<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3e13QA_1H1A913V00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3e13QA_1H1A913V00" width="1500" height="1000" ><figcaption>The Museum of Modern Renaissance in Somerville. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)</figcaption></figure>Editor's note: This story is an excerpt from WBUR's weekly arts and culture newsletter, The ARTery. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.It’s hard to not stop and stare when you happen to pass by the Museum of Modern Renaissance, an extraordinary building on an otherwise ordinary residential block in Somerville.The vibrantly painted exterior resembles a dreamscape, with psychedelic flowers blooming beneath birds with cockscombs and rainbow-colored tailfeathers. The gaze is pulled toward a turquoise central front door that has a bull-like face with windows in the shape of eyes that look out to the street.An occasional package delivery may remind you that this seemingly enchanted portal to another dimension is also a registered mailing address.“Mystical realism” is the phrase that Nicholas Shaplyko uses to describe the style of art. In 2002, he and his wife Ekaterina Sorokina (a fellow artist) bought the building about a decade after immigrating from the Soviet Union and receiving permanent residence status in the U.S. as “Artists with Extraordinary Abilities.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0K0dKh_1H1A913V00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0K0dKh_1H1A913V00" width="1280" height="854" ><figcaption>Ekaterina Sorokina and Nicholas Shaplyko, the owners of the Museum of Modern Renaissance in Somerville. (Courtesy Museum of Modern Renaissance)</figcaption></figure>The building serves as an ode to imagination and the spark of creativity, which is perhaps why it inspires so many questions and speculations. Friends shared their theories about its origins and what happens inside when I told them that I was writing about it for WBUR.On our call, Shaplyko told the abbreviated history of 115 College Ave. In 1909, a Unitarian church purchased the land from the Tufts family and built the structure in 1910. “ In 1920, Paramahansa Yogananda, who came from India, made his speech in this very building,” said Shaplyko, pointing to the lecturer’s role in bringing yoga to the Western world.In the decades that followed, the building changed hands several times, but still functioned as a gathering space — first as a fraternal lodge for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, then as a Masonic Temple. When Shaplyko and Sorokina offered to purchase the building, it was with less money than other potential buyers (including commercial developers), but with a promise to honor the space. “It's a temple, and we want to keep it as a temple … a temple of arts," he recalled.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0Ct468_1H1A913V00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0Ct468_1H1A913V00" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>Nicholas Shaplyko inside the Museum of Modern Renaissance in Somerville. (Courtesy Museum of Modern Renaissance)</figcaption></figure>The couple restored the main hall to its original state, reopening the windows that had been sealed and covered and removing paneling from a drop ceiling. “ We removed 20 tons of debris,” Shaplyko said. “Literally five dumpsters, four tons each, just from the main hall.”Once they opened up the structure, they began using the walls and ceilings as canvases for their painting and philosophy. “ We don't do any preliminary sketches,” Shaplyko said about his and his wife’s artistic practice. “We just try to catch the emotion. Emotion is very fluid. You cannot just preserve it like canned food.”The museum has been used as a concert and lecture hall, a yoga studio and a space for meditation workshops. It has also been featured on countless travel guides and documentaries, including Netflix’s “Amazing Interiors.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=35fRf5_1H1A913V00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=35fRf5_1H1A913V00" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>Ekaterina Sorokina inside the Museum of Modern Renaissance in Somerville. (Courtesy Museum of Modern Renaissance)</figcaption></figure>It’s as much a museum as it is a community space, and that’s by design, Shaplyko says. “The word museum, you probably understand it in kind of a modern conventional way — like a warehouse for artwork,” he said. “But we had a different approach, because its ancient Greek name, which sounds like museum … house of muses. So we called our home House of Muses, or Museum.”Shaplyko says he welcomes all into the museum and encourages people to look out for what interests them within its various programming. It may be intimidating, but it’s designed to be a place where people can explore the inner workings of the human mind and celebrate creativity and curiosity.</div></body>

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Editor's note: This story is an excerpt from WBUR's weekly arts and culture newsletter, The ARTery. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here. It’s hard to not stop and stare when you happen to pass by the Museum of Modern Renaissance, an extraordinary building on an otherwise ordinary residential block in Somerville.

Inside Somerville's most colorful building

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Editor's note: This story is an excerpt from WBUR's weekly arts and culture newsletter, The ARTery. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, si

Inside Somerville's most colorful building

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