Somerville Couple Nurtures Art in Former Dry Cleaners

Posted Dec. 23, 5:30 a.m.

Anney Barrett, who owns the newly opened Green Room, in Union Square, with her husband Michael, calls their creation a "multi-purpose community gathering space."

It's an intimate space where people can organize music concerts and performances, where music teachers can bring students for lessons, dancers can rehearse and neighbors can gather for meetings.

A little over 500 square feet in size, the Green Room has a large exposed brick wall, smooth wooden floors and a grand piano in the corner. During a recent visit, there was an 1830s fortepiano against one wall and a harpsichord, still in a protective layer of cloth, against the other. (Both are on loan to the space through the spring.)

In short, it's a bit of a chameleon space that people can rent out to pursue various creative endeavors.

• Address: 62 Bow St., Union Square
• Phone: (617) 684-5735
• Website: thegreenroomsomerville.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/thegreenroomsomerville

We sat down with Anney and Michael Barrett, who got married last year, to talk about their new venture. Here's the conversation:

Somerville Patch: You're music teachers, right?

Michael: "Yes. We're both students right now as well. I'm in a doctoral program in choral conducting at Boston University ..."

Anney: "... And I have a master's degree in voice performance, and I'm teaching, but I'm the mental health counseling program at Leslie University."

Somerville Patch: What was this space before you transformed it into the Green Room.

Anney: "This was a dry cleaners drop-off, downstairs from our apartment, so it was really convenient ... We live upstairs in a very small apartment and we teach out of it. One bedroom, actually, of our one bedroom apartment was dedicated to teaching … we've gained a third of our house back."

Somerville Patch: "Were you already looking for a space when you found this one?

Anney: "We were already kind of looking for a space, and looking all over Somerville, and when we realized the commercial space that was open on Bow Street was actually in our building and where we were taking our dry cleaning …"

Michael: "... It seemed too serendipitous ..."

Anney: "... It seemed impossible to ignore."

Somerville Patch: How would you describe the Green Room; what is it?

Anney: "We're hoping that it'll be a space for the community to use in any way that's useful for the community. We love Union Square, and we're finding people are already coming up with uses for this space that we hadn't even thought of."

Michael: "One of our biggest jobs is to get the word out about the fact this place exists. And I've already been pleasantly surprised that some of the people I've met through this space—musicians and people in other fields—are people I would have not encountered otherwise."

Anney: "I really feel if we make this space available then the shows and the ideas are just bubbling."

Somerville Patch: How big is it in terms of square feet?

Anney: "It's a little bit more than 500, the whole space."

Michael: "And there's a certain appeal I think for a smaller venue, because many concerts won't attract 100 people but will attract 20."

Anney: "And in a big space if you have 20 people, that can feel pretty discouraging. Here if there's a concert and there are 20 people it feels lively and packed and fun. It's great."

Somerville Patch: "How does this fit into all that's happening in Union Square culturally?"

Anney: "We were delighted to notice when we were reading about zoning that this is actually zoned as an arts overlay part of Somerville. So Somerville is actually wanting places like this to come. And when we took this to the zoning person, she said, 'Not only are you zoned by right to do what you want to do, but we are so happy you are doing this we want to help you where we can.'"

Somerville Patch: How do people book the space?

Anney: "There's an availability calendar live on the website. So folks can just check and see if the time they're interested in is available, and they can just give us a call or send us an email, and we'll contract with them. We can take payments by check or PayPal, and we have a whole payment system on our website to start from."

Somerville Patch: When did you open?

Anney: "We had our first big concert on Oct. 5. It was the Anthology [Voices] concert with the Boston Composers' Coalition."

Michael: "Going from there we've had a jazz duo come in, and there's going to be a series."

Anney: "Yeah, called Jazz at the Green Room, run by a coworker of mine, and this is also the home of the Longy Alumni Association's series, the Decibel Concert Series.

Somerville Patch: Is there anything the city of Somerville could do better to make life easier for small businesses?

Michael: "In a way I feel like we've had a great experience up to this stage where we are now … every time we've approached them I felt we had their full support."

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