Artists Space and FPA's (Facilities of Public Accommodation)

Thursday, April 5, 2007

7pm

admission free: donations accepted

A panel discussion and presentation with Jason Schupbach (ArtistLink), Heidi Burbidge (Boston Redevelopment Authority),

and Richard McGuinness (Boston Redevelopment Authority). 

Over the past ten years in Boston, and in the urban, post-industrial era in general,  artists and organizations in many cities have been coping with the crisis and reality of their displacement on a national, state, and local level.  Join us at Studio Soto for a discussion about some of the initiatives that have been brought forth, state and city-wide, to address this problem. 

Jason Schupbach, Director of ArtistLink, will put the LINC's national and local work on collecting information about artist space in perspective, walking people through the new online tools. He'll also talk about some of the 60 projects they are working on across the state, including who is putting them forward and how they' re being developed.

Heidi Burbidge is the Senior Project Manager for the City of Boston's Artist Space Initiative at the Boston Redevelopment Authority. She will speak about recent efforts by the BRA to support the development of permanent space for artists in all neighborhoods of the City.

Richard McGuinness is the Deputy Director for Waterfront Planning at the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston’s economic development and planning agency.  Mr. McGuinness manages the BRA’s waterfront planning initiatives that include the basic functions of community planning, urban design, zoning and infrastructure planning. He will speak about the nascent opportunities in Boston provided by Chapter 91's Facilities of Public Accommodation.

ABOUT FACILITIES OF PUBLIC ACCOMMODATION

Through Chapter 91 of the Massachusetts General Laws (Chapter 91), the Commonwealth vested the Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) with the general care and supervision of its Harbors, tidewaters, and tidelands and to preserve and protect the rights of Massachusetts inhabitants by ensuring that uses of the tidelands are limited to water-dependent uses or uses that otherwise serve a public purpose.  DEP has established comprehensive regulations to preserve, protect, and promote the public’s rights and interest in the tidelands (310 CMR 9.00, the Waterways Regulations).  The Waterways Regulations seek to ensure that much of the Commonwealth’s waterfront either is preserved for water-dependent uses or is available for use by all its residents for a public purpose.  Public uses include open space, Harborwalk and other special destinations to attract the public to the waterfront and to prevent privatization.

For projects located on Commonwealth Tidelands, the Waterways Regulations require that 75% of the ground floor of structures containing nonwater-dependent uses be devoted to Facilities of Public Accommodation (“FPAs”).  Examples of interior facilities of public accommodation referenced in the regulations include restaurants, performance areas, hotels, retail establishments, and educational and cultural institutions

In the future, several hundred thousand square feet of FPAs will be created as various waterfront projects come on line.  Fan Pier for example, will provide over 130,000 square feet of FPA space.  This number does not include the 107,000 square feet of required civic space including the ICA Project.

In another example, developers of Clippership Wharf in East Boston are proposing a multi-function cultural/community space for activities including performance and art gallery space and displays on East Boston history.

Bios:


Heidi Burbidge is the Senior Project Manager of the Artist Space Initiative at the Boston Redevelopment Authority.  Her background is in affordable housing and grassroots organizing.  She is originally from Washington State.

Richard McGuinness is the Deputy Director for Waterfront Planning at the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston’s economic development and planning agency.  Mr. McGuinness manages the BRA’s waterfront planning initiatives that include the basic functions of community planning, urban design, zoning and infrastructure planning.

Mr. McGuinness is also part of the leadership team that sets the BRA’s waterfront planning and economic development agenda in support of the city’s larger policy priorities to revitalize Boston’s waterfront, create new job growth and connect the City’s neighborhoods to its Harbor.

Mr. McGuinness has been directly involved in many of Boston’s most important waterfront planning efforts in the last ten years.  They include the planning of the 1000 acre South Boston Waterfront, the City of Boston Harborwalk program, a proposed continuous 47 mile public walkway along Boston Harbor, East Boston Municipal Harbor Plan, Fort Point Channel Watersheet Activation Plan, Boston Marine Industrial Park Master Plan, Charlestown Navy Yard Waterfront Activation Plan and the Inner Harbor Passenger Water Transportation Plan.  In addition to undertaking and supervising many of the planning studies, Mr. McGuinness regularly participates in community meetings to solicit citizen feedback that is essential to the success of any planning effort.

Apart from his work at the BRA, Mr. McGuinness represents Mayor Thomas Menino and the Boston Harbor Region on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Seaport Advisory Council.  Mr. McGuinness is a graduate of The Catholic University of America.

Jason Schupbach is the Director of ArtistLink (www.artistlink.org), a statewide initiative to improve the environment for artists. ArtistLink focuses primarily on technical assistance around artist space and is also running a new healthcare initiative for artists. Jason has a degree in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Masters in City Planning with an Urban Design Certificate from MIT.  Jason has worked for the Mayor's Office in Chicago, and was the staff Urban Planner and Capital Projects Manager for the Department of Cultural Affairs in New York City. For the past five years, Jason has been involved in Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC), a ten-year national initiative to enhance artists' ability to make work, build social capital and contribute to democratic values, where he works on the National Artist Space initiative.