Hi everyone,

I wanted to post an update regarding the Star Store. First and foremost, thank you SO much to everyone who has signed the petition, commented on it, and shared it!! I am totally blown away by amount of signatures, I never thought it would get so many and it has really lifted all of our spirits in this difficult time.

Despite all of our efforts with this petition, constantly emailing and calling everyone that we can think of, and fiercely advocating for ourselves every day since this news, we have been informed that the move for the Star Store is still happening. The students and faculty have received a couple of emails from the CVPA Dean, Lawrence Jenkins, but they have not provided any plans moving forward. 

We’ve been told that anyone with any belongings in the Star Store, regardless of how far away they live or how soon they can get there, have to pack everything up by August 25th or it will be discarded by August 31st. From the time we received that news (August 16th), that has given all of us only 9 days to pack up our entire studios and everything that we have at the Star Store. Many of us live hours away and/or are unable to get there by the time our items may be discarded. The movers have also already filled multiple dumpsters with furniture, materials, books, art supplies, storage units, and more just to be thrown in the trash. Seeing this occur is absolutely heartbreaking for everyone. We were not given enough time to even process this information, let alone pack up our entire livelihoods.

Even though we are still losing the Star Store, though, there are still absolutely no plans in place for where all of the art students will be moved. As you can imagine, losing our precious space along with the fact that there is still no plan put in place for us, our classes, or our studios, is very concerning and frightening. 

This entire situation has felt like a huge disrespect to us all and has been handled extremely poorly with very little communication and planning. It has been a huge blow to CVPA students and faculty.

I wanted to provide some resources for anyone who is willing to continue to help in addressing this issue. According to Senator Montigny, UMass Dartmouth still has the power to reverse this, so let’s make ourselves heard!

Here is some contact information for leadership both at the University and State level:

Governor Maura Healey: 617-725-4005

Marty Meehan (President of UMass System): 617-287-7050

Chancellor Mark Fuller: chancellor@umassd.edu

John Saunders (Facilities Manager): john.saunders@umassd.edu

Paul Downey (Developer): paul@downeyre.com 

I also wanted to attach the link to a video made by Ethan de Aguiar with some amazing clips of the Star Store so that anyone who’s not familiar with the space can get a sense of what it’s like and how important it is to us! https://youtu.be/r7flUvp3L-U?si=b9flsmEEHZ9GT9xT

Again, thank you all so so much for all of your support, it means the world. I will make sure to update you all with anything else!