City Was a Blank Canvas

Then suddenly, joyously, the artists burst onto North Street.

Laughing, working feverishly, they dragged sofas and chairs from their studios to the sidewalk. Someone brought a lamp and a coffee table. Out came trays of cookies and steaming mugs of hot cocoa. Eighteen painters, sculptors, photographers, musicians, poets and dancers set up their outdoor living room directly outside the storefront where Ven Voisey had just installed a work he called "flutter," a metallic moth circling a glowing bulb.

The snowy sidewalk celebration last month was completely unscripted, said painter Maggie Mailer: an occasion whose very spontaneity captured the spirit of Mailer's Storefront Artist Project.

An unusual collaboration involving city officials, business leaders and a group of hard-working artists is helping to transform this city in western Massachusetts. Over the last two years, Mailer persuaded many of Pittsfield's largest property owners to turn over empty storefronts on North Street to more than 30 artists. The artists pay no rent for street-level studio space that in many cases allows passersby to observe them as they work.

Though any economic payoff is not yet measurable, the artists' presence has enlivened downtown Pittsfield. Windows on North Street showcase the whimsical sculptures of Rachael Champion, the delicate brush paintings of Roppei Matsumoto and Mailer's own paintings, which focus on architecture and family. A few new restaurants have opened, bringing chefs from Boston. This summer, a company that sells designer resale clothing on the Internet located its headquarters on North Street, with Chanel shoes and Prada suits in the window.

Despite skepticism from some residents, the city is poised to create a cultural development department, and the mayor wants to designate a downtown arts district and provide incentives and other benefits for artists.

"This whole thing has just evolved, more or less organically. We have never, ever sat down and made any kind of plan," said Mailer, 33. "Everything is just bubbling up."

Mailer said her mission was to "make working artists a part of everyday life on the street."