Artists’ collective sets up shop on Fields Corner’s Gibson Street

One bright spot on the new year Dorchester art scene is the continuing emergence of a multi-use arts space in Fields Corner, one that shares a name with a major European airline.

Lufthansa Studios at 100 Gibson St. is the new communal exhibition and exploration space formed by three current graduate students and three recent alumni of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (SMFA): Garett Yahn, Kirk Amaral Snow, Chad Arnholt, John  Gonzalez,  Jen Barrows,  and Jack W. Schneider—most of whom live in Jamaica Plain and Roslindale.

Lufthansa joins the ranks of off-the-beaten-track Dot exhibit spaces like 309 Hancock Gallery, African Winter Gallery, HallSpace, and Pearl Street Cooperative Gallery.

Lufthansa, which opened on October 22 with an informal “come and check out our versatile space” party, sees itself as “an artist studio/gallery that fuses an artists’ workspace with an exhibition venue, serving as a platform for investigation in visual arts and cultural production in the Boston area.”

Chad Arnholt, one member of the Lufthansa collective, explains how the 2,300 square foot former construction contracting workspace got the name of Germany’s flagship carrier. The former occupants mysteriously left the word “Lufthansa” spelled out in magnetic letters. Collective members chose to see this “sign” as the name they should adopt for their collective. They even used the font of the magnetic letters for their logo.


Co-founder Kirk Amaral Snow fills in more background: “While the original concept behind our space was conceived a little over a year ago by Garett Yahn and me, we are more of a loosely based co-op structure with 7 members rather than an organization headed/represented by a single person. All the members hold studio spaces in the building, and have the opportunity to originate programming for the gallery/project space at Lufthansa. We also accept proposals for events and exhibitions by outside artists and curators such as our recent exhibition ‘Wedding Reception II.’ ”

Snow refers to a December 4 evening event, the work of husband and wife collaborators Jordan Tynes and Taylor McVay, investigating “the marriage process within an art context.” “This interactive and socially fueled exhibition featured objects and documentation from our recent ‘guerrilla style’ Las Vegas wedding.” 

Looking ahead, on January 15 the collective hosts another description-defying evening: “Frequency Deconstruction,” an installation and platform for sound performances, followed by the screening of the controversial documentary about Norwegian Black Metal, an extreme form of heavy metal music associated with violent and iconoclastic behavior.

February will bring a private collaboration with a Dorchester-raised professor friend from their school, and March will see a free thesis exhibition by three of members, a show during which the general public can visit for free during more normal gallery hours.

As the busy students continue taking “baby steps” to get to know their Fields Corner neighbors, they avail themselves of everything from social networking to posting fliers in near-by stores. They warmly welcome inquires and suggestions for collaborations from all Dot residents at lufthansastudios@gmail.com.


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