Artists host Open Studios on Friday

In response to dwindling attendance at their complex in recent years as part of United South End Artists's (USEA) Open Studios, 18 artists at 535 Albany Streets are opening their studios on Friday night, November 7 from 4:00 to 8:00 PM, hoping to draw the focus to their own community. Event spokesperson Lisa Houck reports that in addition to the opportunity to browse the 18 participating studios, there will be a raffle of eight original works of art, a floral arranging demonstration by Mark Hall Design and a photographer, Jessie Clements, who will be taking portraits. Houck, whose work encompasses oil and watercolor, prints, mosaics and ceramics, explained, "We are having this event because South End Open Studios no longer focuses on our part of the South End.  We have had very few visitors over the past few years, so we decided to have an event that draws attention to our creative community at 535 Albany Street."

Multi-media artist Susan Belton, who explores the cultural phenomenon of "coffee to go" in two and three dimensional works, feels that the moment is just right for 535 Albany Street's stand-alone event. She wrote, "Interest in what is bubbling in our building is quite timely. With the spurt in development in the neighborhood, those of us who treasure the proximity to such innovative, serious, committed art practitioners start to feel a bit nervous. The artists at 535 Albany Street gathered together to organize this event for the public largely because over the years as "South End Open Studios" grew, our participation in it was lost in the jumble and noise of events taking place blocks away from us on Thayer Street. The public never found our spaces. And while so many of the art practitioners in this building are busy with national and international exhibitions and commissions, we love our neighborhood, the creative environment. We treasure the dense, creative energy generated by working in proximity to each other. Audience is important to artists, and neighborhood is as well, and we thought it important to show the public some of the magic taking place in this unique building of creative professionals."

JoAnn Rothschild, who paints vibrantly colored abstracts, is enthusiastic about the complex's new event. "It's exciting to be able to show with the other artists in our building, whom I respect and consult, as they do me.  The concentrated time and space of this exhibition festival means that viewers can spend time looking, instead of traveling and can thus get a sense of how we learn from and support one another in this wonderful building."

Hope Ricciardi, whose intense paintings and drawings are inspired by her Armenian heritage and the 1915 Armenian genocide, is the recently elected co-chair of USEA and maintains a studio at 450 Harrison Avenue. Ricciardi expressed support for the 535 Albany Street open studio night, but also hopes to draw the complex back into the USEA fold. "As I understand it, 535 Albany has been included in the USEA Open Studio event on the third weekend of September for many years, but does not get the traffic flow that goes to Harrison Avenue and Tremont Street. Our newly formed board is looking into ways we might address this situation, as a number of art studio buildings in the area have the same problem. The SOWA building at 450 Harrison Avenue hosts an Open Studio event in March that is separate from USEA Open Studios, so this is not uncommon," she observed.

Addressing the possible reasons for 535 Albany's diminishing attendance on recent USEA Open Studios tours, Ricciardi said, "We do have city trolleys that help move people around the South End, but they do not go down to Albany. We are looking into adjusting that." She added, "As I believe artists need as much exposure as possible, I support the Albany Street event and hope it is a big success. I will probably attend as I know several artists there who did participate in the USEA Open Studios 2014. Looking ahead, I would hope 535 Albany would still participate in all USEA events as well as their own."