Reawakening vacant spaces with pop-ups worth showing up for
Before Building 32 became home to Downeast Cider, it was an empty warehouse at the Boston Harbor Shipyard. Through HarborArts, we brought pop-up art and events into the space, giving people a reason to step inside and see its potential. Our Port Call gathering brought more than 350 people together to celebrate the space and support artist programming.
Today, Building 32 is Downeast Cider’s headquarters and brewing facility. The East Boston Times-Free Press covered its opening in 2016. Our pop-ups were an earlier chapter in that story, bringing attention and activity to a building waiting for its next use. They gave people a chance to experience what the warehouse could hold before it had a permanent new purpose.
Between pop-ups, we opened Building 32 as a workshop where ambitious ideas could take shape. We hosted a team of Harvard Graduate School of Design students as they built Circus for Construction, a traveling art and architecture venue on the back of a truck. The empty warehouse gave them room to build a project that would bring exhibitions and events to unexpected places.
