What is next with The Star Store?
At this moment, the New Bedford arts community has an opportunity to design a flagship arts facility. It will be a test to the city’s artists, art lovers, and supporters to see what takes shape. Who will voice their opinions to how the building should be renovated and to serve what mediums and what artists? Who will be invited to share their voice? How do we reach all the voices? In the old days, we initiated telephone trees. Now we post messages on social media and hope those who are “following” will read your content will “share” with their networks. I guess this is DATMA’s attempt to “share” and increase the awareness of an important community voice phase.
Reader’s may recall that DATMA had installed some very special artworks in The Star Store over the years. Do Ho Suh (Korea), Zimoun (Switzerland), and Abeer Seikaly (Jordan) are just a few of our featured artists and we hope to be able to once again feature free indoor exhibitions! But where? We believe public art means art that is installed in pubic spaces- both indoor and outdoor. At this point, we struggle to build indoor exhibitions in New Bedford where art can be experienced for free (Gallery X is an exception and we value their mission very much for allowing foot-traffic at no cost to the attendee). Perhaps The Star Store can have a gallery available to the public like it had for the last 20 years and DATMA can once again present indoor artworks in the heart of downtown.
The legacy of The Star Store has largely impacted our little city and is a big act to follow. If you or anyone you know can join the upcoming public meetings that will offer a template for the buildings future, you can sign up for the notifications on the StarStoreNB.org website. The meetings are also listed below with links to eventbrite sign-ups. Word of mouth is the most effective way to share, alas this is a written blog post, but still… maybe as a reader, you can share this resource with a friend who has a vision and the courage to think really big! Get crazy people! No holding back!
I encourage all of us to make an effort and make the most of this incredible opportunity to foster the livelihood of New Bedford’s arts scene, whatever that means to you, it can be a reality in just 18 months. ACCESS THE STAR STORE WEBPAGE HERE.
written & published by:
Lindsay Miś
Executive Director
Now, here’s a note from Matt McArthur, Director of Real Estate and Fundraising, Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston, the new owners of The Star Store.
Good morning and hope you all are having a good summer!
Thank you so much for your interest in the future of the Star Store and for your patience as we’ve been working to get organized and begin the community engagement process to gather your feedback and collectively envision a bright future for this critical creative resource in New Bedford.
Good news: the community engagement process begins today. We’ve scheduled 6 discipline-specific small group gatherings and 3 large group “town hall” style meetings over the next 2 months and we’re excited to begin collecting your RSVPs for the following sessions:
- 8/11/25 | 3:00-5:00pm | 3D Creativity
- 8/12/25 | 5:30-7:30pm | Live/Performing Arts
- 8/26/25 | 3:00-5:00pm | 2D Creativity
- 8/27/25 | 5:30-7:30pm | Textile/Fashion/Craft
- 9/02/25 | 3:00-5:00pm | Film/Photography/Digital
- 9/03/25 | 5:30-7:30pm | Makeup Session – TBD
- 9/15/25 | 5:30-7:30pm | Town Hall #1
- 9/23/25 | 5:30-7:30pm | Town Hall #2
- 9/29/25 | 5:30-7:30pm | Town Hall #3
A couple notes as you consider which session(s) to attend:
- All sessions are open to the public and you’re welcome to attend more than one.
- Not all locations have been determined but generally the sessions will be held in and around downtown, and please RSVP anyway so you receive updates as we finalize locations.
- We know that not everyone will be able to attend the session of their choice, so we’ve included a makeup session in September, and we encourage you to attend the most relevant session for which you are available.
- For those that are unavailable to attend a session please be on the lookout for virtual survey requests and feel free to be in touch with us directly to ensure your feedback is captured in this process.
- Lastly, we encourage you to:
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- only attend sessions that are genuinely interesting to you and
- limit your attendance to the small group sessions to no more than 1 so that we have enough space and time to hear from everyone that wants to participate.
As always, Margo and I are here to answer your questions, please reach out any time. We can’t wait to connect in person, learn more about your creative wants and needs, and begin building an actionable plan to make the future Star Store as supportive and useful to you as possible.
See you soon,
-Matt
Matt McArthur
Director of Real Estate and Fundraising
Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston
call/text me – 520-990-5626
