Carriage House for the Arts is a living artwork, driven by the priorities of historical education, environmental justice, and community-led development in Boston’s Roxbury and Dorchester neighborhoods. The project is led by a coalition whose training and expertise span architecture & landscape design, ethics, aesthetics, and history. As a coalition, we hold that a relation to time in its extended duration is imperative for encouraging recognition of the ravages of climate change and inspiring practical mitigation of its impact, including its disparate impact on communities already ravaged by histories of racial discrimination and social marginalization. In the interest of crystalizing historical and ecological change, the project’s design and construction prioritizes the adaptive re-use of the Joseph Hubbard Carriage House, which has weathered the social and environmental change of Roxbury, Boston since its construction in 1893.

The Long Table, described as “An outlet for nervous and creative energy in our isolated, uncertain, frightening, and infuriating present; a space for collaboration, connection, and sharing of texts, images, sounds and whatever else,” was co-founded by Jessica Ruffin and Simone Stirner in April 2020 as an outlet and antidote in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity (credit: Associate Producer, 2014), directed by Catherine Gund. Elizabeth Streb and the STREB Extreme Action Company form a motley troupe of flyers and crashers. Propelled by Streb’s edict that “anything too safe is not action,” these daredevils challenge the assumptions of art, aging, injury, gender, and human possibility. BORN TO FLY: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity traces the evolution of Elizabeth Streb’s movement philosophy as she pushes herself and her performers from the ground to the sky. Revealing the passions behind the dancers’ bruises and broken noses, BORN TO FLY offers a breathtaking tale about the necessity of art, inspiring audiences hungry for a more tactile and fierce existence.