In October, Boston University announced it was selling its Huntington Avenue properties, including the BU Theatre, which may leave the Huntington Theatre Company without a mainstage home after 33 years on the Avenue of the Arts.
On Sunday January 17, The Boston Globe reported that an investment group has emerged as a front-runner to buy the company’s Huntington Avenue theater. The Boston Globe indicates that the administration of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, officials from Boston University, representatives of the Huntington Theatre Company, and an investment group led by Boston-area developer John Matteson, are actively engaged in finding a solution to keep the Huntington Theatre Company in its home on Huntington Avenue.
Although the potential loss of the Huntington Theatre Company’s longtime artistic home is not the only issue facing the broader arts community, it is arguably the most important in its potential to negatively impact the cultural landscape of Boston and Massachusetts.
Launched in coalition with ArtsBoston, StageSource, and the Fenway Alliance, the campaign made a big splash.
In the first week of the campaign, 1700 people added their names to the #HuntingtonOnHuntingon Statement of Support, both The Boston Globe and WBUR’s The Artery published articles about the collaborative campaign, and #HuntingtonOnHuntington trended on Twitter in Boston.
The Tony Award-winning Huntington Theatre Company is a cornerstone of Boston’s theatre community. The Huntington helps drive the local economy, enhances education for youth in Boston and across the Commonwealth, and helps build a vibrant, thriving community in the Fenway Cultural District on the Avenue of the Arts and in the South End.
The Huntington Theatre Company draws 200,000 audience members each year to its two venues – the BU Theatre on Huntington Avenue and the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA in the South End. It employs over 400 full-time equivalent staff members and artists each year and generates more than $19 million annually in economic activity. Through its education programs, the Huntington also provides programs for more than 33,000 youth and community members, many of them from Boston’s under-resourced neighborhoods.
Artists and creative entrepreneurs all need places to create and share their talents.
Voice your support to keep the #HuntingtonOnHuntington
by adding your name to the Statement of Support.
Share your love for the Huntington by talking about your
#HuntingtonOnHuntington experience on social media.
Check out the Storify to see what others are saying.
Encourage others to add their name to the
#HuntingtonOnHuntington Statement of Support.
