The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts (formerly Arsenal Center for the Arts) is a nonprofit multidisciplinary arts venue on the Charles River in Watertown, Massachusetts, United States. The 30,000 square foot center, located in an historic 1894 manufacturing shop of the U.S. Army's Watertown Arsenal, houses a 339-seat main stage theater, a 100-seat black box theater, exhibition galleries, art classrooms, and rehearsal studios. Mosesian Arts is located six miles from downtown Boston, borders Brighton and the Charles, and is accessible from surrounding suburbs and MetroWest.
Programming includes professional theater and musical performances, comedy, gallery exhibitions, literary and art discussions, and performing and visual arts classes and workshops for all ages. Watertown Children’s Theatre, Mosesian Arts’ performing arts education program, provides classes and performances for youth and families. The venue also hosts other performing arts companies from throughout the Greater Boston region.
Plans for an art center in Watertown had begun as early as the 1970s, but insufficient funds were raised and the project was shelved. [1] The arts center in its current form is the culmination of years of fundraising efforts which began in 1998 with the formation of Watertown Arts on the Charles, or WATCH.
In 1999, a market feasibility study commissioned by WATCH concluded that Watertown would be an ideal location for a multipurpose art center to service Watertown and the surrounding area. [2] The site ultimately chosen for construction of the facility was building 321 of the former Army Materials Technology Laboratory in Watertown, a Superfund site. O'Neill properties, who bought the Watertown Arsenal property from the town for $24 million in 1998, pledged 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2) of space as well as $1 million towards construction costs. [2]
Initially, the group estimated total construction costs to be in the range of $2.5 million to $4 million, [2] however the final cost for the project ended up being in the area of $7.5 million. The funds for the center were raised primarily through community donations including $1 million from the town and a $1 million donation from local entrepreneur Charles Mosesian, for whom the center's main theater is named. [3]
After years of fundraising and construction, the center finally opened in the summer of 2005. In 2013, the Arts Center and longtime performing partner Watertown Children’s Theatre merged the two organizations. [4] In 2016, Arsenal Center for the Arts was renamed The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts, in recognition of continued support from the Mosesian Family Foundation. [5] The current Executive Director, Darren Farrington, joined the organization in August 2020. [6]
In 2021, a major renovation of the entrance, lobby, and other public and administrative areas was completed with architects and designers at Sasaki. In addition to increasing useable space and improving public health and accessibility, the new lobby connects a modern vision with the building’s military history. Gunmetal finishes, reclaimed wood, and industrial ceilings and floors acknowledge the manufacturing past, and a contemporary and minimalist design places focus on the art on gallery walls. [7]
Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, part of Greater Boston. The population was 35,329 in the 2020 census. Its neighborhoods include Bemis, Coolidge Square, East Watertown, Watertown Square, and the West End.
Davis Square is a major intersection in the northwestern section of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, where several streets meet: Holland Street, Dover Street, Day Street, Elm Street, Highland Avenue, and College Avenue. The name is often used to refer to the West Somerville neighborhood surrounding the square as well.
The Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College, in Boston, Massachusetts, is a 1903 Beaux Arts style theater, designed by the architect John Galen Howard. Originally built for theatre, it was one of three theaters commissioned in Boston by Eben Dyer Jordan, son of the founder of Jordan Marsh, a Boston-based chain of department stores. The Majestic was converted to accommodate vaudeville shows in the 1920s and eventually into a movie house in 1956 by Sack Cinemas. The change to film came with renovations that transformed the lobby and covered up much of John Galen Howard's original Beaux-Arts architecture.
Paramount Theatre is a theatre in Boston on Washington Street, between Avery and West Streets.
Harlem School of the Arts (HSA) is an art school located in the Harlem section of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Opening its doors in 1964, HSA serves ages 2 through 18.
The Somerville Theatre is an independent movie theater and concert venue in the Davis Square neighborhood of Somerville, Massachusetts, United States. Over one hundred years old, the Somerville Theatre started off as a vaudeville house and movie theater. The theater has since transitioned and now operates as a live music venue and first-run movie theater. As a music venue, the theater has played host to many historic concerts, including the first of the two Last Dispatch concerts, two shows by Bruce Springsteen in 2003, and a performance by U2 in 2009. Recent live performances have included Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Cursive, Norah Jones, The Jonas Brothers, Joan Baez, and the John Butler Trio.
The Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) is a 501(c) nonprofit visual and performing arts complex in the South End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The BCA houses several performance and rehearsal spaces, restaurants, a gallery, the headquarters of the Boston Ballet, the Community Music Center of Boston and several other arts organizations. The BCA also serves as home to four Resident Theater Companies and a number of artists. The BCA's main building, the Cyclorama, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Boston Ballet's headquarters was designed in 1991 by architect Graham Gund.
Boston Arts Academy (BAA) in Boston, Massachusetts, USA is Boston's first and only high school for the visual and performing arts and is a partnership between Boston Public Schools and the ProArts Consortium. ProArts, a group of six arts colleges and universities in the Boston area, pushed the city to open the school, which was founded in 1998. The Consortium continues to support the school with performance space, music lessons and free college-level classes to BAA students.
Watertown High School (WHS) is the local high school, built in 1925, for Watertown, Massachusetts, United States. The school is home to the Watertown Raiders, who are best known for their varsity field hockey and boys' basketball programs. Watertown's colors are black and red. The school newspaper is the Raider Times. On May 8, 1930, ex-President Calvin Coolidge was received at the school as town celebrated its 300th anniversary. As a part of the celebration, a national radio program was broadcast from the high school marking the momentous anniversary.
The Tulsa Performing Arts Center, or Tulsa PAC, is a performing arts venue in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. It houses four main theatres, a studio space, an art gallery and a sizeable reception hall. Its largest theater is the 2,365-seat Chapman Music Hall. The Center regularly hosts events by 14 local performance groups. Tulsa Ballet, Tulsa Opera, Tulsa Symphony, and Celebrity Attractions are among the Tulsa PAC's major clients. Tulsa Town Hall, Chamber Music Tulsa, Theatre Tulsa, American Theatre Company, Theatre Pops, Playhouse Tulsa, Theatre North, and the PAC Trust also fill the PAC calendar.
The Charles W. Eisemann Center, for Performing Arts and Corporate Presentations is a performance hall which opened in September 2002 in Richardson, Texas. The center is named for local philanthropist, Charles W. Eisemann, in recognition of a US$2,000,000 gift from the Eisemann Foundation Fund of The Communities Foundation of Texas. It is the primary performance venue for the Plano Symphony Orchestra and the Richardson Symphony Orchestra.
The Smith Center for the Performing Arts is located in Downtown Las Vegas's 61-acre (25 ha) Symphony Park and is a 5-acre (2.0 ha) performing arts center consisting of three theaters in two buildings; groundbreaking for the $470 million project was May 26, 2009. The Neo Art Deco design style was chosen by David M. Schwarz to echo the design elements of the Hoover Dam, just 30 miles (48 km) to the southeast. It also shares design features with the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, Texas. The center features a 17-story carillon tower containing 47 bells and is the first performing arts center in the nation to be Gold LEED certified. It opened on March 10, 2012.
The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States was originally built in 1904 as the Franklin Square Theatre regularly scheduling burlesque shows, Broadway touring shows and headline acts transitioning to showing silent films by 1912 when vaudeville magnate Sylvester Poli purchased the theatre from the estate of Pauline L. Taylor.
The Watertown Branch Railroad was a branch loop of the Fitchburg Railroad that was meant to serve the town of Watertown and the City of Waltham, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, as an independent short line railroad; it also serviced the Watertown Arsenal. The line has been formally abandoned and portions have been converted into a rail trail, the Watertown-Cambridge Greenway. A section from School Street to Arlington Street in Watertown was completed first. A small portion in Waltham has been converted into a park called Chemistry Station Park after the railroad station once located there. Construction of an extension to Fresh Pond Reservation in Cambridge began in the summer of 2018 and was completed in June 2022.
The New Repertory Theatre is a Boston-area regional theater company founded in 1984, it has produced more than 70 East Coast, US, or World premieres. Since 2005 New Rep has been the resident company at the Mosesian Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA. It creates productions for the 340-seat Main Stage Theater, the 90-seat Black Box Theater, and its outreach program, New Rep Classic Repertory Company, performs for over 14,000 students, many from underserved communities, each year. In 2019, Michael J. Bobbitt was appointed as executive artistic director. In April 2021, New Rep named M. Bevin O’Gara its interim executive artistic director, as Bobbitt moved to the position of executive director for the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Dominion Energy Center is a performing arts center in Richmond, Virginia that houses a number of venues including the historic Carpenter Theatre, Libby S. Gottwald Playhouse, Bob & Sally Mooney Hall, and the Genworth BrightLights Education Center. The theatre was formerly known as Richmond CenterStage.
Strand Theatre is a restored vaudeville house located in Uphams Corner in Dorchester, Boston, Massachusetts. It is owned by the City of Boston and managed by the Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture.
Coolidge Corner Theatre is a nonprofit, independent cinema and community cultural center in the Coolidge Corner section of Brookline, Massachusetts, specializing in international, documentary, animated, and independent film selections, series, classes, and seminars.
The Fenway Theatre (1915–1972) of Boston, Massachusetts, was a cinema and concert hall in the Back Bay, located at no.136 Massachusetts Avenue at Boylston Street.
The Center for Arts in Natick, also known as TCAN in Natick, Massachusetts, is a regional community arts organization serving the cities and towns of MetroWest Boston. It has been in existence in various locations since 1997. The organization presents more than 300 events, classes and performances annually attended by over 28,000 patrons. TCAN was established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1997.