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On Sunday, Jan. 31, Director Brain F. Hale said that The Bing Arts Center’s building in Springfield has been put up for sale.
The asking price on the more than 10,000-square-foot property on Sumner Avenue is $175,000, according to LoopNet.
“Unfortunately the cessation of income was not matched by a corresponding end of facility costs,” Hale said. “Our capacity to continue paying the bills is rapidly diminishing, leaving us with little choice but to sell the property.”
Hale said The Bing hadn’t been able to host a show since March 2020. A planned 10th-anniversary party in June was expected to be a kick-off party for more events, but COVID-19 had other plans.
Hale never said The Bing is dissolving, just that the organization is selling its building.
The Bing Arts Center, formerly the Bing Theater, has three large rooms, ample restrooms, parking in the rear, and the cinema area has been left in its original condition.
The building is being sold “as is” with most of its contents.
The Bing, 716 Sumner Ave., was first built in 1940 and renovated in 2004. It is vacant, but any use has to be approved by the City of Springfield, according to sellers Lessard Realty.
ARTISTIC REALITIES
In November 2020, the Mass Cultural Council released a survey that found Massachusetts cultural organizations had lost $484 million in revenue since the start of the COVID-19 economic restrictions in March 2020.
The survey also asked about 40,0000 individual artists - 11,000 of them located west of I-495 - how they are doing. The survey found that they had lost out on a collected $20 million in revenue. More than 30,000 cultural jobs had been cut, had their hours reduced, or pay slashed. Locally, between Western and Central Massachusetts and the Berkshires, more than 7,000 cultural jobs have been impacted.
While Western Mass and the Berkshires have lost a combined $55 million, Central Massachusetts cultural organizations have lost more than $25 million in revenue due to the pandemic.
To reopen, the Mass Cultural Council said would cost the state’s art institutions about $116.8 million in capital improvements and the implementation of COVID-19 safety procedures.
The Bing is not the first local arts space to be done in by the punishing persistence of COVID-19. In 2020, Gateway City Arts also closed due to the pandemic.
To read Mass Cultural Council's full report on how COVID-19 is impacting the local arts, visit MCC at massculturalcouncil.org.
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