Arts Night Out Venues Will Still Serve Alcohol After OK by License Commission

NORTHAMPTON — Arts Night Out, a monthly Friday-night downtown event that features gallery and shop open houses with wine and beer tastings, was hit in May with a double whammy — notification from the city’s License Commission that each of the venues would have to apply for one-day liquor licenses, and a memo from the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission stating that one-day license holders may only purchase alcohol from a list of authorized wholesalers.

For the 30-plus participants in Arts Night Out, this represented an expensive and time-consuming requirement. In Northampton, one-day license applications must be accompanied by a check for $60. Mandatory insurance and alcohol server training are required. And many of the venues rely upon donations of beer and wine from local stores, said Penny Burke, director of the Northampton Center for the Arts, so purchasing from wholesalers will represent still more costs and a loss of local business cooperation.

The issue came to light after new-to-the-scene FOE, a shop and gallery on Pleasant Street, ran an ad for Arts Night Out in the Daily Hampshire Gazette that highlighted a beer tasting.

Upon seeing the ad, the city’s License Commission clerk said she was obligated by her position to contact the ABCC and inform FOE and all Arts Night Out participants that state law requires one-day liquor licenses to serve even small amounts of liquor to the public.

But at its June 1 meeting, the city License Commission voted to waive several of its requirements on one-day liquor licenses for Arts Night Out, softening the blow of state regulations that participants were unable to skirt.

Commissioners waived both mandatory insurance and so-called TIPS certification for those serving alcohol at the events. They also permitted all Arts Night Out participants to apply for one-day liquor licenses as a group. The $60 fee for each license was paid once, collectively, by the Northampton Center for the Arts.

State law does not regulate the private consumption of alcohol. Many Arts Night Out participants assured the License Commission that these events are small, generally 15-20 patrons at one time, and that their venues don’t become public drinking establishments once a month.

However, according to ABCC regulations, a private event is defined by an invitation-only list of guests that can be approved and recorded by their offices. The Gazette ad effectively announced that the Arts Night out event is public, said License Commission officials.

The owners of FOE, Jim and Nicole Shea, told Northampton Media that they are new to town and new to being shop owners. They said that they feel sorry about the advertisement, but simply did not know about everything involved.

“I feel kind of bad. We messed up, but no one clued us in,” said Nicole Shea.

Many Arts Night Out venue managers were present at the June 1 meeting to apply for the required one-day liquor licenses and voice their concerns on the issue, including those from Trailside Gallery, Sticks and Bricks, Ode, Unite, A.P.E. Gallery, the Oxbow Gallery, Historic Northampton, Pinch, Oh My! A Sensuality Shop, and of course FOE and the Center for the Arts.

The Center for the Arts’ Burke and Suzanne Beck, director of the Northampton Area Chamber of Commerce, both requested that commissioners speak with the ABCC about their regulation of gallery wine and beer tastings, which they called “anti-business.”

Commissioner William Rosen told Northampton Media that he did have conversations with the ABCC about the issue and that they are aware that some of their regulations hurt business.

Rosen also said that on behalf of the city, he wanted to do whatever possible, within state law, to help Arts Night Out.

“I thought about what discretion do we have to make this easier for them,” Rosen said.

While participants had licenses approved for the second Friday of every month through May 2012 with their wallets essentially untouched, commissioners had no wiggle room around the requirement that alcohol be purchased through authorized wholesalers.

Burke spoke with Northampton Media about how that stipulation makes things difficult for businesses.

“We could see that it was going to be challenging,” Burke said.

Burke also said that while she understands where the regulations come from, she feels that they are unfair to local businesses. She said that these art receptions are small, and that their ambiguous nature shouldn’t put them under the purview of the ABCC.

“A lot of these are old rules. It’s a grey area and it’s not just Northampton,” Burke said.

Arts Night Out is held on the second Friday of every month. Information about the event can be found here.

(c) 2011 Northampton Media

Amanda Drane can be reached at adrane@northamptonmedia.com