“What does peace look like to kids? Fifth-grader Naomi Nurenberg asks her peers” (November 9, 2021) While she was at Somerstreets, Naomi was approached by [Parama] Chattopadhyay [Owner of the Gallery], who has a history in both working with and teaching kids and in art –– the perfect intersection for her partnership with Naomi. After seeing Nomi interact with other kids and learning about her project, Chattopadhyay gave Naomi her business card and told her to call her if she ever wanted to be in a gallery. Of course, Naomi jumped at the opportunity. In late October, Naomi, along with her parents, and Chattopadhyay, hosted a gallery party at the Armory on Highland Avenue for members of the community to see the beautiful work Naomi and her peers put together…”It felt awesome to express myself and help other kids express themselves through art,” Naomi said. “Kids’ voices are just as important.”
Artist Jymi Cliche’s testimonial of the Gallery (November 2021)
Artist Jymi Cliche writes about his experience showing twelve paintings at the Middle East Nightclub through the Gallery thanks to owner Parama Chattopadhyay.
An art show to support community art (September 8, 2021)
On Sept. 11, visitors are welcome to meet the local artists of the Out of the Blue Community Arts gallery. Artists will be available to talk about their works, and guests can bid on pieces for a donation price. These works have been placed on the stair walls and walls of the Armory during the pandemic. On Saturday, there will be free tours and Meet the Artists from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Somerville artists accuse city of ‘bait and switch’ after Armory arts building taken by eminent domain (September 6, 2021)
A group of Somerville artists who rent studios at the city’s Armory arts building are accusing city officials of a “bait and switch,” after the city issued new leases in the weeks after it captured the property through eminent domain warning tenants they could lose their spaces at the end of the year.
“Somerville explains Armory leases that panicked, saying tenants can likely stay during use process” (August 26, 2021)
Somerville officials told residents of its Armory arts building in a Wednesday email that what looked like a Dec. 31 eviction notice was “a temporary, initial measure while the work to transform the Armory into an arts use begins.”
“Leases seem to evict Armory arts tenants Dec. 31, leaving confusion and anger at Somerville silence (August 21, 2021)
Despite assurances by a Somerville official that the city would work with tenants of its Armory arts building not “to dismantle [it but] to make it work,” leases were sent Thursday that suggests all will be homeless as of Dec. 31.
Armory tenants needn’t worry about evictions, Somerville assures as its land taking proceeds (May 23, 2021)
The arts organizations at Somerville’s Armory Building are in limbo, stuck between two owners and worrying about their futures. The city’s executive director of community development says they should not worry.
The Center for Arts at the Armory needs your help (May 6, 2021)
The Center for Arts at the Armory is a longstanding organization for creative arts. In 2007, the Sater brothers decided to spend millions of dollars to renovate and buy the palatial building from the City of Somerville. Since then, it has been a home to circus arts, ballet, theatre, symphony rehearsals and concerts, farmers markets, herbalist conferences, Somerville Open Studios, blood drives, poetry readings, smaller cafe performances, yoga workshops, acupuncture and fitness classes, interior design companies, and much more. The Out of the Blue Art Gallery, which is a 501(c)(3) performance and educational non-profit, came into its doors in April 2020, just as the pandemic created worldwide financial and public health havoc.
Armory Building might be seized from its owners by Somerville to preserve arts use for community (April 26, 2021)
Citing the impending loss of a space relied on the arts community and its residents, the City of Somerville is looking at spending $5 million to take its armory away from the Sater family – also owners of The Middle East nightclub complex in Central Square – which has owned the structure since 2004.
Out of the Blue art gallery is in Somerville armory after rent hikes ended its Cambridge stay in 2017 (February 4, 2021)
The Out of the Blue art gallery and performance space, a fixture around Cambridge for 21 years before being priced out in December 2017, says it has a new home in Somerville.
The Parma Chai ‘Out of the Blue Gallery’ has moved to Somerville (February 3, 2021)
We are extremely thankful to the Center for Arts at the Armory for helping to keep our mission alive and are very grateful as well for the businesses that operate here that enjoy the art and want to help sustain it! The Gallery is incredibly thankful it could continue its mission to preserve local art through the pandemic.
Coronavirus closures put Boston’s arts, cultural institutions in ‘dire’ situation (June 28, 2020)
“It’s another nail in the coffin,” said Parama Chattopadhyay, art director of Out of the Blue Too Gallery in Allston. The Harvard Street gallery will close its doors for good this week, unable to keep up with rent after the coronavirus pandemic forced the gallery to close to customers and cancel the art parties that helped sustain them. The 25-year-old gallery has given rise to hundreds of independent artists and musicians in Boston throughout its lifetime. The closure stands to have a ripple effect as more and more artists — and the spaces that support them — struggle to make ends meet.
Meet Parama Chattopadhyay of Out of the Blue Too Gallery in Allston (September 18, 2018)
Parama Chattopadhyay earned her Business and Psychology Degree from MIT in 2006, with minors and concentrations in Theatre Arts, Political Science, and Music. After MIT, she decided to be a part of the non-profits Greenpeace and Americorps, ending that stint as the Marketing and Web Director of Adoption and Foster Care Mentoring and Fundraiser for East End House’s “Cooking for a Cause”…
Meet Tom Tipton of Out of the Blue Too in Cambridge
Gallery is an eclectic space that has been built on the experiences of the artists who work here and the people who support them. In the face of various challenges, both negative and positive, it continues to learn, grow, adapt, and become an even more inclusive space for the entire community of not only Cambridge but the entire metropolitan area.
Cambridge’s Story Space turns 25
For the past 25 years, Cambridge’s Story Space has created a platform for storytellers of all kinds to share their work to a receptive and respectful audience. “Brother Blue and his wife Ruth started this back in 1992,” says Story Space organizer Mike Cohen. “They created a place where people could come off the street and tell their stories, and there was no place like that before.”
Through Art, Community Raises Money for Refugees
This Saturday, the Cambridge-based gallery became a classroom without walls to tear its students apart, without harsh hands that mold prejudice into their minds or arbitrary labels placed on humans. People of all walks of life gathered for the Arts & Music Fundraiser for Refugee Health and Human Rights.
Highlights from our campaign kickoff party at Out of the Blue Too Art Gallery and More!
An overflow crowd of more than 100 friends and supporters attended Mike Connolly’s campaign kickoff party at Out of the Blue Too Art Gallery & More last Thursday.
Cambridge’s Out of the Blue Too sustains artistic community
It’s gray outside in Central Square, but inside a vast space on Massachusetts Avenue the view is dazzling. Brightly hued T-shirts emblazoned with the locally ubiquitous “NOT ART” stencil hang from the ceiling’s acoustic tiles. A hut juts out from one wall; jewelry, paintings, old records, and sweat shirts await browsers. A large dog wanders around, sometimes stopping to get petted. Visitors wander in, intrigued by the vibrancy visible from the street.
Out of the Blue Too Gallery hosts eclectic art exhibition
A disco ball hangs from the center of the gallery. A bust of Albert Einstein made up with red lipstick and blue eyeshadow sits at an artist’s table. In the corner, a painter works on a portrait.
Young Americans: Listen to the bands and artists playing Out Of The Blue Too’s David Bowie tribute
Cambridge DIY arts space and underdog live music venue Out of the Blue Too Art Gallery & More is opening up its stage Thursday night, January 14, for a wide-ranging night of styles and sounds all in the name of the late Thin White Duke.
Out of the Blue Too art gallery gets license for readings, dance, music, theater events
An entertainment license for Central Square’s Out of the Blue Too Gallery was approved Tuesday by the License Commission, paving the way for poetry readings, dance and music events, and an upcoming Shakespeare play.
SCOUT OUT: Out Of The Blue, Into The New
Central Square has had many a building stand empty for years, 541 Massachusetts Ave. being one of them. The building used to house a Blockbuster Video, but for the last six or seven years it has been vacant, aside from the occasional pop-up. Every once in a while rumors about the location would become the topic of local gossip: At one point it was slated to be the site of the much anticipated return of ManRay, a beloved Central Square nightclub that was replaced by condos in 2005, and, when that fell through, a location of the national pet store chain, PetSmart.
Central Square, Keeping Biz Local at Out of the Blue Gallery
Out of the Blue Gallery, located at 106 Prospect St. in Cambridge’s Area 4, has been a fixture in Cambridge for 17 years. Owned and operated by artist and musician, Tom Tipton, Out of the Blue was originally conceived as a venue for local artists to showcase their pieces. But the art gallery has evolved over time to be much more than “just” a gallery. Tom brings music, art, comedy and poetry, all together, under one roof.
High rent forces Cambridge’s Out of the Blue gallery to find new home
Tom Tipton takes great pride in promoting art. To him, it is the closest representation of the universe’s work.