I can’t be the only one who feels cheated that the ballroom at the Northampton Center for the Arts will no longer be a vibrant performing and visual arts space by July.
Couples dancing to the music of the O-Tones at the "Bye Bye Ballroom" event, the Northampton Center for the Arts last fancy dance party in it's ballroom. The City of Northampton's non-renewable lease for the space the houses the Center for the Arts, at the former D.A. Sullivan School, expires in July 2013.
The party’s over, but I’m not ready to go home.
Under private ownership, the building that houses the Northampton Center for the Arts has been converting to condominiums. The 30-year nonrenewable arrangement for the ballroom is up, and it’s time to move on.
A large part of me doesn’t quite believe that it’s going to happen.
As a 20-year resident of the small city with the big arts scene, I feel a lot more attached to the ballroom than I do to most of Northampton’s parks, mostly because of the possibilities it represents and the memories it carries.
The ballroom is the place where I have attempted – with embarrassing degrees of failure – to learn to swing dance, to waltz, to Lindy.
It is a positive, flexible and elegant space, just formal enough to be special, just casual enough to be welcoming. It represents the best of Northampton, in many ways.
It is the place I “discovered” the O-Tones, the swing band led by the smooth-voiced and uncommonly friendly Mary Witt, who (could there be any cooler combination?) sings and plays bass.
Mary Witt and the sweet sound of the O-Tones provided the dance music at the "Bye Bye Ballroom" event, the Northampton Center for the Arts last fancy dance party in it's ballroom. The City of Northampton's non-renewable lease for the space the houses the Center for the Arts, at the former D.A. Sullivan School, expires in July 2013.
It is where I’ve seen dance performances, been wowed by musical performances in an intimate setting, and – when locked out of the first performance of the Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra led by Peter Blanchette – discovered the work of Petersham pastel artist Janet Palin, whose skies I’ve fallen in love with.
It is the intersection of rehearsal, beauty and performance.
I never knew what learning experience awaited me at the ballroom.
In fact, on Saturday night I learned how to properly shake a martini, which shocked my mother.
I asked Penny Burke, executive director of the center, why no more ballroom. It’s a long and legalistic tale, but with a changing vision about the uses of D.A. Sullivan building, it’s time for the ballroom to be used in a different way.
It’s hard to imagine a better and higher use for the space, but apparently there must be one – at least a more lucrative one.
Burke also points out that not counting the ballroom, Northampton has lost four public dance floors in the past several years.
While Northampton’s First Night celebration has grown, as Burke puts it, exponentially, since its start 28 years ago, it will undoubtedly take on a different flavor Dec. 31, 2013, simply due to the loss of the ballroom. But, she assures me, First Night will continue.
The center was created as a nonprofit agency to be a steward of the space that it now occupies, the 3,000-square-foot ballroom and its accompanying galleries, backstage and green room, and to foster artistic endeavors of all kinds through provision of exhibit space, rehearsal and performance space.
In reaction to the loss of arts space in downtown Northampton, the Northampton Community Arts Trust has been formed to protect arts spaces as they become available.
The artists, musicians and dancers who have relied on the ballroom as home for their creative pursuits might find it hard, if not impossible, to replace the low-cost digs the center has provided.
Meantime, Burke has the unwieldy task of figuring out what to dump and where to store lighting and sound equipment, a grand piano, hundreds of chairs, etc., while the center seeks a new home.
For five years, Burke says, the nonprofit has sought new digs. But thus far, nothing has materialized. The board, she says, is still looking.
Burke wonders whether the city has outgrown its need for a community arts center.
I’d like to believe that Northampton hasn’t become too precious to value public arts spaces.
But, truthfully, I don’t care: I just want my ballroom back.