The Bermuda Society of Arts may be given a reprieve after the Mayor of Hamilton confirmed the Corporation is to reconsider its eviction notice.

Sutherland Madeiros said last night: "We are trying to come up with a better solution. We will go back and reconsider, but we have needs which have to be met as well.

"We will try to find a better solution to the problem though and we will be doing that within the next week."

Mr. Madeiros said the Corporation of Hamilton needs the BSoA's gallery in City Hall for office space. Corporation members say the gallery would provide free space rather than billing taxpayers between $600,000-$700,000 for an extension to City Hall.

The decision to give the BSoA six months' notice after 47 years' residency however, has provoked anger from residents, artists and politicians within the community.

Former Premier Dame Jennifer Smith and Minister of Culture and Social Rehabilitation Dale Butler have called on the public to petition the Corporation against the eviction. Dame Jennifer held her first exhibit at BSoA after Art School and has been a member ever since.

Mr. Butler has even threatened to bring in legislation to overhaul the Corporation unless the eviction notice is revoked. He said the decision to evict Bermuda's oldest arts society was "short-sighted and borders on criminal".

Declaring the Corporation's rules and ordinances "outdated", the Minister said: "With the Corporation behaving in this sort of manner, it raises the question as to whether there should be some type of legislative change."

Meanwhile, The Royal Gazette was inundated with messages from artists and residents.

The BSoA has a history of promoting racial harmony and desegration. Georgine Hill, an original member of the Society of Artists (former BSoA), said: "The art group of the Society was the first organisation on the Island formed by an integrated group of art lovers ¿ including me and my husband. We opened a gallery and an art school for children and adults on the premises of the old Hamilton Hotel in the 1940s which stood on the same site on which the City Hall stands today."

James Kempe, one of the first artists to exhibit at the Hamiltonian Hotel in 1947, said: "The presence of the BSoA in that wonderful building (City Hall), and their fabulous work in nurturing the arts in Bermuda, has greatly contributed to our quality of life.

"The Corporation's motto is 'Sparsa Collegit' which means 'Bringing Together the Scattered'. The eviction of BSoA would cause just the opposite ¿ it would be responsible for 'Scattering the Brought Together'."