A workshop space for theater actors may be coming to Provincetown.
According to Paul Benson of the Provincetown Independent, it would replace a welding shop that has been a fixture on Bradford Street for nearly 80 years.
CAI's Gilda Geist spoke with Paul to learn more about the plans for the space.
Gilda Geist Tell me about this idea to build a multi-purpose art space on Bradford Street. What is that going to look like and who's proposing it?
Paul Benson So the proposal is from Randy Sell and Edward Gilligan, a couple who live down the street, who originally had been hoping to build artist housing in town and found that residential units were just really expensive. So this is an old welding shop that had a really artistic flair to it. There's welded items all over town, decorating people's houses, that were created here. And they're proposing to turn it into essentially a black box theater space. It could be used for rehearsals, it could be used for projects that maybe aren't all that commercial yet, that haven't necessarily had big names and the chance to make a lot of money. It's the kind of space where playwrights and actors could work out their craft, try out new things and have a small performing arts space over in the west end of Provincetown.
GG The proposed location for this arts space is in this building that for many years was a welding shop. Tell us about the welding shop, and for folks who haven't been out to Provincetown in a while, can you describe what the property looks like?
PB So the Kacergis family, four generations of welders, Clarence established it back in 1946 and had an artistic flair in the work he was doing. His son Michael really took that to another level. And so in addition to working on boats and gangways and other kinds of major pieces of metal infrastructure, he was also creating sunflowers and strange sea creatures and sharks and all kinds of other really beautiful and whimsical things in this metal shop that are now decorating fences and flower boxes and front yards of restaurants all over Commercial Street in Provincetown. When you walk past it in the west end, this explosion of creativity is what you see—all of these different forms of welded metal in a profusion of shapes and sizes. And we called it whimsical in the headline because it just is a striking thing that draws people into the courtyard.
GG Do we know why the family sold the welding shop? What's going to happen with all of those metal sculptures?
PB The son and the grandson both know how to weld, but they do have different careers. One's a pilot, one's a police officer. So they weren't using the space in the intensive way that Michael had used it. Michael did die about three years ago now, and so the property has been on the market for a couple of years. The new owners have been hanging out on the property every weekend, giving away all kinds of equipment to artisans and welders all up and down the Cape. Obviously the family took some really priceless stuff that was important to them in terms of art that Michael had created.
GG What does the timeline look like for this proposed project?
PB We reported that three different town boards have approved it. They actually did so pretty quickly and unanimously. That would be the historic district committee, the zoning board of appeals and the select board, which has to approve the water and the sewer. There is still some unresolved issues at the condo association [which shares a lot with the property], so it's very hard to say how that's going to go. Condos are sort of opaque and it's a very internal matter. It's not like these are public meetings that the newspaper normally follows. We don't know exactly how the condo situation is going to work itself out, but the idea had been to begin construction and have this open by not this summer, but next summer. There [are plans for] an ADU [accessory dwelling unit] in the back. Artist housing is a separate issue in town, so there are people who are hoping to see that ADU built by next summer. I think we'll have to find out how the condo resolves their conflicts to see how the project proceeds.
