With culture as its guiding light, a Latino-founded organisation is once again transforming a neighbourhood in Boston’s South End. On 15 May, Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA), a nonprofit community development corporation, will opens the doors of New England's largest Latino cultural centre. The 26,000-sq.-ft, $33m La Casa (Center for Arts, Self-determination and Activism) will serve as a hub for civic engagement, education, community gatherings and artistic expression.
The first time the organisation made an impact in this Boston neighbourhood was in 1968, when a majority Puerto Rican activist group resisted displacement and advocated for housing justice. Their success led to the creation of a community-based, arts-focused housing and development corporation and nonprofit—one that has been held up as a national model for neighbourhood revitalisation. Today, IBA is Massachusetts’s largest Latino-led nonprofit organisation with more than $250m in assets, 667 units of affordable housing and programming in financial literacy, early education and youth development.
Vanessa Calderón-Rosado, the chief executive of IBA, sees La Casa as “a true legacy project that continues to build upon the 1968 movement of activists that had a true vision of what a vibrant community, a healthy community and an engaged community looks like,” she tells The Art Newspaper. “An important piece of the work of IBA that makes us unique and recognised is the integration of the arts in everything that we do. From the very beginning, our founders saw the arts not just as a mechanism to celebrate our heritage and our culture, our roots, our history, but also as a critical tool for community-building. We continue that work today.”
La Casa, Boston Courtesy Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción
IBA began in the 1960s by repurposing a centrally located, turn-of-the-century Lutheran church as a community centre. But the building became structurally unsound and was demolished several years ago. IBA has since collaborated with the community to imagine its new space. What they have envisioned is a central home for offices, programming and a vibrant hub for connecting the next generation of Latin and Caribbean artists, activists and civic leaders.
The new four-story structure was designed by the local firms Studio Enée and Annum Architects—the latter is also renovating the modern art galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. La Casa provides more than double the previous building's space and is wrapped in terracotta-coloured vertical bands—a nod to both Boston’s historic brick architecture and the Caribbean sun-shading brise-soleil.
The building and site design are energy efficient, conserve water and reduce the heat-island effect of this urban project. The accessible, glass-framed first floor opens into flexible, light-filled meeting spaces. And folding glass doors integrate indoor and outdoor spaces, offering seamless access to the city playground and exterior amphitheatre in warmer months.
The local artist Alvin “Acóma” Colon created a mural inside La Casa Courtesy Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción
“We wanted the building to be transparent,” Calderón-Rosado says, “so everyone who walks down the street or walks through the playground could see in and be curious about what's happening there.”
Inside will be an expanded menu of events, exhibitions, art and technology classes and performances. Initial programming includes short-term artist residencies with workshops that engage the community. And greeting visitors coming in is a vibrant mural by the artist Alvin “Acóma” Colon honouring Boston’s Puerto Rican residents.
The remains of the original church, once an important setting for the organisation, were not entirely discarded but instead elements of the building were incorporated into the present structure. Salvaged and restored stained-glass windows and ornamental tiles are permanently installed in the new building—a tribute to a built environment that has shaped individual lives and supported lasting change.
