MGM-British Studios Meanwhile, Amalgamated Studios Ltd constructed a large studio on the north side of Elstree Way between 1935 and 1937. A January 1937 deal for eight films to be made for the American studio Columbia Pictures soon collapsed. The company was unable to meet the cost of building work, and sold the facility to the Rank Organisation, which was not interested in using the studios itself, but wanted to stop John Maxwell's rival British International Pictures (BIP) from being able to compete more effectively with its own new Pinewood Studios. During the war, the studios were leased from Rank by the
Somerville Open Studios of 2015, SOS allows people to visit the studios of painters, printers, glassblowers, welders, woodworkers, photographers, and all manner of visual, multimedia and performing artists. Participants have included Taza Chocolate, Vernon Street Studios, and Artisan's Asylum. Somerville Open Studios has been a registered 5011(c)3 nonprofit organization since 2004. Its stated purposes is to provide "...access to artists and [expose] the public to the wide variety of art-making activities taking place in the city of Somerville, Massachusetts." The organization's yearly budget is appx. $34,000 (as of 2012). Somerville Open Studios is managed by a board of directors composed primarily of participating