Boston Lyric Opera recently announced it has signed a long-term lease for a 14,000-square-foot space at Midway Artist Studios in Fort Point. The space, which will be called “Opera and Community Studios,” will serve as a rehearsal hub and small performance venue for the company.
Because the venue’s location and layout meet practical needs for not only BLO, but other arts organizations desiring flexible space, the goal is to create “a resource that’s available to benefit the entire city,” BLO general director and CEO Bradley Vernatter said in a phone interview.
Other performing arts organizations and nonprofits will also be able to use the space for rehearsals, shows, and other events; the studio has already hosted events for the digital art festival Illuminus and the nonprofit journal Boston Art Review, and Commonwealth Shakespeare Company will rehearse its summer production of “The Winter’s Tale” in the space.
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“There’s a huge demand for space like this in the city,” Vernatter said, mentioning that he’d received inquiries about renting the studio from several other organizations across disciplines.
BLO has been without dedicated rehearsal or performance space since ending its relationship with the Shubert Theatre in 2016, but its new home at Midway seemingly positions it for a long residence. The company will continue to rent theaters in Greater Boston for most of its mainstage productions, but the new open-format studio will centralize the company’s rehearsals, production meetings, and administrative offices.
“It serves needs for rehearsal space, orchestra space, for sitzprobe space,” Vernatter said, referring to the first rehearsals with both singers and orchestra. “This is really the first time in the company’s history that we’ve been able to bring all of our artists together in a rehearsal process, to bring all of that together under one roof.”
The 200,000-square-foot Midway complex, which is comprised of three repurposed warehouses, already houses upward of a dozen cultural organizations on the ground floor as well as live-work space for around 170 artists in 89 studios on the upper floors. It was established in 2005 as affordable artist housing by real estate developer Bob Kuehn, and the resident artists raised funds to purchase the building for $20 million in 2013 after Keen Development announced plans to sell it.
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“We’re looking at this as really a catalyzing moment to foster more artist housing and more performing arts space in the neighborhood generally,” Midway Artist Collective president Raber Umphenour said in a phone interview. He “absolutely” sees opportunities for Midway resident artists to collaborate with BLO, both in the company’s production work and the creation of the space itself. “Opera is so cross-disciplinary as an art form that I think it’s going to produce a very unique chemistry for the building, the neighborhood, and the city,” Umphenour said.
The Opera and Community Studios space, the largest in the building, was previously rented by a boxing gym. At present, it includes a balcony surrounding a lower level, and additional renovations are being planned for the next few years, including the construction of a midsized studio. However, nothing is set in stone yet, Vernatter said. “We’re really thinking about this initial year as a learning period for the organization.”
Eventually, he said, the goal is to “activate as much as possible, and have concurrent music and art making happening in different parts of the space simultaneously.”
A.Z. Madonna can be reached at az.madonna@globe.com. Follow her @knitandlisten.