2021 has been another year of adapting as all of us have continued to navigate a second year of covid. Cambridge Arts' annual River Festival again became the online Stream Festival, but we increasingly found safe ways to gather in public, from listening to poetry outdoors at Starlight Square to seeing Bread and Puppet Theater perform on Cambridge Common. We launched Art for Racial Justice Grants. A temporary mural went up in Harvard Square in June. Artistic constructions enlivened the Universal Design Playground being constructed at Danehy Park (pictured above). Vaccines arrived. The photos below from 2021 show our community's resilience and beauty as we've adapted together. We're honored to make this creative journey with you.

Zhonghe (Elena) Li led free online arts workshops, "Being one with Earth: Telling Stories with Papercutting," via the Cambridge Public Library in April, with funding from a Cambridge Arts Local Cultural Council grant.

Future Leaders Read at Starlight Square on May 15 was the fourth and concluding event of the 2021 Cambridge Poetry Mashup. The reading series was organized by Toni Bee, Poet Populist emeritus of Cambridge, with support from Cambridge Arts.

Cambridge Arts' Community Supported Art Pop-Up, featuring works by local artists, was at CambridgeSide, on level 1 near The Cheesecake Factory, in May.

Cambridge has 280 works of contemporary public art in every neighborhood of the city. And each summer, Cambridge Arts' Conservation Art Maintenance Program visits as many as they can to inspect, clean and perform maintenance. Meet the 2021 team.

Jazz pianists Kevin Harris (from left) Yoko Miwa, Bob Toabe, Tim Ray and Rebecca Cline performed in Cambridge Arts' 2021 Stream Festival on June 5. It was the City’s annual River Festival reimagined for the second pandemic year as an online showcase of jazz and a retrospective of the festival’s history. Screen it here: cambridgeartscouncil.org/riverfestival. It was produced in partnership with the Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge Jazz Foundation, JazzBoston, Cambridge Community Television and Studio@550. (Montage by Callie Chapman)

Black joy, empowerment, and the pleasures of everyday life are some of the themes running through a monumental (printed) mural installed in Cambridge's Harvard Square in June as part of the City of Cambridge's historic renovation of the landmark Harvard Square Kiosk, formerly the longtime home of Out of Town News. Artist, fashion designer, and educator Patricia Thaxton of Stoughton designed the temporary mural, titled "The Beauty of Everyday Living," which was printed on vinyl construction scrim to surround the worksite. "The design honors Black Harvard students, is peppered with Harvard Square 'Easter eggs' and weaves in nods to Cambridge community festivals and recent Black Lives Matter protests," Cambridge Day said.

Cambridge Arts Director of Art Conservation Craig Uram performed maintenance on John Powell's "Dana Park Quotes" at the Magazine Street park in June.

New Hampshire artist Bart Uchida (pictured) and fabricator Tom Whitney reinstalled Uchida's fully restored “Rose Arbor” gateway into Squirrel Brand Park in Cambridge's Port Neighborhood in June. Uchida was initially commissioned under the City's under the Percent-for-Art Program to create the steel trellis when the park was renovated in 2004. Repair was required after the structure was apparently struck by heavy equipment.

The Tim Ray Group with Terri Lyne Carrington and John Lockwood performed at Starlight Square in Cambridge’s Central Square Cultural District on July 10. The live jazz performance was presented by the Cambridge Jazz Foundation, Cambridge Arts Council and Producer/Creative Director Shelley Neill.

The life and legacy of legendary Cambride storyteller Brother Blue (Hugh Morgan Hill 1921-2009) was celebrated in July on what would have been his 100th birthday. A plaque dedicated to Blue and his wife Ruth Edmonds Hill was unveiled on Brattle Plaza in Harvard Square in partnership with the City of Cambridge, Cambridge City Council, Harvard Square Business Association, Cambridge Arts, and storytellers Katie Green and Robert Smyth.

In July, Cambridge artist Mitch Ryerson (left) and his team build the Sensory Hilltop, a project overseen by Cambridge Arts at the Universal Design Playground being constructed at Danehy Park in West Cambridge. The lumber they used was black locust, a "native invasive" harvested from Glacken Slope at Cambridge’s Fresh Pond Reservation.

Remembering Robert Moses, the great civil rights activist and founder of the Algebra Project, who died at his Florida home July 25 at age 86. He studied and taught in Cambridge. One of the ways the City honors him is with the ongoing programs at City of Cambridge's Moses Youth Center, where Cambridge artist David Fichter worked with community members in 2019 and 2020 to create a mosaic depicting him and what he stood for.

“Tap for Joy was founded on my personal belief that it is impossible to be unhappy while you tap dance,” Jenny Herzog told WBUR reporter Andrea Shea in August. The free, outdoor, socially-distanced tap dance classes for dancers of all ages and skill levels was funded by one of Cambridge Arts' Port Neighborhood Grants.

Elisa Hamilton was at Port Pride in August sharing her new decks of cards, which feature prompts to encourage you to share your story. This personal story-sharing project is part of Hamilton's Jukebox, a public artwork coming to Cambridge's Foundry. She's restoring a vintage jukebox and will fill it with recordings of Cambridge people's stories. The public artwork was commissioned by Cambridge Arts and the City of Cambridge.

Have you explored the New Math Trail launched at Cambridge's Magazine Beach Park in August? The trail across the pedestrian bridge over Memorial Drive is a fun way to learn math concepts. Young visitors are prompted to walk like a goose, estimate how many bird steps it takes to cross the bridge, and count the number of geese they can see in the park. The project was developed by Cambridge's MathTalk (https://math-talk.com) in collaboration with the The Charles River Conservancy and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, with support from Cambridge Arts and the City of Cambridge Department of Public Works. Cambridge Arts has previously funded MathTalk's "MathScapes" and "Little Steps, Big Journeys" at Fletcher Maynard Academy and other sites in the Port as part of its FLOW public art programming in the Port, via percent-for-art funding from a major City infrastructure construction project to reduce flooding there.(https://www.cambridgema.gov/arts/publicart/flowgrants)

After a year away due to covid, Bread and Puppet Theater returned to Cambridge Common on Sept. 4 to perform their “Domestic Resurrection Circus," with support from Cambridge Arts. The free show, which the company has performed here annually for years, incorporates papier-maché beasts, stilt dancers and a live brass band.

Skooby Laposky's “Hidden Life Radio” aimed to increase awareness of Cambridge trees by live-streaming “music generated from tree biodata”—in particular, from a copper beech at the Cambridge Public Library's Main Library, a honey locust tree at the Boudreau Branch, and a red oak at the Collins Branch. The project, which was funded by a Local Cultural Grant from Cambridge Arts, also included a live performance accompanying a “sonified” weeping willow tree in Joan Lorentz Park, outside the Main Library, in September. Learn more about the project via an interview with Laposky by Siobhan Bredin: https://appreciatingcambridge.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-story-of-hidden-life-radio.html

In September, construction was wrapping up on “Pipe Dreams," a play tunnel for the Universal Design Playground at Danehy Park. The project was designed by students from Cambridge's NuVu Studio and overseen by Cambridge Arts.

In October, Deena Anderson (center) joined Cambridge Arts as the new Director of Community Arts. In this role, she will oversee the City arts council’s River Festival, Open Studios, Summer in the City arts in the parks programming, and Creative Marketplace corporate art loan program and art market events.

A beloved apple tree will sprout new life through the process of tree grafting, and mature pin oaks will be transformed into interactive sculptures as part of a public art project from the firm IKD that is planned for the City of Cambridge’s Tobin Montessori and Vassal Lane Upper Schools complex. IKD was chosen Oct. 26 by the 20-member selection committee. Pictured: Cuttings being taken from the apple tree at Cambridge’s Tobin Montessori and Vassal Lane Upper Schools complex during summer 2021.

Yosi Karahashi offered a free flamenco performance for older adults at Cambridge's Citywide Senior Center on Nov. 10. It was part of Arts for Health from the Cambridge Public Health Department with funding from a Cambridge Arts Port Neighborhood Grant.

Cambridge Arts' Holiday Art Market featured locally made goods by Ellen Ezorsky (clockwise from top left), Barbara Thomas, Jacques Fleury (and his mother), Elizabeth Baldwin and other artists at the Cambridge Masonic Hall in Porter Square on Nov 27 and 28. The Boston Globe called it one of the best places to find Cambridge-made holiday gifts. Cambridge Day says: "Peruse local craft in a celebration of local businesses; perfect for holiday shopping,"

Poetry of Science, led by Joshua Sariñana and funded by a Cambridge Arts Art For Racial Justice Grant, paired local poets of color with scientists of color to generate poetry. For example, "working with poet Miriam Manglani to explain his research, [MIT physics doctoral student Olumakinde “Makinde”] Ogunnaike decided to focus on the areas where his research and his faith intersected. They jointly edited the poem, and a photographer took his portrait," MIT News reported. An exhibition of the writing and photos is on view at MIT's Rotch Library through Jan. 28.

Cambridge Arts launched a new guide to public art around the city in December. This beta version of the public art map works best when viewed on a computer or tablet. We will be launching a separate mobile version in January.

Vivian Beer restored and then reinstalled "Thunderhead," her artistic 2012 stainless steel bench, at Cambridge's David Nunes Park (formerly Old Morse Park) in December.

Cambridge Arts is the River Festival, Open Studios, Gallery 344, Sidewalk Poetry, Summer In The City, Community Supported Art, grants to artists, street performers, more than 280 works of contemporary public art in every neighborhood of the city, and a conservation program to preserve them for the future.

Cambridge Arts is located on the Indigenous homelands of the Massachusett, Nipmuc, Pawtucket, and Wampanoag peoples. We are guests on this land. We honor the people who were here before colonization, are here now, and will be here in the future. In our work as a cultural organization, we are committed to doing whatever we can to dismantle harmful structures built from violent colonialism. Our work seeks to expand the visibility of and celebrate the histories, cultures, and stories of indigenous peoples, who are of this place.

Cambridge Arts embraces a vision that welcomes and supports everyone. Believing that a multiplicity of perspectives is essential to a strong society, we are committed, both in our policies and practices, to building participation in and awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the arts and all cultures. In our ongoing work to address cultural and historical inequities, we strive to be a community anchor that reflects the entire Cambridge community and expands access, opportunities, and inclusion in every form of creative expression. We value diverse voices and people of all ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, abilities, gender identities, sexual orientations, socioeconomic situations, religions, citizenship statuses, and family configurations.

For information contact Cambridge Arts: cambridgearts@cambridgema.gov, 617-­349-­4380 or TTY: 617­-492-0235.