~Photos by Madalyn Jimiera

By Madalyn Jimiera

With the goal of bringing attention to the causes and impacts of artist displacement, the Art Stays Here coalition encapsulates its journey in the Somerville Museum’s new exhibition, “Faces, Spaces, & Places.”

The exhibition opened on June 5, where Art Stays Here staff, partners, artists, and visitors gathered in the museum for the opening reception.

“It’s not something people talk about over coffee at the breakfast table,” said Ami Bennitt, the co-founder of Art Stays Here, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization. “We wanted to tell the stories of how displacement impacts artists. The exhibition is teaching people about it so that we can prevent it.”

Art Stays Here started in 2020, when, after 20 years of remaining an affordable artist workspace, Humphrey Street Studios in Dorchester was facing what was feared to be the end of its journey after the families of the late owners aimed to sell the building.

The 3-year-long preservation campaign that followed, called #ARTWORKSHERE, #ARTSTAYSHERE, led a new development company to purchase the building, which then allowed HSS artists to partly own and operate the space as affordable artists’ workspaces.

Now, the original name of the preservation campaign hangs on two large yellow banners in the exhibition, a nod to the roots of the coalition and the mission ahead.

Around the main gallery space, visitors can read from six sculptural displays that showcase the stories of eight local artist workspaces in different stages of development. The exhibition also invites visitors to look up around the walls, where over five dozen portraits of creatives who work in the spaces hang.

In the smaller gallery, a recreation of an artist’s studio invites visitors to understand what these spaces may look like in practice. Accompanying the room hangs original artwork by artists in Central Street Studios and Humphrey Street Studios that can be purchased.

Visitors can also become part of the exhibition by acting as an “artivist.” In the center of the main room, there is a table for visitors to decorate postcards and write messages to their local elected officials asking for the protection of art spaces. When they are finished, they can insert their postcards into the back of four of the sculptural displays, turning their art into a part of the exhibition. After the exhibition closes on Aug. 23, Art Stays Here will mail the postcards to the elected officials.

The opening of the exhibition comes shortly after the completion of the preservation campaign of Central Street Studios, a longtime artist workspace just across the street from the museum. When the owners wanted to retire and sell the building, Art Stays Here stepped in to help the tenants form a tenants association and organize a fundraising and advocacy campaign. After 18 months, stakeholders, including the City of Somerville, the Mass Cultural Council, and MASSCreative, helped fund the Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston’s ability to purchase the building to keep it as an affordable artist workspace.

Artists Jack Gruman and Logan Puleikis, tenants of Central Street Studios, said the preservation of the studio space created a stronger sense of community between the tenants.

“We really came together around it, so now we all know each other in the building,” said Gruman. “I feel really excited to work with the community now in a future-oriented way.”

The completion of the preservation campaign, which will be celebrated with a ribbon-cutting on June 17, has also relieved some stress from the artists’ shoulders.

“We know it’s going to be a space where we can really set down roots … because you know it’s not going to just be another place you have to move from, so people feel optimistic that they can start to build something together,” Puleikis said.

The exhibition will also host a number of community engagement events through August, including family-friendly workshops, lectures, and a documentary showing.

Towards the end of the reception, several representatives of some of the stakeholders in the advocacy projects gave speeches to emphasize the importance of advocacy work, including Mayor Jake Wilson, who said artists make up the fabric of the Somerville community.

“I know what type of city Somerville is, and the type of city we want to remain and build on, and that’s a city that knows that creative space is part of the community infrastructure,” he said.

Michèle Hansen, a longtime Somerville resident and board member of the Union Square Neighborhood Council, echoed Wilson’s sentiment.

“The arts are part of Somerville’s identity, its history, its ethos, and are significant drivers in its economy,” Hansen said. “Artists need places to live, and we need art to live.”