Jim Apteker of Longwood Events is trying to smooth things over with the neighborhood and is going to start a community process to attempt to gain support for his "Artistry" events facility inside Midway Studios. The first meeting is:
Discussion of Impact of Artistry
Monday, April 30th at 6:30 PM
Midway (15 Channel Center St.)
Artistry, as you may know, is his facility on Channel Center Street where he hopes to hold 300-1,500 person events such as weddings, corporate functions, and the like. He held one in December for the magazine Boston Common (www.bostoncommon-magazine.com) which was a huge disturbance to the neighborhood: loud music kept residents of Midway Studios up late into the night, security and cars blocked the street, and drunk revelers were seen urinating in the street.
This winter, he had applied for a full, 2 AM liquor license which was not granted because of community uproar.
There have been a number of meetings regarding Artistry and the consensus of the neighborhood at each has been fairly consistent: while residents aren't opposed to events facilities in general (Artists for Humanity frequently has functions without incident) and having a business take a lease at Midway Studios is a good thing for that project, his location and physical space is a poor fit for what he's trying to do, and the scale and nature of the events (3-5 a week with hundreds of people at each function) is terrible fit with that part of the neighborhood.
Drew,
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting information about the upcoming community meeting regarding Artistry. Longwood Events appreciates the efforts of Department of Neighborhood Services to set up this meeting. We are hopeful this will be the first step in an open, fair community process that helps determine how Artistry can best benefit the neighborhood.
On behalf of Longwood Events, I’d like to tell the Fort Point neighborhood that we are committed to working with all key stakeholders in Fort Point Channel to make Artistry a facility that reflects the neighborhood and benefits it directly.
More importantly, we look forward to addressing – and apologizing for – several missteps we have made in the recent past with regards to the neighborhood. We also look forward to sharing information about the facility, discussing steps we hope to take to minimize impacts in the area, and last, to clear up misinformation in the community about Artistry.
Thank you again for posting the information. I look forward to speaking with you in the coming weeks.
Sincerely,
Susan Verge
Community Relations
Longwood Events