After 23 years in the Porter Square Shopping Center, gallery and artists cooperative Sign of the Dove loses its lease April 30. The co-op, which is home to 19 local creatives, is looking for a location to continue offering its members space to work on, show and sell their art.
The gallery and its neighbor in the space, the nonprofit Mudflat pottery studio, weren’t offered a chance to renew their leases.
“We were surprised,” said Somerville artist Cara Washburn, treasurer and founding member of Sign of the Dove.
The mourning has begun for artists and customers. “It’s been a great little band of artists,”Washburn said. “We really all love our customers, we get a lot of great feedback … it’s been fulfilling just being part of the community.”
Sign of the Dove was founded in 1972 as The Christmas Store, a holiday pop-up that amassed around 60 member artists such as Washburn, who joined in 2000. “We’d get an empty store that was usually a mess, and in a week everything was painted with twinkle lights everywhere,” said Kingsley Weihe, a Jamaica Plain potter who joined a year later, of The Christmas Store. “It would just be magical.” The name change came in 2003, when the co-op secured its shopping center space.
For Weihe, the news hit hard. “I was just so disappointed,” she said. “People don’t always cooperate very well. But this was a very cooperative group … it was a very fortunate situation we had.”
Like Weihe and Washburn, many members have been with Sign of the Dove for decades – “there’s very low turnover,” Washburn said.
Wilder, which manages the shopping center property, said in a statement to The Independent that “the center must review and update leases as they come up for renewal to ensure alignment with current market conditions.” The majority of the tenants who kept their leases are chains, such as Panera Bread and CVS, which Washburn identified as “the stores that can afford to pay the highest rents” – when given the chance.
“They didn’t really offer that option,” said Lynn Gervens, executive director of Mudflat. The pottery nonprofit is not seeking a replacement gallery space and will instead focus on its school and studio in East Somerville. “It’s a great opportunity to have a year-round space that showcases local artists,” Gervens said of the paired stores. “For people in the community who are looking to support local artists and purchase local artwork, losing these spaces makes it harder for them to do that.”
Neighbors didn’t know
Washburn recalled that during the last new development push at the Porter Square Shopping Center under its old management, Sign of the Dove’s neighbors demanded two things: a subsidized space for the gallery and an ice cream store. “We had always understood that [Sign of the Dove] was kind of a condition of the neighborhood,” she said.
Wilder bought the shopping center in 2022, taking the Porter Square Neighbors Association by surprise. “It got sold and nobody protected that particular provision,” said Ruth Ryals, president of the group.
When Ryals tried to intercede and protect the galleries, it seemed clear that Wilder had a new tenant for the space. That led Ryals to change tack and raise the issue with the city: “We’re going to have a lot of small businesses out of a lease who can’t afford whatever their new rate would be,” she said. “We need to find a block or at least a building that is not likely to be torn down anytime soon and has space for the little guys who need a break.”
Struggling artists
Washburn, Weihe and Gervens said they felt the art scene in the Cambridge and Somerville area had changed, noting a loss of brick-and-mortar art spaces – “real estate’s expensive,” Weihe said. For younger artists, Weihe thinks online stores meet some of the same needs as gallery spaces such as Sign of the Dove.
Cambridge and Somerville are significant hubs for artists. In fiscal year 2025, Cambridge Arts and the City of Cambridge distributed more than $300,000 to 60 artists through grants. Somerville, home to many long-held art festivals such as the 40-year-old ArtBeat, cites the local art scene as sparking a generational renaissance in its 20-year plan, Somerville2040. In 2024, SMU DataArts ranked the metro area including Cambridge and Somerville as the 20th best community for arts in the country. Still, its artists often struggle, largely due to high rent.
“Long before I ever joined, artists could make the majority of their annual salary by selling just for the holidays,” Washburn said of the Christmas Store days. During the ’70s and ’80s, she said, there was much more of a market for local goods – but preferences are coming back around. “I think it’s cyclical, in terms of what people are willing to pay for a handcrafted item,” she said, a change she says comes down to values.
“Cambridge really appreciates artists,” Weihe said. “Some people don’t. They want something inexpensive, and they can go next door to Target and find something,” she said, “But if they want something handmade, and appreciate it, then here we are.”
The gallery invites ideas about a next location at signofthedovegalleryinfo@gmail.com.
Sign of the Dove, 36 White St., Porter Square, Cambridge
About The Author
