Greater Boston joins the cultural land trust movement

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Back in 2021, WBUR's arts desk published an article by Jenn Stanley titled "In Somerville, affordable studio space for artists is rapidly disappearing." Key to the story was the plight of artists working out of studios at 57 Central St. in Somerville. The four-story building was going up for sale, potentially displacing the dozens of local artists and musicians who had rented workspace there for decades. At the time, artist renters seemed to accept the inevitability of the building's sale and the eventual loss of their studios.

Fast forward four years, and the Central Street Studios are on the cusp of getting purchased and secured as affordable studio space in perpetuity.

The purchase is far from a done deal — among other things, the artists must raise $100,000 to close a funding gap — but this story no longer seems like an anomaly. Rather, it falls on a continuum of efforts to secure permanent artist workspace in gentrifying Greater Boston, from the purchase of the Humphreys Street Studios in Dorchester, to the city of Boston's acquisition of a building for rehearsal studios, to ongoing efforts to resurrect the beloved indie music venue Great Scott. In recent years, there's been a vibe shift: when it comes to real estate, artists have entered the chat.

In the case of Central Street Studios, two organizations have been critical: #ArtStaysHere and the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston (A&BC).

Advocacy group #ArtStaysHere grew out of an organizing effort to preserve Humphreys Street Studios. In just five years, it has aided in no fewer than eight efforts to save arts space, emerging as a powerful ally to artists threatened by displacement.

Ami Bennitt, one of the leaders of #ArtStaysHere, told me that until recently, efforts to save studios have "really been underground." Now, she said, "It's no longer underground. And I think when you get wins and you see that ... something is on a trajectory or on the path to success, it garners more attention and people want to keep going."

#ArtStaysHere provides a critical service for artists facing displacement by molding them into an organized, tactical coalition. The group helps artists form tenant associations, plan publicity campaigns, navigate city bureaucracy, and connect with potential allies in the Greater Boston arts landscape. Bennitt emphasized that her organization succeeds by encouraging artists to speak for themselves. It changes the issue "from this thing that's innocuous, and broad, and not clear, and it's making it very human," she explained.

The A&BC has been equally, if not more, critical in the story of Central Street Studios. Since 2017, the nonprofit has been acquiring buildings in Greater Boston in order to preserve them as affordable arts space. It has two successful acquisitions under its belt: a former Boys & Girls Club in Worcester and a converted mill building in Lowell. A&BC plans to purchase the Central Street Studios and then transfer ownership to a nonprofit that will operate the space and keep it cheap for artists to use.

Though the 6,600-square-foot Central Street building is far smaller than A&BC's two previous acquisitions, the organization's executive director, Jim Grace, told me it's actually a tougher job in some ways. "Every deal's different," he said, and requires fundraisers to cobble together a patchwork of income sources. These include tax credits, debt financing, foundation money, individual contributions and the council's own reserves. In the case of Central Street, the city of Somerville has pledged to contribute funding, though it has not confirmed an amount.

The existence of A&BC is a boon to Boston's creative community. Artists faced with displacement no longer have to mount an acquisition campaign on their own; now, they can turn to an organization experienced in securing property for long-term artistic use. But Grace said that what he calls "cultural land trusts," like A&BC, have a long way to go. "Access to affordable capital is the fundamental challenge," he said. Grace pointed to long-running land trusts like Historic Boston Inc. and The Trustees of Reservations as models. "They have income from their properties and they raise donations and they have an endowment and they create these funds so they can respond to spaces" that go up for sale or are threatened, Grace said. Essentially, they have deep connections to philanthropy and deep pockets of their own.

There are signs that a global cultural land trust movement is afoot. The Community Arts Stabilization Trust, a nonprofit founded in San Francisco in 2012, is a leader in this area, while the city of London established its Creative Land Trust in 2020. In May, San Francisco will host the inaugural Creative Land Trust Summit, an international gathering of cities that have established, or wish to emulate, the land trust model for securing permanent arts space. Clearly, the creative sector has recognized this as a winning strategy. In Greater Boston, it will be interesting to see where the movement leads.