nothing to do with neglecting the other.

    I do think the city is working hard on these initiatives, especially zoning, (which is imperfect, but a huge effort that I am thankful for). I just see too many decisions that still come at the cost of making Somerville friendly to the creative community. I was involved with one of the three arts groups vying for the Powder House School, which ultimately went to a pretty run-of-the-mill condo project (at a miniscule sale price). That was an example of a very badly missed opportunity to create a permanent space for keeping artists in the city. I hope we all can identify opportunities like that when they arise, and I hope that the Mayor and other city officials can recognize how important their role is in pushing for arts uses when those rare moments are upon us.

  8. A Moore says:

    My opinions were not targeted at artists only. I bring it up as I see money spent which should be used to solve the problems most pressing for the city and having an order to them and working our way up from there. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me and I expect it. That is my view.

  9. No, you’re right, an entire government system should just do one thing at a time. The fallacy of your argument is not protected by you noting that it’s your opinion. I’m here to make sure no one reading it buys into your false conflict at the cost of lost progress on both issues.