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Explore > Boston Center for the Arts, Cyclorama > Story Archives
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BCA -- 1970's Outstanding Arts Event
Submitted by Susanne Macdonald, North Shore
A fabulous memory pervades: We were renovating our South End Concord Square house in the mid-70' s at a time when the BCA installed a thrilling art event entitled THE DINNER PARTY by Judy Chicago. An enthralling, enticing community-and citywide arts exhibition, this major art event was an inspirational cutting-edge and larger-than-life symbolic portrayal honoring individual feminist contributions to history, the arts and science, reflected in a total of thirty-nine outstanding & sumptuously designed dinner place settings, each commemorating an important woman from history.
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Assistant Professor of Art
Submitted by Joyce, Boston
The BCA has been an amazing resource to art and arts administration students at Simmons College and other colleges and universities in the greater Boston area. Open studios, events with reasonable student prices, and the Mills Gallery are all a part of the extended learning of students in Boston. They do more than any other single arts organization to build audiences for the arts among the younger generation. Their place in the community is a vital and dynamic one!
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The Cyclorama - there's no better place for an unusual party
Submitted by Party girl, Boston
My company sponsored a party at the Cyclorama a number of years ago and we're all still talking about it. Party goers walked through the front entrance to the view of a giant stage with a dancer whose balletic moves were projected on a giant screen behind him. The stage was flanked by go-go booths with male dancers wearing their Calvin Kleins and their Doc Martens. Waiters cruised through the crowd on roller blades wielding trays of hors d'oeuvres. There were small theaters set up in various corners of the Cyclorama, for cabarets, fortune telling and other exotic entertainments. The Cyclorama is a fabulous place to have a memorable party!
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A local and regional center for the arts
Submitted by P, Boston
The BCA is not just a historic site of major signifiance in the art history of Boston, it is and has been home to emerging artists and performers who have used it as a stepping stone to moving forward. And that unique legacy continues on to this day. It is also the center of the local South End neighborhood. A true neighborhood, city, regional asset.
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History of Cyclorama
Submitted by sean, Boston
Built in 1884, The Cyclorama’s original purpose was to display a 400 feet long by 50 feet wide painting of the Battle of Gettysburg. For fifty- cents, visitors could climb a circular staircase to a platform where they would be completely surrounded by the painting.
In 1890, John Gardner, father-in-law of Isabella Stewart Gardner, purchased the Cyclorama and launched a series of new uses for the building. In the early 1890s, the Cyclorama was home to a bazaar that included a carousel, roller-skating and bicycle riding. Later came a costume carnival and roller polo championships.
Since 1971, the BCA has provided affordable studio, work and living space for working artists, and has become well known as the center of Boston’s burgeoning small-to-medium sized theatre companies. With the 2004 addition of the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion (an historic collaboration among the BCA, the Huntington Theatre Company, Druker Company developers and the City of Boston) and the 2007 opening of the Beehive Jazz Café, the BCA now welcomes nearly a quarter of a million visitors each year to its eclectic and synergistic combination of theatres, gallery exhibitions, artist studios, performances, special events and community celebrations. The new theatres in the Calderwood and adjacent Atelier 505 condominium and retail complex have created a renewed gateway to the historic and culturally mixed South End neighborhood, and enlivened the already bustling area with new restaurants, shops and services.
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Weekly Dig
Submitted by sean, Boston
"When it comes to having our annual Holiday fundraiser, an underground art
festival, or a private party with a few hundred of our closest friends,
there's only one choice for us: The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the
Arts. There's no better staff or venue in Boston - period."
Jeff Lawrence
Founder/President
Boston's Weekly Dig
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Boston's Most Unique Space
Submitted by sean, Boston
T"he Cyclorama is Boston’s most unique event space allowing both design and community to blend into a cohesive and meaningful environment to produce meetings and events.”
Chris Gasbarro,
Event Planner
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