Ed Andrews, a new studio art teacher, was at a meet and greet with the Provost at Northeastern University about 1990. In conversation with the Provost asked Andrews where on campus his studio was. Ed answered that he didn't have one. The Provost was horrified.

Like flicking a switch, in a matter of months Ed, myself, and Mira Cantor, the three studio artists in the Department at the time, had new studio spaces built for us in the University's warehouse in Jamaica Plain. For the next twenty years, I made work there, housed my growing archive there, matted and framed my own exhibitions, had open studios, final crits and photo workshops for students, guest presentations, demos, etc. On and on.

This is the old studio in JP on moving-out day. Long and narrow, it had a shared bathroom.

During an extremely productive time in my artistic life, the studio became the platform where I would show my work.  It served as validation for visiting gallery directors, museum curators, collectors, colleagues, and friends. 

By the time I was retiring from teaching in 2012 I was given a buffer year to find and move to a new studio. After half a year of searching, I found my current space at 119 Braintree Street in Alston. The space was larger, more public, and housed in a building filled with artists and creatives. By this time I was under contract to a gallery and showing work more often. We had studio parties, workshop classes, seminars, dinners, open studios, lectures, and presentations. The location and alignment of my photography with an increasingly public aspect to my work combined to raise the level of importance of the studio to a new height. In many ways, it was the ultimate validator of my work, a space that was supportive of conversations and presentations that had large importance in my career and my work as an artist. 

The Alston studio on moving-in day, 2012.

And after moving in.

Now, as of February 1, 2022, studio #3  will be on the Concord/Acton line in MA, about 30 minutes from Boston.  Housed on the ground floor in an office building with three rooms, its own kitchenette and a separate entrance, it is about 1500 square feet, several hundred feet larger than the current one.  

photograph by Jerry Russo

Good news as things have become more crowded as the years moved on.

The new space will bring in a new era in my career. I am the "old guy" with a boatload of work. Hoped for is another block of years with steady activity,  invited guests from the local and Boston arts community, presentations, work being framed for shows, and possibly some teaching. 

I know many of you are not local to Eastern Massachusetts but those of you that are, I welcome to come visit, look at work and see what my third studio looks like. 

Easy. Reach out to Neal's Email