There’s a name and opening date for the pop-up art gallery coming to Davis Square, filling the showpiece storefront space of a Starbucks coffee shop that closed a year ago.
The Diamond Factory has a ribbon-cutting at 4 p.m. Oct. 17, a spokesperson said.
An opening exhibition called “Diamond Factory I” is set to feature the work of 10 artists: Resa Blatman, Sarah Meyers Brent, Zach Faugno-Teig, Andrew Fish, Carol Fonde, Sharon Lacey, Greer Muldowney, Andrew Neumann, John Savone and Michael Talbot.
Susan Berstler of the Nave Gallery in Teele Square is curator and operator of the volunteer-run space with the Somerville Arts and Culture department.
City arts leaders have not said how long the pop-up will stay in place. It has been described as being under a short-term lease the city signed with the developer and property owner Asana, which planned a 120,000-square-foot, labs-focused redevelopment project called 7th Spoke on the site. The project stalled during a slowdown in interest in lab spaces, but not before the departure of some businesses.
The problem of empty storefronts in Davis Square – including some from a proposed residential and retail project down the street that has since collapsed – worsened in September 2025 when Starbucks announced it would close more than 400 U.S. and Canadian stores, including more than 20 in Massachusetts. Four of those were in Cambridge and Somerville, including the one at 260 Elm St. The coffee shop space has been empty since.
The Diamond Factory pop-up is named after how artists make beauty in a world filled with pressure, the spokesperson said; the Nave ran an exhibit in the spring called “We Create Diamonds,” curated by Michael Talbot, with a similar theme.
“Pressure creates diamonds,” said gallery text about the show. “Threats to democracy are rising. Free speech is in jeopardy and the arts censored. The call to act has never been louder … At this moment, art is more important than ever.”
The Nave Gallery opened in 2004 in a church in Teele Square; from 2013-2017 it ran the Nave Annex in a house next to Redbones in Davis Square. That house that has been torn down to be rebuilt into three condominiums over a commercial space.
The Diamond Factory seems to be picking up where the Nave Annex left off: Among the final shows at the Annex was “#Resist,” described as “art that speaks to the current political climate in the United States and elsewhere. Themes explored range from alt facts to coal mining to sanctuary cities and more.”
