Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Important

MEETING

of

SOBACC

Task Force

(South Boston Arts and Cultural Center)

MONDAY NOV. 16

6:30 TO 8 PM

at the

South Boston Community Health Center

Conference Room

386 West Broadway

SPECIAL NOTE:

A timeline detailing the activities of the task force

can be downloaded and is shown below.

February 5 - The Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) called a meeting at the Condon School to address the disposition of the old South Boston District 6 Police Station.

February through March – A n ad hoc group of Southie residents for a South Boston Arts and Cultural Center (SOBACC) met at informal meetings to discuss ideas and agreed on planning for an Arts Center on the site of the abandoned police building. They proposed the idea at a meeting of the St. Vincent Neighborhood Association and the response was positive.

March 25 A Public Meeting for South Boston residents was called by SOBACC at the Condon School to propose their plans for an Arts Center and discuss ways and means.

April through May - Meetings continued and outreach made to civic associations began. Response was positive.

June 3 – The City of Boston Department of Neighborhood Development held an official pre-advertised meeting to further discuss proposals. Over 250 residents showed up and two proposals were presented. SOBACC presented its proposal for an arts & community center, and the South Boston Neighborhood Development Corporation (SBNDC) presented it’s plan for 30 units to be developed …15 for veterans families and 15 for veterans in transition. The SOBACC proposal was overwhelmingly approved by the residents in a 10 to 1 show of hands that was called for by State Senator Jack Hart. The application for the RFP proposal was to be available within a month. Sen. Hart also requested and received an agreement with John Feuerbach of DND to extend the regular 30-day return for the RFP proposal, to 120-days.

June – SOBACC was offered and accepted an unsolicited pro-bono proposal by Perkins & Will, an international architectural firm. Pat Cunningham an architect in the firm’s Boston office, heard of the arts center proposal and took the idea to John Fuller chief operating officer of the firm. They offered their work on RFP and suggested another architect, David Silverman of MapLab located at the Design Center, who volunteered to assist John Fuller.

September – Met with John Feuerbach, senior development officer at the DND office for a progress report. He informed us that the RFP would be delayed until water could be removed from the basement of the building. The RFP application would not be available until December.

September 29 –Talked with John Cyphers, records manager, at the DND office who offered plans for the building. Visited with John Fuller of Perkins & Will and apprised him that we had the plans. Tom Cipolla, graphic artist, kept plans to work up graphics.

October – Met with John Fuller and Pat Cunningham of Perkins & Will for a progress report.

October 23 – Met with John Feuerbach at the DND office, once again, with a progress report.

October – Accepted pro bono offer from Boston law firm to handle Non-Profit application.

October 26 –Met again with John Fuller and Pat Cunningham of Perkins & Will, to hand over the blueprints of the building plans and apprise them of our progress.

November 6 – Met with Madeleine Steczynski executive director of Zumix, East Boston’s Art Center, located in old fire station. She was very forthcoming with much information about their project. She said we need to concentrate on three things. 1 ) Community Support. 2 ) Evidence of ability to finance. 3 ) Plan for the sustainability of the arts center.

November 9 – Met with Sen. Jack Hart. who suggested and agreed to set up meeting with all other elected officials.

No comments: