{"id":8179,"date":"2018-08-13T08:15:17","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T12:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=8179"},"modified":"2018-08-13T08:19:41","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T12:19:41","slug":"african-american-master-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/08\/13\/african-american-master-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Northeastern Delays Deadline For Landmark Black Arts Program To Vacate Boston Building, Some Artists Object To Negotiation Ground Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under pressure from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Northeastern University has again pushed back the deadline for when it says school\u2019s landmark African American Master Artists In Residence Program must vacate a school building. But some of the artists are objecting to the negotiating ground rules.<\/p>\n

The Boston school\u2019s new deadline for the program to depart two floors of a Jamaica Plain building \u201cis set for 10\/31 to give the artists ample time and opportunity to vacate the space so we can begin extensive renovations in a timely fashion to eliminate the current hazardous conditions,\u201d Northeastern spokesperson Renata Nyul writes me.<\/p>\n

On June 28, Northeastern sent a letter to artists in the program, which is affiliated with the school\u2019s Department of African American Studies, ordering them to move out of program studios at 76 Atherton St. by July 13 \u201cbecause of hazardous conditions\u201d in the building. But artists in the program have disputed the school\u2019s description of the building, saying conditions are not dangerous. They add that the school has not offered them any alternative space to use during the repairs. Some suspect that Northeastern is trying to drop the program altogether.<\/p>\n

Yesterday afternoon, about 40 people\u2014program artists and their supporters\u2014gathered in the program\u2019s fourth floor gallery at the Atherton building at the invitation of the artists for a community meeting about the status of the program (pictured at top).<\/p>\n

Program director Gloretta Baynes gave a brief overview of the history of the program and explained how negotiations with Northeastern are ongoing since officials from the Walsh administration got involved in late July. At yesterday’s meeting, program members aimed to reconnect with supporters in the community, have them see the condition of the building \u201cand see that it\u2019s safe,\u201d program artist Jeff Chandler said, and plan strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the ground rules for negotiations\u201d with Northeastern, said Chuck Turner, a former Boston city councilor who has been advising the group, is \u201cthere would be not be conversations with the press.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Turner asked the sole reporter in attendance (me) to depart\u2014which I did. Some program supporters, though, say that Northeastern officials are sharing information with the press while they feel they are being muzzled. \u201cThe fact that they\u2019re even instituting control over how we can have a meeting is crazy,\u201d Chandler told me after he\u2019d left the meeting.<\/p>\n

\"African<\/a>
African American Master Artists In Residence Program director Gloretta Baynes speaks to program artists and supporters in the fourth-floor gallery at the studios at 76 Atherton St., Boston, Aug. 12, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The African American Master Artists In Residence Program, which began in 1978, has been a landmark project in its recognition of black artists, in the amount of space offered, and in the length of the residencies (three years to start, but many allowed to stay much longer; some current resident artists have been there decades). And it has been \u201crent-free,\u201d as organizers wrote in the late 1970s, \u201cThus enabling the artists to produce works at a level of intensity none has ever been able to attain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a July 6 meeting between Northeastern and representatives of the residency program, the school extended the initial deadline for program participants to vacate the building to July 31.<\/p>\n

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh got involved in late July and has arranged a \u201cseries of conversations between [Northeastern] and the artists, facilitated by the city aimed at strengthening the AAMARP program\u2019s future at Northeastern,\u201d Samantha Ormsby, a press secretary for Walsh, reported.<\/p>\n

Previously:
\nJuly 25, 2018: “Mayor Pushes Northeastern To Give Landmark Black Artists Residency Program More Time To Vacate Boston Building”<\/a>
\nJuly 3, 3018: “Northeastern Says Landmark Black Artists Residency Program \u2018Must Vacate\u2019 Jamaica Plain Building”<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Under pressure from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Northeastern University has again pushed back the deadline for when it says school\u2019s landmark African American Master Artists In Residence Program must vacate a school building. But some of the artists are objecting to the negotiating ground rules. The Boston school\u2019s new deadline for the program to depart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[408,265,264,37,207],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8179"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8195,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8179\/revisions\/8195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}