“An old Victorian house sits vacant in Newton, Massachusetts,” begins a press release from the Webster Court Project. The innovative endeavor capitalized upon an otherwise unused, relatively ancient home purchased by Christopher Zakak and Joelle Tomb, who were required to wait one year before demolishing it to utilize the coveted land.
“Within the creaky walls and the overgrown lawn are dust-coated cabinets, ornate wallpaper, and fireplaces with coals preserved. Transformed by a collective of Boston-based artists, the house celebrates its history while simultaneously challenging concepts of home, environment, and identity,” the press release continues.
The couple who planned to rebuild on the land once occupied by Webster Court felt restless leaving the gorgeous space inactive. They channeled their passion for the arts into the Webster Court Project, recruiting twenty emerging artists (Sam Belisle, Sofia Plater, Cal Rice, Krystle Brown to name a few) to employ “photography, painting, installation, video, performance, and other media to offer a wide array of perspectives” and “[challenge] the viewer to re-contextualize their idea of home.”
The project opened to the public on June 30, 2018 and offered attendees opportunities “to interact, explore, and experience the art within the walls.” A December 2019 article from Sculpture Magazine extolled that “The loose collective transformed rooms, hallways, bathrooms, and porches into intriguing and sometimes magical installations. Their work celebrated the history of the house while simultaneously challenging concepts of home, environment, and identity.”
The couple received assistance with Webster Court’s curation from Boston Museum School professor Mark Cooper. The talent their endeavor showcases testifies to the partnership’s efficacy. I was able to briefly chat with two of the project’s twenty artists regarding their experience working at Webster Court.
Krystle Brown is a recent graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Her “recent work revolves around the psychological effects of economic class, ritual, and being at odds with one’s environment,” exploring these themes through video installations, sculpture, photography and performance “that bridge between the morbid and the humorous.”
Cooper approached Brown about participating in the project. Regarding her first impressions of the Webster Court proposition, Brown recalled, “We were all very intrigued when we learned that this was a vacant Victorian house right in Newton Center.” In Spring 2018, she joined several graduate students for a visit to the house itself. Brown said she “was particularly thrilled to see some of the original woodwork in the house and vintage wallpaper. There were elements of all the 20th-century decor aesthetics mashed together.”
Brown created a series of found-object works created from items “that were found in my family’s home after both of my parents suddenly passed away in 2017,” as the artist explained. Pieces like ‘We Never Used These Anyway’ highlight the traditionally intimate alongside details so intimate and personal that often they’re part of a person’s life. The aforementioned work arranges linen napkins from Brown’s parents’ home around their debt collection letters, nailed to Webster Court’s floral wallpaper with coffin nails.
The space itself gave Webster Court a powerful angle in Brown’s mind, both for its style and location. “The Boston area is facing a significant housing shortage, especially for low-income families and individuals,” Brown explained. “This issue is further exacerbated for artists and creatives, who need affordable spaces for both living and working in a city. As artists creating work and exhibiting it in this vacant home, it became an almost metaphor of the struggles of living in a rapidly expanding and gentrifying metro area. Artists whose work may not directly touch upon this subject still had this philosophical lens due to being in the very space itself.”
Difficult problems like the negative consequences of gentrification and a community’s role in supporting artists require crafty solutions. Brown feels that Webster Court, innovative to its core, provides a unique answer to the need for creative artistic opportunities. “I believe this project in its very essence provides a departure from the mainstream “white cube” of traditional galleries and art fairs,” she stated. “From the artist selection process to the physical space, and the event planning had a more democratic and transparent philosophy, with the focus on including anyone who was willing to transform the space and have a social engagement element.”
Joelle Tomb envisioned the project with three specific benefits in mind. A real estate adviser and artist herself, she noted in an email that Webster Court married art and real estate to provide benefits to “various stakeholders.” Artists received the opportunity to sell their work while participating in a resume-boosting “‘unconventional’ museum experience.’” Community members enjoyed the project’s various events like open houses and artists meet and greets. The space itself enjoyed the benefit of being utilized for a greater goal.
Sophia Plater “is a Boston based mixed media and sculpture artist” who “works with construction materials to create unexpected explorations of aesthetic possibilities.” Plater boasts an incredibly wide breadth, working masterfully in resin, cement, paint, and beyond. She is also another graduate of Tufts that worked on the Webster Court Project, adding her immersive mixed-media piece ‘Cultch’ to the home’s myriad rooms.
She notes that the collection of Tufts graduates who came to work on the project together made the decision relatively as a group. “It was kind of our last hurrah because a lot of people were moving away right after,” Plater said.
Plater created a smaller work for Webster Court titled ‘Honey Systems’ alongside another large-scale contribution, her traveling installation titled ‘Cultch.’ A short quote accompanying images of the work on her website explains, “Cultch is the New England word for that clutter of partly worn-out or obsolete objects that always gathers,” as told by Louise Dickinson Rich in We Took to the Woods. “Cultch” compiles a dizzying, ever-expanding assortment of industrial bric-a-brac into a labyrinth for the eye. “I actually have a map that goes along with it,” Plater told me. “Every item in the whole installation has a backstory.” Viewers can find an item on the map to learn about its origins.
Plater noted that parallels between her piece and its temporary home in Webster Court enriched the whole experience. “It was perfect for my work because I am working with discarded things that were once useful and giving them a second life. I feel like we gave the house a second life. You know it, it was discarded,” Plater said.
While the Webster Court Project gave the house new life for a short while, this was all to utilize the space while the owners waited out the one year period before they could demolish it. Though the project was fine art to its core in many ways, the ethereal nature of the work lent it some qualities of street art. I wondered how these artists felt knowing their work would face an eventual demise.
Plater’s work survived because the traveling nature of ‘Cultch’ means she’s used to packing it up and shipping it to the next place. Her recurring installation always takes the shape of the next home it finds. “None of my things were demolished,” Plater said, before qualifying that it was still sad to see the historic home destroyed. “We could have kept working with the house and done amazing projects. It’s kind of sad to see it go because it also was so beautiful and ornate.”
Brown didn’t mind the demise so much either. The work she created using her deceased parents’ belongings had to be disposed of somehow. “Ultimately,” she added, “I believe the fleeting nature of the project gave greater credence to the conceptual aspects that the Webster Court Project brought out: the nostalgia of the past, the current housing crisis, and the mix of hope and anxiety for the future.”
Miraculously though, there are small ways that Webster Court lives on tangibly, beyond the memories preserved by minds and photographs. Plater’s ‘Cultch’ is an ongoing effort. “I always collect pieces from wherever I’ve been,” the artist remarked. Pieces of Webster court have found new homes in her work. “I have a grid from the event,” Plater said. “I have this old screen I found in the attic with green paint chipping… There’s probably many different little things too that I just found because there were items in the house. That [made it] so exciting to explore.
Plater believes there will be more projects like Webster Court in the future. She noted that the Zakak’s already have spaces undergoing similar transitions in mind for further pop up galleries. “Artists already have so little exhibition opportunities,” Plater said. “It would be a great way to use that space and maybe bring attention to it so it won’t be demolished.
The happiest ending for Webster Court would be one where the owners see the impact they’ve made in their community, fall in love with the old house as gallery, and continue running it as such into their future. This would be idyllic. However, it’s unfair to expect this of the Zakaks. Their purchase is theirs to do with as they please. Such is the case for anyone else under similar circumstances. However, perhaps with a newfound passion for this unfulfilled line of work, additional homes awaiting demolition could be transformed into usable space for creatively-inclined individuals around the world. Until then, the pieces of this project that have survived in works like ‘Cultch’ will have to sustain us until the stars align once more.
Artists: Cal Rice, Sam Belisle Sofia Plater, Kimberly Barnes, Teddy Benfield, Thalia Berard, Evan Blackwell, Krystle Brown, Si Chen, Katie lee Mansfield, Nicholas Khan, Willoughby Lucas Hastings, Lennon Michelle Wolcott Hernandez, Kristen Powell, Laidy Saenz, Jacob Schaub, Keegan Shiner, Kenson Truong, Clay Woolery, Ola Aksan, Mike Sim, Quinn Guarino.
Musical Groups: New Dakotas, Moorish Brute, Modern Painters, Flu Season, Osker Jeuvens, Targus Targus, Year of the Clam, Mike Sim.
