Watertown’s Room 83 Spring Merging with Musa Collective

Watertown art gallery Room 83 Spring announced some big changes, which will be celebrated by the exhibition in November and December — Goodbye Hello.

Beginning in January Room 83 Spring will be morphing and merging with Musa Collective, said Room 83 co-directors and artists Cathleen Daley and Ellen Wineberg. 

“It has been a site for experimentation and process; showcasing a well-received mix of creative disciplines in provocative installations and it has hosted a wide range of events and engaging conversations. Room’s final show of 2019, Goodbye Hello, runs through December 21 and presents the work of 30 Boston area artists who have shown with Room,” the pair said in an email.

The Merger

Room 83 Spring will share the physical space and calendar with Musa members in a rotation of exciting shows. Musa has been a collective gallery since 2017 at 119 Braintree St. in Allston. Some of its members had been artists in residence at Room. 

“Their mission is ‘to create a dialogue between artists through community support, exhibitions and curatorial opportunities.’ In a timely conversation with Musa members, it was discovered that they were looking to expand into a larger brick and mortar space,” the Room 83 directors said. “At the same time, Room 83 Spring’s directors were thinking about trading the yearly roster and work-load for pop-up shows, independent studio time and outside curating work. It was an aha! moment.”

In 2020 Room will fold into a new rotational mix with Musa Collective. January and February there will be an artist residency at Room. The next exhibition season will follow the residency with a show of Musa members in March.

New Projects

Room’s Co-Directors will continue to curate and exhibit in other locations. A year ago, the Cambridge Art Association invited Daley to curate a show for them as they expand their exciting mix of offerings. Her curatorial project Soft Shoulder will open on Jan. 9 at the Kathryn Schultz Gallery at the Cambridge Art Association. The show includes 10 artists from Brooklyn to Montreal whose works are organic, unstructured and non-conforming, non-representational and off-kilter; yet relational and familiar, Daley said. 

Wineberg has been invited to curate at the Gallery at North Hill in a formal public gallery space that has changing shows of regional artists in a Continuing Care Retirement community in Needham.

The Show

Goodbye Hello runs through Dec. 21, 2019. The studio, located at 83 Spring St. in Watertown, is open Thursdays and Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m. and anytime by appointment.

Goodbye Hello features Room 83 Artists: John Anderson, Liza Bingham, Cat Bennett, Donna Calleja, Laura Chasman, Cathleen Daley, Rebecca Doughty, Phyllis Ewen, Nancy Gruskin, Kelley Harwood, Kirstin Lamb, Marja Lianko, Anne Lilly, Carol McMahon, Mark Luiggi, Lisa Olsen, Bob Oppenheim, Ellen Rich, Judy Riola, Wendy Seller, Maggie Stern, Leslie Sills, Vaughn Sills, Jessica Straus, Jean Smith, Kathleen Volp, Anne Sargent Walker, Ellen Wineberg, and Antoinette Winters.

Musa Collective artists in the show are: Kamal Ahmad, Roya Amigh, Nina Bellucci, Ryan Boutin, Niels Burger, Marta Kaemmer, Kathleen Kennedy, Alla Lazebnik, and Noah Sussman.

For more information go to room83spring.com and musacollectiveboston.com