Creative Arts Aims to Move, Seeks Support

, Reading’s long-running arts organization that serves 29 other communities including Stoneham, nearly secured a deal to move a short distance down the street and make a new home in the church formerly occupied by Reading’s congregation of Christian Scientists.

But the deal fell through, in part, said Creative Arts’ Executive Director Jennifer Hart, because the organization didn’t have the money for a down payment immediately on-hand.

With a deadline rapidly approaching, she said she sent an urgent email to the group’s supporters, but it was too late; the property’s realtors quickly accepted another offer.

Now, she says, she wants to ensure that Creative Arts never finds itself in that position again.

To that end, she aims to raise $100,000 in cash and pledges to have ready the next time the group has an opportunity to move.

During most of its 30-plus years of operation, she said, Creative Arts has been housed in the First Congregational Church on Woburn Street, but it long ago outgrew that arrangement.

Under the current arrangement, Hart said, her organization is at the mercy of the Church’s schedule. When the church holds its fair in September, Creative arts has to shut down for a week. In addition, she said, the group only has control of two rooms. It uses other rooms within the church, but can get bumped out if the church suddenly needs the space.

“We don’t have a true presence,” Hart said. “A lot of people still think we’re part of the church.”

She said the group is flexible in its space needs. It could work with a residential property nearly as well as a commercial one, but its core needs boil down to a performance space and at least one art room.

However, the costs for preparing any space could add up. She projected that it would have cost the group a total of $800,000 to move into the former church down the street—a serious bit of money for a group whose supporters thought it might not survive the economic environment three years ago.

“The organization has always lived hand-to-mouth,” Hart said, “[but] we’ve always been able to pull through, even in the bad times.”