Dancers getting ready for a class at Green Street Studios this evening were surprised by today’s announcement that the Cambridge dance rehearsal and performance space plans to shut down on Oct 27 after 28 years in operation.
“Green Street Studios is thriving both artistically and financially,” the nonprofit’s board of directors said in an announcement posted to doors inside the second floor center at 185 Green St. (Full text below.) “Following a turn-around initiated in 2016, exponential growth has continued under current leadership. Despite this success, GSS cannot sustain a significant rent increase brought by new ownership of the building. Tragically, the increase reflects the prohibitive cost to operate in the Central Square Cultural Arts District and broader Cambridge.”
Green Street’s board continued: “Upon closure, GSS will join the ranks of other non-profit arts organizations (i.e., EMF and Out of the Blue Too Gallery) which have been forced to close or relocate in recent years due to prohibitive operating costs in Central Square. The City of Cambridge is aware of the untenable costs, but is neither actively preserving nor offering support to keep cultural arts institutions in Cambridge.”
A post in the Boston Dancers & Choreographers facebook group said: “It is time we do something about it, at least let the city of Cambridge that they are allowing the killing of the arts. What can we do? Write letters? March? demonstrations?”
Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern responded there: “I agree that we must do more to support the arts in our city. I appointed the first ever Mayor’s Arts Task Force to look at ways to do that. … There are some things the City can do and some things we can’t. There is no commercial rent control, which means we cannot tell a landlord how much they can charge for rent. We can, however, find other ways to financially support the arts. This is the first I’ve heard that the studio was in his situation. I wish I knew sooner. I’m not sure that I could have helped, but I would have tried.”
Debra Cash, Executive Director of the Boston Dance Alliance, said via email (full text below): “Many dancers and dance lovers in our community have wonderful memories of seeing performances of new work in Studio One, taking classes there with the benefit of the great Wooden Kiwi floor installed by the studio’s entrepreneurial founders, and gathering at community parties and benefits. Green Street had been threatened with closure a number of times over the past few years, but as I understand it, after the building was sold last spring for more than $12 million, it was unlikely that the dancers would continue to be able to rent at below-market rates.”
“Artists need space to do their work,” Cash continued. “Dancers, who tend to be among the least well-remunerated of any performers, need space, time, and safe, resilient dance floors. Good city planners address this need holistically and make an explicit commitment to secure space for creative professionals as well as for community arts activity. We should not be in reactive mode, trying to hold on to specific spaces against an onslaught of development.”
The Boston Dance Alliance offered resources on its website to help dancers find new locations for classes, rehearsals and performances.
“This is a massive blow to the local dance community,” Karen Krolak, co-founder and artistic director of Monkeyhouse dance company said via email. “Having lost Monkeyhouse’s artistic home when Springstep in Medford closed, I know first hand how damaging this is to small dance organizations. … We need to invest in and protect the remaining dance venues in the area.”
Update Oct. 4: Ruth Birnberg, a founding member Green Street Studios, first executive director of the Boston Dance Alliance, and current director of Next Steps for Boston Dance, recalled in a facebook post how Green Street Studios was originally founded because dancers had lost spaces to rehearse and perform: “We decided that the only response was to find new space where we had control and could create a place where our energy could go to making and teaching dance and offer a place for others to do the same. Was it easy? Of course not – there were numerous challenges and barriers, but then Green Street Studios began and we had a 10 year lease that turned into 28 years. … SO cry for a little while and then together use all your passion for dance and go find a new dance home!”
Update Oct. 3: Peter DiMuro, executive artistic director of Cambridge’s Dance Complex, said in an email sent out late in the afternoon on Oct. 3 (full text below): “The dance maker community resides in Central Square- and has, for decades, been the Boston region’s research and development wing of dance. We will do our part to rally the City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Arts Council, the Boston Dance Alliance, funders of dance and even those who do not fund dance- to help us sustain spaces for artists. The designation of Central Square as a Cultural District of the state could and should stand for more than a name. The Dance Complex vows to advocate and act for more support for dance with all these entities for long term solutions of support and sustainment – and in the short term we will do our best to collaborate to find solutions so that dancers are not displaced on November 1, 2019, once Green Street Studios closes.”
Previously: ‘Save EMF’ Building Rally: ‘What Mr. DiGiovanni Is Doing May Be Legal, But It’s Not Right’
Update: ‘Visibility Dance’ Planned After Green Street Studios Announces Closing
Full announcement from Green Street Studios Board of Directors, Oct. 2, 2019:
Green Street Studios is closing after 28 incredible years of serving the dance and arts community in Cambridge and greater Boston. Green Street Studios is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization that fulfills its mission to empower artists to create, explore, and showcase ideas that enhance the vibrancy of our community through affordable rehearsal space and accessible, innovative programming. Each year, GSS has welcomed over 5000 community members to our Central Square studios and Black Box Theater for performances, classes, rehearsals, artist residencies, and more.
Green Street Studios is thriving both artistically and financially. Following a turn-around initiated in 2016, exponential growth has continued under current leadership. Despite this success, GSS cannot sustain a significant rent increase brought by new ownership of the building. Tragically, the increase reflects the prohibitive cost to operate in the Central Square Cultural Arts District and broader Cambridge.
The last day of regular operations will be October 27, 2019. We invite community members to celebrate the legacy of Green Street Studios by renting space, taking classes, and attending performances. A special Benefit Class Series will take place October 18-20. Please check our website and social media in the coming weeks for the schedule and other important updates.
Upon closure, GSS will join the ranks of other non-profit arts organizations (i.e., EMF and Out of the Blue Too Gallery ) which have been forced to close or relocate in recent years due to prohibitive operating costs in Central Square. The City of Cambridge is aware of the untenable costs, but is neither actively preserving nor offering support to keep cultural arts institutions in Cambridge.
Get involved. We encourage you to lend your support to existing arts organizations. If the arts have enriched your life, please advocate for meaningful arts funding and protection in Cambridge.
Thank you to the passionate community, staff, leadership, and volunteers who have kept the heart of Green Street Studios beating for 28 years.
Full note from Debra Cash, Executive Director of the Boston Dance Alliance, Oct. 2, 2019:
The closing of Green Street Studios after almost thirty years is very sad. Many dancers and dance lovers in our community have wonderful memories of seeing performances of new work in Studio One, taking classes there with the benefit of the great Wooden Kiwi floor installed by the studio’s entrepreneurial founders, and gathering at community parties and benefits. Green Street had been threatened with closure a number of times over the past few years, but as I understand it, after the building was sold last spring for more than $12 million, it was unlikely that the dancers would continue to be able to rent at below-market rates.
There are two messages here. The first, about urban gentrification is familiar: artists fix up spaces that increase local property values and then are priced out. Of course, given Central Square’s location and its proximity to developments in a booming tech sector, this run up in the market was bound to happen.
The more important issue, though, is that artists need space to do their work. Dancers, who tend to be among the least well-remunerated of any performers, need space, time, and safe, resilient dance floors. Good city planners address this need holistically and make an explicit commitment to secure space for creative professionals as well as for community arts activity. We should not be in reactive mode, trying to hold on to specific spaces against an onslaught of development.
New dance spaces are indeed likely to come online. Older ones, like the wonderful renovation of the Sanctuary Theatre in Harvard Square by Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, may offer some options. As soon as I heard this news, Boston Dance Alliance went into action, posting a list of spaces displaced dancers, dance teachers, and dance companies can rent if only on a temporary basis. We are also exploring providing BDA’s portable dance floor at a special discount during the month of November while displaced dancers establish new relationships with landlords and venues.
Debra Cash
Boston Dance Alliance
Full note from Peter DiMuro, executive artistic director of Cambridge’s Dance Complex, Oct. 3, 2019:
A Note On Green Street Studios
“No effort on the behalf of art is wasted. Congratulations on 28 years of persistence and poetry in movement.”–Peter DiMuro
We make things.
Artists, we create things, whether we are a sculptor, a choreographer, or a video artist. We also make communities that help hold other artists while they make. Our neighbors at Green St. Studios- from its founders who saw to it one of the best dance floors in Boston was laid in those early days 28 years ago, up to the young dancers who may have entered the 2nd floor studios yesterday for the first time- have made something to be proud of. All of us who took class, performed and rehearsed there contributed not only to Green St., but helped make a greater dance community. A loss like this is felt hard by many, and brings us – should bring us – to face realities.
As Green Street announces its closing, it causes me to take pause, as I know it does for many others. Dance, with all its glorious opportunities afforded to every human day-to-day (breathing, reaching, running, partnering, collaborating, non-verbal communicating, human touching, full blown synchronizing, political and social commenting, creating poetry of bodies where words fail us: this is ALL dance) is undervalued by our social constructs and often thrust aside for more “concrete, hard, real…” values. We feel the pinch, often what feels like a gouging, when support doesn’t come through here at The Dance Complex. Any of us as artists, takes a road that requires persistence, ingenuity, creativity….but the effort often takes a toll. Many in society benefit from our work, but many do not value what has been brought to their lives through movement, through dance.
The dance maker community resides in Central Square- and has, for decades, been the Boston region’s research and development wing of dance. We will do our part to rally the City of Cambridge, the Cambridge Arts Council, the Boston Dance Alliance, funders of dance and even those who do not fund dance- to help us sustain spaces for artists. The designation of Central Square as a Cultural District of the state could and should stand for more than a name.
The Dance Complex vows to advocate and act for more support for dance with all these entities for long term solutions of support and sustainment – and in the short term we will do our best to collaborate to find solutions so that dancers are not displaced on November 1, 2019 once Green Street Studios closes.
My heart goes out to those who have had to make difficult decisions leading up to this closure.
Peter, on behalf of the Staff, Board of The Dance Complex
Full note from Ruth Birnberg, founding member Green Street Studios, Oct. 4, 2019:
Dear Dance Artists,
I write this note to the community as a founding member of Green Street Studios. It is of course with great sadness that I mourn the passing of a place that has meant so much to a significant group of dance artists. I have loved that for so many years past the time that I was involved the studio continued to thrive even when faced with numerous challenges and continued to house incredible dance making. BUT I am not writing to all of you now to share in your anger, sadness, woefulness, and bemoaning the lack of support I know you legitimately feel.
INSTEAD I am writing to beseech you to move forward and to give/remind you a piece of history that led to the original founding of Green Street Studios. When the five original founding members created Green Street Studios all had lost access to the spaces where we worked. Cheri Opperman and I had been teaching every day at the Concert Dance Company space in Harvard Square and then the company folded and the lease was terminated a year later. Paula Jose Jones and Pam White lost a space in north Cambridge due to a change in how the space was going to be used. Marcus Schulkind taught at Concert Dance Company and at the Joy of Movement Center (now The Dance Complex) and its doors closed with one day’s notice.
Were we devastated? Of course. Did we get together and rail at the various powers that controlled our access and now lack of access to space? Yes. But then after a short period of devastation we decided that the only response was to find new space where we had control and could create a place where our energy could go to making and teaching dance and offer a place for others to do the same. Was it easy? Of course not – there were numerous challenges and barriers, but then Green Street Studios began and we had a 10 year lease that turned into 28 years. Now it is time to find a new place that can house all the wonderful dance making. Do I recognize that due to the boom in real estate that finding a place seems impossible? Yes – however it felt overwhelming to us as well but by coming together with others it began to seem manageable. The five of us did not know each other well and we had to figure things out as we went along. The first couple of years were tough. But our belief in the work kept us moving forward. SO cry for a little while and then together use all your passion for dance and go find a new dance home!
With much faith in the strength of this dance community
Very Warmly Yours
Ruth Birnberg
Founding member Green Street Studios, First Executive Director of Boston Dance Alliance, and current director of Next Steps for Boston Dance
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