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Arts and culture

Updated September 26, 2026

What's happening

Somerville's arts story in 2026 is two fights about buildings and who controls them. The city-owned Armory at 191 Highland Ave. is about 18 percent vacant, and its first arts-space leases since the 2021 eminent-domain taking reached the Finance Committee on September 22 (outcome not in our sources yet). And the city is designing what would be the first Municipal Cultural Trust in Massachusetts, now as a home-rule petition, with nothing yet filed at the Council. Smaller items — the Founders Memorial Rink operator bid, the Somerville Theatre building's $12 million listing, the dark Rosebud diner, the Diamond Factory pop-up in Davis Square's old Starbucks, the Arts Council's director search — run at the bottom of this page.

The story

The Armory

On July 16 the city named eight new tenants for the Armory, picked by RFP, four months after the artists it displaced testified against the evictions.

Somerville took the building by eminent domain in 2021 and has been paying for it since, most recently $3.5 million from free cash on Feb. 12 to settle Highland Armory Realty Trust v. City of Somerville (Feb. 12). Evicting Out of the Blue Art Gallery was the only public confrontation: a 52-voter petition brought it to the Housing committee on March 4, where all eleven speakers backed the gallery and operator Parma described notice periods that shrank from 90 days to 30 — "put on the street in the coldest month of the year" (digest). The July awardees — Acoustic Strings of New England, BADD Architect, Birch Lo, the Center for Arts at the Armory, Dead Moon Audio, LARP Adventure Program, Luke Nonas-Hunter and ReCreate — do not include Out of the Blue (city announcement).

The live question is money. Ward 2 Councilor JT Scott learned at the FY27 budget hearings that a new $90,346 tenant relations manager is paid from an Armory revolving fund invisible in the budget book and outside the revolving-fund statute, and that the five-member advisory board's formal status was unclear; he and Finance Chair Ben Wheeler flagged "off-book" concerns (June 15; June 16). The Armory Advisory Board reviewed leasing on Sept 8: as of July, three renewals and five new leases left about 18 percent of leasable space, 3,990 square feet, open (Independent, Sept 6). The leases reached the Council on Sept 10 as a late item and went to Finance for Sept 22 (Sept 10 digest). Item 26-1354 carries five signed leases, for Acoustic Strings, Birch Lo, Dead Moon Audio, Nonas-Hunter and ReCreate; the other three July awardees are not among them.

The Cultural Trust

No Massachusetts municipality has a cultural trust and state law does not expressly authorize one, so Somerville is drafting a home-rule petition.

The city said in July it would pursue a local option if the Legislature's Creative Space Act fails (city announcement, July 27). By September the Arts Council was describing the trust as a petition in progress, after a Sept. 8 governance-and-funding session and an online tool that lets residents draft petition language (Somerville Arts Council newsletter, Sept. 3). Modeled on the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, it could hold money, buy property for arts use and make anti-displacement grants; a petition would join the queue on Beacon Hill. The proof of concept is Central Street Studios, the 20-studio building at 57 Central St. that passed on June 17 to the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston as permanently affordable workspace (Independent, June 18). The Art Stays Here Coalition, which means to preserve all seven of the city's artist workspace buildings, is also pressing the city for the in-lieu payment policy promised when the affordable housing overlay exempted the 5% arts set-aside (March 19).

Also

  • Founders Memorial Rink — RFP 27-12 requires the operator to open by Nov. 27, give school and youth hockey first refusal, hold six hours a week of public skating and open free to high-schoolers on early-release Wednesdays with free rentals (RFP); bids opened Sept 23 (outcome not in our sources yet).
  • The Somerville Theatre building — the Hobbs Building at 49-55 Davis Square is listed for $12 million; the theater's operators say a multi-year lease protects them short-term, and Mayor Jake Wilson tied the building's future to the neighborhood plan (Cambridge Day, July 16).
  • The empty Starbucks — Susan Berstler of the Nave Gallery got the keys to Asana's vacant 260 Elm St. storefront Sept. 1 under a short-term city lease (Independent, Sept. 14). The city's Arts & Culture Division now says it opens in October as Diamond Factory, a pop-up gallery expected to run three to four months, with Wilson cutting the ribbon Oct. 17. The city is selling it as an answer to dark storefronts: "Empty storefronts are a challenge for our commercial areas, but they're also an opportunity to get creative," Wilson said (city announcement, Sept. 23; see The lab glut and the tax base).
  • The Rosebud diner — dark since mid-May; the Licensing Commission zeroed its hours July 21, and the July promise to reopen "in two to three weeks" had not happened by Sept. 14 (Independent, Sept. 13).
  • The Arts Council — Wilson fired director Greg Jenkins in February and folded the council into a new Culture and Community department (Wilson's City Hall reorganization); Interim Director Rachel Strutt has run it all year, and four new board members were placed on file Sept. 10. The permanent job posted in June is still unfilled in our sources, but the board's Oct. 14 agenda pairs a "recruitment progress update" with an item on how the board can help onboard the director, and Strutt is slated to report on the Arts Town Hall, the Diamond Factory and a cultural ambassador (agenda). The 2027 Local Cultural Council grant round closes Oct. 15. An East Somerville cultural district resolution (26-1319) was withdrawn Aug. 27 without debate.

What's next

  • September 22, 2026 — Finance took up the Armory leases, the first Council vote on who occupies the building (outcome not in our sources yet).
  • September 23, 2026 — Founders Rink bids opened under RFP 27-12 (outcome not in our sources yet); award anticipated September 30.
  • October 14, 2026 — Arts Council board, 6:30 p.m. at the City Hall Annex: director-recruitment update and the interim director's report on the Arts Town Hall.
  • October 15, 2026 — Local Cultural Council grant applications due.
  • October 17, 2026 — Diamond Factory ribbon cutting, 4–6 p.m., at the former Davis Square Starbucks; the gallery runs into early 2027.
  • Later this fall — the mayor's Arts Town Hall reporting back on the listening tour; a Cultural Trust home-rule petition filed with the Council would be the trust's first formal step.
  • November 27, 2026 — deadline for the rink operator to open.