View from the ‘Bridge

Interesting things are happening in Union Square these days.

I’ve already written on this blog about the Celebration of Fluff hosted later this month by the Union Square Main Streets, announced around the time of the infamous Barrios Fluffasco.

This Saturday, the Somerville Arts Council and ArtsUnion are hosting the first annual Somerville Open — “a mini-golf course designed by local cartoonists and artists.”

Now, the same organizations are teaming up to bring you “shhh…. MUM’s the word,” a dance party taking place on August 25th beneath the McGrath Highway overpass between Union Square and East Somerville. Announced the Main Streets in an email today:

Project MUM, a cross between a fifties sock hop and a rave, could only take place in Somerville, a city known for its unique and innovative use of art space. Open to the public, the event features four hours of jammin’ DJs, celebrity guest dancers and a unique and unforgettable open-air dance space…

..the area under the highway has been abandoned to pigeons and trash since its construction. On August 25th dancers unite to reclaim the lost highway! Or, more specifically, the space under it. Join this magnificent, moonstruck, mash–—a merry, mad, mingled, mania–all under McGrath Highway! Proceeds from this event, produced by ARTSomerville, will support various arts organizations in Somerville.

It really isn’t accurate to say that such an event could “only take place in Somerville.” As exciting as it may be to “reclaim” the space under McGrath Highway, it’s not an original idea. Every year Cambridge closes off stretchch of the busiesthoroughfarere in the city — Mass Ave in front of City Hall — and hosts a citywide dance party. They say thaimitationon is the greatest form of flattery.

But why would Somerville, which for so long has lived in the shadow of Cambridge, want timitatete its neighbor to the south? I agree that in recently years Somerville has been home to more than a handful of “unique and innovative uses of art space,” including the previous mentioned events, the summertime Crafts Markets, and the long-running Davis Square ArtBeat. However, these events come on the heels of the rapid gentrification of Somerville and are concentrated in just two neighborhoods. Even if Somerville has more “artists per capita than any other city in the country” (a claim I’ve heard repeated quite often), I would hardly say that the town once known a Slummerville or Scummerville has a citywide reputation for its “unique and innovative use of art space.”

I’m afraid that the concerted effort to develop this arts reputation for the city is a quite effort to spread the gentrification evefurtherer and expand its encroachment into the neighborhoods in the east of the city which it has just recently discovered. Once the vibrant white working class and recent immigrant populations are forced from the city, Somerville will simply be Cambridge without Harvard and MIT. At that point, it might as well be annexed because not being Cambridge is what has always made Somerville special.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 17th, 2006 at 10:32 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.