1870 Artists Leaving Barrett

By the end of May, more than half the artists who currently occupy the 1870 Art Center at will be gone. The move comes following the City of Belmont's re-negotiation of the lease for the spaces rented by the non-profit corporation 1870 Artists.

The city owns the Barrett property and plans to to convert the wing closest to Ralston Avenue into classrooms for community recreation programs. 

Jonathan Gervais, director of explained that the art group's lease expired in 2008 and in April 2010 the city council directed staff to look at similar leases in other cities and market rates to determine the pricing structure for the artist tenants.

"The city council wanted to negotiate, but with a different pricing structure," Gervais explained.

"We negotiated for seven months with three representatives from 1870 and we came very close to a new lease. But when we brought it to city council, the artists group gave a flat out 'no.'  We had reached an impasse over the lease negotiation so the city decided to offer 12 studios to those who wanted them under a facility use permit instead of a lease," he said.

"We asked for any artist who wanted to stay to let us know. Of the 26 studios, we are keeping 12 in the middle wing," Gervais said. He added that 14 showed interest in staying, so two remain on a wait list. 

He added that of the 26 artists at the Barrett facility, only three are Belmont residents.

"It's time to revert the facility into something that can be instead of for private use."

"Out of the 26 artists, 14 indicated they are interested, so we randomly picked 12 and placed two on a waiting list," Gervais explained. 

"Eight artists didn't respond or indicate if they wanted to stay or go, so we asked them to vacate by May 31." 

Gervais said he understands that some of the artists are angry and disappointed over the lease termination. 

"From our perspective, we tried to make this work," he said. "We made concessions on our end, but ended up at an impasse. Out of deference to the artists, we moved our termination date till the end of month so they could host their Open Studios event in May." 

The semi-annual Open Studios event on May 19-20 will go ahead as scheduled.

Over the summer Gervais said the city will make improvements to the building, making classrooms that will house theatre, dance and musical programs.

"This is part of our for Barrett. What does the community want to do with the site? Hopefully this will start a dialogue."