Cooperative showcases art put in its place
With the Red Sox's triumphant season, it would be easy to dismiss the area surrounding Fenway Park as a mere backdrop for that venerable baseball mecca. But art lovers know the Fenway is much more than sports bars and overpriced parking lots. The neighborhood has other shrines, from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts to the historic Fenway Studios.
The city's oldest artist cooperative marks its 99th anniversary next weekend during the annual Fenway Open Studios event with a look back at the building's rich, creative history.
Built in 1905, Fenway Studios was decades ahead of the recent trend to set aside space for artists as a way to lure well-heeled suburbanites back downtown.
After a number of the city's best-known artists lost their studios in a 1904 fire, city and business leaders rallied to their aid by acquiring land on Ipswich Street and paying for the construction of a new building. Created in the tradition of 19th-century Parisian ateliers, with high ceilings and northern exposures, Fenway Studios was designed as a place for artists to live and work inexpensively and in close proximity to local art schools and museums.
In the early 1900s, the building was home to artists and art instructors known collectively as the "Boston School" for a painting style influenced by the Impressionists and Jan Vermeer, said painter Teri Malo. Later, their students, including painters Sam Vokey and Yoshi Mizutani, took up residence.
"Not only is the building old, the community is so well-established," said Malo.
Many artists, like Malo, have been resident for more than 20 years; some, like Robert Cormier and Irene Burns, have been there as long as 50 years. Getting a studio is akin to scoring Red Sox season tickets.
"Eventually if someone dies, a space opens up," said Malo with a laugh.
In the mid-1970s, a group of artists bought the decaying building, which city officials had threatened to shutter for nonpayment of $200,000 in back taxes. After securing financing, the cooperative was formed in 1981.
Two-thirds of the building's 46 studios are live/work spaces occupied by painters who favor the north light from large windows facing the highway.
"It's terrific -- not too many people live by the Mass. Pike and love it, but we do," said Malo.
In 1998, the artists successfully fought a developer's plan to erect a 41-story high-rise over the Pike that would have blocked their light by persuading the US Secretary of the Interior to declare the building a National Historic Landmark.
In recent years, the old building has needed wide-scale repairs, driving up rents dramatically. With the fund-raising help of a nonprofit group, the Friends of Fenway Studios, almost $1 million was spent in the building's latest repairs, installing a new roof, repairing exterior brick, replacing fire escapes, and fixing broken concrete sills. The work was completed in August. Additional work to replace windows and pipes will begin once the group has raised another $1.2 million.
"If repairs weren't done, most people would have to leave," said Loretta Cuda, a painter and painting conservator. "Artists aren't exactly the richest people. I believe only 1 percent of artists make enough money to support themselves by their art."
Twenty-four artists at Fenway Studios will open their doors to the public Saturday and next Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Fenway Studios is located at 30 Ipswich St., one block from the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street. The event is free.
