‘A dancing star’ is born

Watertown TAB & Press, MA
Nov 12 2004

More than five years in the making, the dream of the Arsenal Center
for the Arts has become a reality.

A ceremony commemorating the groundbreaking of the center was
held this past week near the future site of what planners and
developers are expecting will serve as a regional arts center.

Huddled inside a large heated tent built for the ceremony were
about 250 Watertown faces, those who gave time, money and
encouragement while the arts center was planned, snacking on hors
d’oeuvres and drinking coffee to keep warm through the chilly
November morning.

“It’s a glorious day,” said Board of Directors member Jonathan
Hecht, as he tried to find a seat in the crowd.

“It’s exciting,” said Watertown resident Joyce Munger.

“Everybody’s here,” said Jonathan Bockian, clerk of the Board of
Directors.

The ceremony was led by the center’s executive director, Michael
Miner. Following the singing of the National Anthem by Kristen
Borgstrom from Perkins School for the Blind, Board of Directors
President Barbara Epstein thanked many people who were involved.

“Every step of this process has been an amazing, amazing
experience,” she said.

“What a wonderful day it is,” said Town Manager Michael
Driscoll. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have come a long way.”

Driscoll described the journey the Arsenal site took, from 1989
when the Arsenal Re-use Committee was established to make
recommendations for reuses of the site, to the establishment of the
Watertown Arsenal Development Corporation and the twists and turns
along the way, including the property’s sale to Harvard University,
that has culminated in the development of the 37-acre Arsenal on the
Charles site with restaurants, shopping, office facilities and now
the arts center.

The New Repertory Theatre, as well as the Watertown Children’s
Theatre, will be companies in residence.

The center will include a mix of interior spaces, including a
380-seat theater named for million-dollar donor Charles Mosesian, a
black-box performance space, classrooms, artist studios and
galleries. With programming scheduled to take place morning through
night for people of all ages, the center will be a cultural facility
and a regional resource.

“Nobody is happier than I am that this day has finally come,”
said Watertown Arsenal Development Corporation President John
Airasian, calling the process a journey, an “emotional roller
coaster” and “a labor of love.”

When completed, which is anticipated by late spring of 2005, the
arts center will be a 28,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art endeavor.

“It will be a major feather in Watertown’s cap,” he said.

Airasian and arts center board member Roberta Miller presented
Mosesian with a plaque, thanking him for his donation to the theater.
He described Mosesian as an Armenian businessman who grew up in the
East End, made his money through business in the East End and can now
give back to the community.

Mosesian, who did not make any comments during the ceremony,
received a standing ovation.

The center has already raised more than $6.5 million for the
construction of the building, and received a $1.2 million loan from
the Watertown Savings Bank which allowed them to move forward.

The director of the Office of the Arts at Harvard University,
which owns the Arsenal buildings, but agreed to lease them to the
WADC for $1 for 99 years, also spoke, saying that he grew up in
Watertown and remembers the windows of the Arsenal, when it served as
a facility for the U.S. Army, always being a scary place. He said he
was excited about the future.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky explained that the word
“arsenal” through translation actually means “the place of art,” or
where things are made. He said it suggests that art is not at the
fringes of human intelligence, but “right at the middle of who we
are.”

Mina McCandless, a program director of the Massachusetts
Cultural Council, said what was going on at the Arsenal was “nothing
short of miraculous.

“What you’re undertaking here today is truly inspirational,” she
said.

“Today, we celebrate the start of our brand-new space,” said
Miner. He said he survived the trials and travails of the project
with one motivating quote by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

“You must have a little chaos within you to give birth to a
dancing star,” he said, quoting Nietzsche.

Following the ceremony, attendees were encouraged to sign a
large white beam, that would be embedded into the construction of the
new center.