We did our first DAP show on 10/26/17 (flyer below by Claire McGill). After years of looking for our own space we broadened our search last year just enough to look into Fields Corner, Dorchester. Turned out we had some friends down there running an art gallery that had hardly been on our radar despite all the digging we do for independent art culture around here. Anyway I think it was our friend Anya Smolnikova who I reached out to about booking a show at DAP to yes make a show happen in a rad spot, but also to explore the new neighborhood we thought might be good and affordable enough for our space. Lo and behold Anya and her team were looking for someone to take over the lease here so they could pursue other opportunities and so begins our story here…

From that first show we began meeting with Anya weekly and even daily to talk about our nonprofit taking over the space. We took over operations and relaunched Dorchester Art Project in December 2017 thanks to a beautiful connection with Anya Smolnikova, Ben Foley, Will Whelan and Shira Espo! After some inspections and negotiations with the landlord we officially signed the lease for this space in May 2018. But as of December we began sprucing up their place. Please enjoy this video by @perryslur showing a lot of the improvements we have made to the physical space here in our first year and CLICK HERE to support us going into our second year!

“Since then we have updated and replaced all 3 sinks, repaired the heating and AC systems, patched the multiple leaks in the roof and had it fixed for good, inspected the fire escape, updated and installed brand new emergency exit lights, overhauled the smoke alarm system, built a new stage, created more affordable studio spaces, created an artist lounge for our tenants and volunteers and replaced and added several electrical outlets where there had previously been long extension cables running all over the building.

not to mention all the programming we have done..

and there is still much more to do to physically improve this space to improve the experience for our volunteers and the community we serve. PLEASE DONATE NOW to help support our continued efforts in 2019.

Check out: https://bostonhassle.com/telethon and follow www.brain-arts.org for the upcoming launch of our new branding!

Feature Photo by Omari Spears

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Sam Potrykus is the editor-in-chief of the compass newspaper and helps manage THE MASS which is the team that organizes all the volunteer efforts of Brain Arts and Boston Hassle.