[act-ma] 1/9 - Support "Peter Valentine Center for Cosmic Creativity,” AKA the Valentine Art House

[gmoke]

Hello Cambridge friends who believe in the arts and open space,                
 
Would you like to see an art center, surrounded by gardens, near Central Square? Well, it’s possible if enough of us tell the city we want it. Where? Well, you know the purple fence at the corner of Brookline and Franklin streets, with sayings painted all over it.. surrounding the triple decker?    
 
                            
 
That all belonged to Peter Valentine, a true Cambridge visionary. In 2021 a group of us in the Cambridge City Growers, and some C'port neighbors,  worked in his huge yard, hoping to make it a community garden—but he died before we could pull it off.  Now a group of his friends are seeking a way to make it benefit the community. You can help by telling the city that you want an art center!   And soon. A decision may happen on Monday Jan 9.          
 
Action: What you see below is a letter from Peter’s friend Cathie Zusy. Please skim it for info and write a quick email to people in the city (email addresses below).  A few lines is plenty: tell them we need open space, that gardens build community, that the arts need a devoted space, that you loved Peter and this space is wonderful.... whatever you want to say.. Cathie just needs a lot of support from Cambridge residents.  (so please feel free to share with friends:)          
 
THANK YOU!        
Helen Snively      
........
 
Please Support the Purchase of Peter Valentine’s Property for the Good of Cambridge    
 
[We aim to create] an art center out of beloved artist Peter Valentine’s house at 37 Brookline Street. As we imagine it, the “Peter Valentine Center for Cosmic Creativity,” AKA the Valentine Art House, would serve as an artist residency space with living, studio, gathering and workshop areas. We, the Advisory Board for this project, hope that the City, the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, or a beneficent individual will purchase the property for the benefit of the City. It is centrally located, two blocks from Central Square, and surrounded by Peter’s “Cosmic Moose & Grizzly Bearsville” fence, admired by curators at the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Visionary Art. Whether it becomes an art center—our vision—or affordable housing, this property should provide community benefit. Peter’s family ... has already received—and rejected—MANY proposals from developers to put luxury housing there. We have little time to realize this vision….    
 
If you support a public use for 37 Brookline St., or better yet, our vision of an art center there, please email our City Manager, Deputy City Manager, City Council, and the Ex. Director of the CRA at these emails. CC me too, please.    
Yi-an Huang, citymanager at cambridgema.gov            
Owen O’Riordan, ooriordan at cambridgema.gov
City Council, council at CambridgeMA.Gov            
Tom Evans, Ex. Director, CRC, tevans at cambridgeredevelopment.org        
Cathie Zusy, cathzusy at gmail.        
 
Thank you for reading to the end of this!     Happy to provide more info..
 
Helen