Follow Your Art Launches Campaign to Purchase the Big Yellow House
By Ellen Putnam
Follow Your Art, the beloved community arts nonprofit whose iconic location on upper Main Street is now a familiar sight to many Melrosians, is launching a campaign to purchase the Big Yellow House, with help from a matching grant from the Mass Cultural Council.
For many years, Follow Your Art was a business run by Kris Rodolico that offered art classes for kids. In 2019, she turned her business into a nonprofit, Follow Your Art Community Studios (FYACS). With help from a group of community investors, FYACS purchased the Big Yellow House, which had previously belonged to the First United Methodist Church.
The Big Yellow House opened its doors in the fall of 2019. FYACS weathered the pandemic and now serves a number of roles in the community, including hosting classes for kids and adults, providing studio space for artists and writers, offering leadership and mentoring opportunities for youth and young artists, and serving as a community gallery space and a music venue. FYACS now hosts or is involved in a huge range of artistic events in all genres, while staying committed to inclusive programming and ensuring that community members of all abilities and financial means have access to creative endeavors.
Rodolico sees Follow Your Art not just as a creative engine in the community, but as a resource for individuals and groups who are trying to get events and initiatives off the ground.
Photo Credit: Nancy Clover
“As an organization, we are really willing to work with the community on creative endeavors that are not started by us,” Rodolico said earlier this year. “And that’s the magic of having a place like this. None of this is stuff I would have come up with on my own. We’re not in the habit of saying no, we’re in the habit of saying: how can we make that work?”
Now, over five years after the initial investors purchased the Big Yellow House for FYACS, they are ready to sell, and FYACS is ready to purchase the Big Yellow House outright.
FYACS hopes to raise $500,000, which they will use to make a significant down payment and secure a lower mortgage on the Big Yellow House. They have already raised over $100,000 toward that goal.
Now, FYACS is the recipient of a 2025 Cultural Facilities Fund matching grant from the Mass Cultural Council, in collaboration with Mass Development. Every dollar that FYACS raises from the community will be doubled, up to $200,000.
“The plan was always for Follow Your Art to own the building one day,” said Rodolico. “The initial timeline was delayed by the pandemic, but the arts center is now well established in the community and the owners are ready to sell. The time is now.”
Supporters can donate online here or help out by spreading the word!