Katt Hernandez 195 Hampshire Street #3 Cambridge, MA 02139

Honorable

Street

Boston, MA

Dear ,

I am writing to express my dismay and disgust at the City’s treatment of the Berwick Research Institute. This valuable center for the arts could hardly be called a "Night Club". Where behind most "Night Clubs" is an owner bent on sacrificing quality, sanity, eardrums, and civility to the almighty dollar, the folks who run spaces like the Berwick are doing it out of the purest motive of all- to give something back to the community. Most of the time, people running spaces like this are actually losing money on them. As a space which programs non-commercial, challenging, and experimental performances and exhibits, asks for voluntary donations rather than demanding a cover charge, and lacks in the ever-present feature of a nightclub- a BAR- the Berwick Research Institute would make a poor imitation of a "Night Club" indeed.

Rather, the Berwick is an Art Space- one of a dying breed in this area. Rents are so absurd that one can hardly afford to live here, let alone have a place where anything not focused on reaping in the big bucks can go on. More thinkers, artists, intellectuals, musicians, dancers, and performers have left this area in the last few years than I can count- sitting here at this moment I can come up with forty names without much effort. Long term residents who loved this community. Gone.

Why? -you might ask. Well, that’s a good question!

Because the rents in this area are so astronomically, absurdly high that all activities in "commercial" spaces have to bring in the top dollar, just to stay open. This does not leave much space for Art which is challenging, experimental, or not commercially viable. No, nowadays in Boston or Cambridge you have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to an institution of higher learning every semester just to have access to an auditorium.

But there is another reason people who create things leave. It is also because, time and time again, ignorant, art-hating city officials confuse Art Spaces with Houses of Variated Unspecified Ill Repute and try to shut them down with permits, fire laws, entertainment codes, and all manner of claptrap. They try to squeeze out the volunteers who run these places and the landlords who give up huge corporate rents to give them a spot to try it. They allow one neighbor of a space where, over the course of a year, many, many people will have important life experiences, to stop them cold. And those that do survive this onslaught of red tape and outdated puritanicalism often fall prey- once again- to the absurd rents. Let’s look at some examples in Boston and Cambridge, shall we?

Mobius- Had to leave a space after 25 years because a huge corporation took it over and kicked them out. I haven’t seen the new space yet. It might be educational for the City Officials to see it, as I think Mobius must have had a similar start to Berwick. But then, I may be giving out bad advice- after all, what if you all decide it’s a "Night Club"?

Little White Box- This important outlet for burgeoning young artists was shut down when Gillette bought the building out from under them.

Revolving Museum- A fantastic Art Space of the Highest Caliber- too bad they had to move to Lowell!

Gallery FX- Part of a block of Galleries near the Pine Street Inn, this was a little place where you could try things that definitly would never fly in a "Night Club"- performance art, weird jazz, sound art. . . it lost its funding recently. I heard it closed. I hope I heard wrong.

Zeitgeist Gallery- had to go to court to win the right to ask for voluntary donations. Was shut down for months. (By the way, they won the case in court, and have been asking for voluntary donations to this day).

Mama Gaia’s- this amazing café with internet access, books, poetry readings, community meetings, all kinds of music, and performance art, barely lasted a year in Cambridge’s rental climate. I hear someone say they miss it oh- about every week! Replacing it we have a coffee house with no room for performances, and another Indian Resturant(with five of them already, Central Square REALLY needed another Indian Resturant! Whew! What a relief!)

Bad Grrls Studio- We are still missing this little Jamaica Plain hideaway for the Arts. Forcibly shut down by the City for committing the crime of making music!

Films at Carberry’s- First the City Demanded the organizers- a bunch of volunteers with no backing and no money- buy a seven hundred dollar permit to show some movies and have a couple bands in a parking lot for a few summer evenings. They were mostly old silent films from the library, with experimental music as sound tracks. It was immensely popular. Then a neighbor- ONE neighbor- from several blocks away complained that he heard music(a lot more than ONE person went to these shows, but this ONE guy was enough to shut it down. Long live the property owners!)

Out of the Blue Gallery- in their new location, they are not allowed to have music of any kind- even if they limit the number of people coming in. Do you know why? I can’t figure it out. . .

Jaques Caberet- Has a room for completely experimental work in music and performance, in addition to the drag queens singing old songs from the eighties. Recently got harassed by its neighbors for being a place for the trans-sexual community to be allowed to exist. Thank god its still there, because at this rate it may be one of the only places left to play.

Curious Liquids Coffee House- Writers, artists, philosophers, and others used to gather here. Really beautiful, amazingly designed room based on the work of Provincetown’s Edward Gorey. Several arts organizations held their meetings here as a central point. The city wouldn’t give them- pardon me, sell them- a performance permit. Then they were kicked out in favor of expensive condos.

Gallery 608- This Gallery in Somerville has only been open a month. But the police have already showed up to try and shut down its second exhibit. A woman was in the window, demonstrating ideas about Body Image by trying on cloths that did not fit her. She was more clad in her undies and bathing suit than most of the women you see in magazine racks in all the local drug stores. But they were told- erroneously- that they would need a permit. (Even the Somerville police seem a little embarrassed over this- the show went up again since without incident).

The Scrapstock Festival- The festival that never happened! It was slated to go up in September of 2002. There were many acts booked, ranging from free jazz to sound art to poetry to folk music to local art-rock. There were sculptors working on installations. It got a grant from the city’s Arts Council. The organizers had done all the leg-work- insurance, police, fire, you name it. It was to take place in a scrap metal yard which is an ugly eye-sore. That is, they were going to turn something ugly into something beautiful. And then the Aldermen found out that something innovative, creative and good might be going on in their city, and shut it down days before opening night.

The Bookseller Café- This amazing outlet for experimental music and spoken word- as well as a fantastic bookstore- closed a couple years back. I know several people who left town specifically because it was gone. The owners were told that only four or five people could be in the shop at a time because of fire codes. The landlord now charges $4000 a month for the space(I got that figure from his realtor), which sits empty until Christmas time, at which point it is rented for one month by a chincy, tacky, Christmas Shoppe. What a bargain!

The Piano Factory- This once-revolutionary Art Space and Artists Housing complex has gotten so expensive that artists are leaving in droves. People who have plied their craft there for decades are being forced out by the ever-increasing "market-rate" rents. Instead, hobbyists and very young students who could afford to live anywhere on their parents’ stipends take their place. The community has been decimated.

The ICA- This clocks in as one of the most expensive halls in the city. They are definitely not picking up their end of the arts community- except the very rich and well-funded portion.

SA Café- Had a fellow playing an accoustic guitar. It was one of their first attempts at daring to have sounds of a musical rather than verbal persuasion take place in their new establishment. The police came and stopped him, because the SA had not paid hundreds of dollars to buy a permit. Many Café owners I know would love to give accoustic musicians an opportunity to play, but are afraid to because of incidents like this one.

Fort Point Channel- This was an artists community- once. Now it’s a spanking new office district! Of course the world needs more offices! But where do all those office workers go when they get out from work? What do they do for enjoyment? There won’t be much left to enjoy in the Fort Point at the rate we’re going- artist and Art Space evictions are going on there wholesale. And I doubt the recent purchase of FORTY buildings in the area by ONE company will help matters in the least.

Jimmaize- Provided a much-needed spot for experimental jazz musicians. Shut down after less than a year due to insane rent and lack of a performance permit(voluntary donations didn’t’ cover the rent, non-commercial music didn’t cover the price of the permit).

The Sound Museum- A typical practice room facility for the area. Rents for a closet-sized practice rooms have risen to over $400 a month. Remember when a room cost that much? Can you afford it? Because I sure can’t!

The Playground New Music Series- a World-Renowned, grassroots new music series running the entire concievable gammut of new and improvised music. It ran for over seven years, every Friday night, and brought musicians from this community together with musicians and dancers from all over the world. Has been out of commission for months because there is not a space in town they can afford to rent out one night a week, while still having enough to continue to bring musicians from the corners of the globe to this community. Indeed, without the volunteer producers losing their already-thin shirts.

The Back Bay- Like the Fort Point Channel, this was once an "economic development area"(read "slum") which was then thickly populated and beautified by artists. As a reward for their efforts, the artists were then forced out by the high rents their presence- inadvertently -helped to inspire.

Art Studios in China Town- An entire building of art studios and Art Spaces was razed recently to make way for the new Lowes Theater/Ritz-Carlton complex. Not only did this displace artists, but it is a dazzling example of the death of architecture.

Eventually, people started trying to have shows and exhibitions in their homes. Some people even make their homes into Art, so there will be a place to go if you are an artist. Again, they do it for free, and for the common good. And again they are punished- neighbors, zoning, codes, police, and harassment. Just for trying to create some beauty! A lot of those have been shut down, too. But where else is there to go? What with all these spaces being shut down, there’s precious few places left where you are permitted to speak, read, play an instrument, or show someone a painting or a piece of sculpture. Who needs direct assaults on constitutional rights when you’ve got City Ordinances to do the job for you? You can’t even do art on the street, or in a park, or in your own business establishment without paying gobs of money for a permit- which becomes even more insane in these difficult economic times. There is less and less space for the exercise of free expression in this area. Unless, of course, you are a college-aged person with a college-sized salary to spend on- college!

But perhaps I digress!

A few brave souls, like those at the Berwick, have the funny idea that some spaces should be set aside, and used for the better things in life. I would love to cite more positive examples, but I am genuinely afraid this would only provoke more destructive "investigations".

The Berwick is a shining example of what an Art Space ought to be. And I am not alone in thinking so- they even got a grant from the prestigious LEF Foundation. The organizers, the landlord, and the neighborhood have created a community based, egalitarian center where people can come and pursue their artistic dreams and visions. For creating things higher on the map of human potential than the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Bravely, resourcefully, they go to the least desirable of areas, in the weirdest, funkiest old buildings, and make it happen.

The folks who run spaces like this don’t do it for money. They do it so there is a place where creative pursuits are allowed to exist. Where musicians are allowed to exist. Where artists, dancers, writers, shapers, makers, and thinkers can actually go and do what they love, and then share it with their community. They’ve done this in a neighborhood most Responsible, Respectable businesses will not touch with a ten foot pole. They’ve provided a valuable outlet for artists, performers, musicians, and film makers in an environment where there are fewer and fewer places for people to do these things. They’ve made a place where you do not have to be RICH in order to make ART- They deserve an award, an endowment, and all the resources necessary to continue- not a citation!

But what does the City of Boston do?

Why punish them, of course! We can grandfather in diners, office buildings, and retail shops, but we can’t have any ART here in Boston! Oh no, we’d rather have a huge empty warehouse in the middle of a crumbling slum than have the Berwick Research Institute. And god forbid 50 people should gather together to listen and look to some new creations- that could be dangerous! Someone might possibly get hurt! We’d rather everybody stay home, nice and safe, or better yet, go to a rock and roll, pounding, liquor-laden, drinking, cover-charging, rip-roaring, city permitted and approved NIGHT CLUB!

Whatever you do, lets get the Berwick Research Institute up and running again as soon as possible! How ’bout today? how ‘bout NOW?

Thanks for listening-

Katt Hernandez

Violinist

PS- As a performer at the Berwick and at similar spaces across the city and the nation, I can’t imagine any Art Space letting a bunch of drunk, crazed, pyro-maniacal metal-heads into their space, like those idiots at the Station in Rhode Island did. The only fire I know about in an Art Space recently was the fire at the old Zeitgeist, where I am a volunteer, and in which no one was injured. All that happened was that we had to move. And it was due to faulty wiring in a WATER COOLER.

PPS- I know! Water Coolers are DANGEROUS! Lets ban them IMMEDIATELY! Quick, get out there and SHUT DOWN all the rooms, offices, houses, and Night Clubs that have Water Coolers before its too late!

cc. Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Councilman Michael Flaherty, Councilman Felix D. Arroyo, Councilwoman Maura Hennigan, Councilman Stephen J. Murphy, Councilman Rob Consalvo, Councilman John Tobin, Councilman Chuck Turner, Commissioner Kevin Joyce, Esther Kaplan, Jason Weeks, Jane Beal, Gregory Jenkins, Rachel Strutt, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Metro, Improper Bostonian, Cambridge TAB, Cambridge Chronicle, Allston/Brookline TAB, Boston Phoenix, Weekly Dig.