Northampton — An effort that began four years ago by a city arts trust to convert an old building on Hawley Street into affordable space for artists received a $500,000 shot in the arm from the state Friday.
“I am just … gobsmacked at this grant,” said Richard Wagner, president of the Northampton Community Arts Trust board (Wagner said that gobsmacked, which means astonished, was one of his favorite words).
The money — presented to the trust at an on-site announcement Friday by Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, and other dignitatires — will enable the trust to progress in the development of its building on 33 Hawley St. into a performance and events space.
The trust bought the building in 2013 and recently wrapped up a first phase of renovation. The grant announced Friday will enable the trust to start on a second phase, Wagner said.
The trust’s overall mission is to preserve space for the arts in the city. Wagner said that arts can often become a victim of the economic development that they help spur.
“The logical end state of a successful creative economy is a market where most spaces that nurture creativity become unaffordable,” Wagner said.
“We have to provide affordable space for a flourishing creative community,” he continued. “Most importantly, we must protect that space from becoming a victim of its own success by holding and managing it for the common good.”
The Hawley Street building is the first piece of real estate the arts trust has acquired for this purpose. Part of the building opened in September for public use, including a dance studio.
Some of the events that the building has hosted since then are writing workshops, community meetings, and dance rehearsals.
The $500,000 will help with construction of bathrooms, a lobby and a flexible performance space.
The grant was announced by Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash. “It’s always a great day when Secretary Ash is in town,” Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz said.
At the announcement, Rosenberg was credited with lobbying for the grant, which was the result of the partial funding of an earmark from state Rep. Peter Kocot, D-Northampton, in an economic development bill favored by Gov. Charlie Baker.
“When the senate president calls, what do you do as secretary? You act,” Ash said.
“We really wouldn’t be here at this particular moment without our legislative champions,” said arts trust board member Dorothy Nemetz, praising both Kocot and Rosenberg.
In his remarks, Rosenberg praised the work that’s been done at Hawley Street.
“I’m really delighted to be back in this space,” he said.
He also said that the project, and the arts in Northampton in general, benefit the region as well as the city.
“This fills a very important need in this community,” he said.
Rosenberg finished his remarks with a selection from the Langston Hughes poem “Freedom’s Plow.”
“Not my world alone, but your world and my world, belonging to all the hands who build,” he said.
Ash, a former city manager in Chelsea, said that he’s jealous of the project and couldn’t recall a similar cultural arts facility of its size in the state.
“This is exactly what I always wanted as city manager,” he said, speaking of the space for artists, going on to say that he would love to replicate it everywhere else.
The Arts Trust is still seeking to raise $2.3 million to complete the second phase and pay off the debts accrued acquiring the building. Once the second phase is finished, only the building’s proposed black box theater will remain to be completed.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com