Clockwise from top right: "Your Town" performed at Cambridge Arts River Festival, Bread and Puppet, Theater, preparing exhibition at Gallery 244, Cambridge Arts Open Studios, and Veronica Robles Female Mariachi Band performing on the Global Arts Live Stage at the Cambridge Arts River Festival. | |
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Thank YOU For A Wonderful Year!
All of us at Cambridge Arts would like to thank you for joining us in bringing such creativity, joy, satisfaction and community engagement to Cambridge throughout 2024, our 50th year as the city’s leading arts agency. Relive the highlights in the photos below. And we can't wait for you to see what we have in store for 2025!
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"Voices, not vinyl: artist transforms a jukebox into a storytelling machine," WBUR reported on Jan. 31. Artist Elisa H. Hamilton's public art project, commissioned by Cambridge Arts for Cambridge's Foundry, turned a vintage jukebox into a oral history archive of stories from Cambridge residents—collected by the artist and the Cambridge Black History Project. “[Listeners] can expect to hear stories about neighborhoods, about communities, about places that aren't in Cambridge anymore,” Hamilton told WBUR. “Joys and struggles … discrimination and overcoming discrimination … what it means to be a young person growing up in the world; in many cases, a young Black person growing up in the world.” Experience Foundry Jukebox whenever the Foundry is open. | |
For Black History Month in February, Mayor E. Denise Simmons and the Cambridge Museum of History and Culture, with support from Cambridge Arts, presented the exhibit “Trail Blazers That Have Left Their Mark” at the Kendall Public Lobby, 355 - 325 Main St. It highlighted "Black residents of Cambridge who have blazed their own trails, inspired others, and truly left their mark on our community.” | |
In February, Cambridge Arts' Director of Public Art Lillian Hsu (bottom) and Director of Art Conservation Craig Uram installed “Rust Happen(s): Caring for the Public Art Collection,” an exhibition at our Gallery 244 that offered a behind-the-scenes look at Cambridge Arts' public art conservation program. | |
“‘Rust Happens,’ organized at Gallery 344 by Cambridge Arts, is an exhibition on the city’s public art conservation program and the work that makes it run. Packed with retired artworks, tools, ladders and even traffic cones, the show pulls back the curtain on the extraordinary, everyday creativity that staff employ to limit the inevitable damage to public art,” Claire Ogden wrote in Cambridge Day. Find public art all across Cambridge via our Public Art Map and try our themed tours. | |
The Cambridge Arts River Festival returned to the Banks of the Charles River on Saturday, June 15, with six stages of music, theater, dance and poetry; the debut of "Your Town," the Mermaid Promenade; interactive art-making; buskers; international foods; and an arts and crafts market. Presented in partnership with Global Arts Live, Central Square Theater, Dance Complex, Jean Appolon Expressions, Central Square Business Improvement District, Passim, Cambridge Jazz Foundation and City Night Reading Series. | |
Thousands of revelers filled Massachusetts Avenue for the City's 24th annual Dance Party at Cambridge City Hall on June 28, which was organized by the City of Cambridge, the City Manager's Office, Cambridge Arts, and the Central Square Business Improvement District. | |
WBUR: How Cambridge's public art protectors fight graffiti and grime: “Graffiti is always an issue,” Cambridge Arts Director of Art Conservation Craig Uram told WBUR. in June. Also, “birds and other animals, damage from the weather, from pollutants, insects, gum, food.” They’ve even dealt with freaky accidents, like in 2021 when a utility truck ran into “Thunderhead,” a stainless steel bench created by Vivian Beer. | |
In July, workers installed a temporary shade structure in Cambridge's Jill Brown-Rhone Park in Central Square. “Sun Block" (aka The Cube), designed by Gabriel Cira and Matthew Okazaki, was part of our Shade Is Social Justice program, funded by a grant from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, to address our warming world. | |
89% of the City of Cambridge's outdoor public artworks were inspected and treated during Cambridge Arts' annual conservation and maintenance program from May to July. | |
In July, the Louis A. DePasquale Universal Design Playground at Cambridge's Danehy Park--including several public artworks overseen by Cambridge Arts--was named "2024 Best Outdoor Play Space" by Boston Magazine: "Kids let their imaginations run (truly) wild at this fairy-tale-like 30,000-square-foot playground, which includes benches shaped like animals, a music area where kids can play rain and chime sounds, and a splash pad in the summertime. Universal design details like a sensory hilltop tricked out with a marimba and a wheelchair-accessible maze and swings add to the welcoming spirit, as do the cheery wildlife murals from Dominic Killiany, a Watertown artist with autism." | |
Gabrielle-Goodman performed at the ninth annual Cambridge Jazz Festival, presented by the Cambridge Jazz Foundation in partnership with and sponsored by Cambridge Arts, at Danehy Park on July 27 and 28. (Mutsuko Ohnishi photo) | |
Ligia Bouton, a recipient of a Local Cultural Council Grant from Cambridge Arts, showcased her photos in the exhibition “25 Variable Stars: A Temporary Monument for Henrietta Swan Leavitt” with a reception on July 24 at the northbound Kendall/MIT temporary headhouse MBTA station at 325 Main St., Cambridge. | |
Lillian Hsu, Cambridge Arts' Director of Public Art (center), led a free tour of public art in Central Square on July 24, in partnership with the Cambridge Public Library. | |
Local teens from “SHADE” at Donnelly Field handed out free cotton candy to kids in the park on July 30. SHADE, a temporary shade structure from Cambridge's Shade For Social Justice program, was designed by a local youth committee (Cheryl Rateau, Eli Goncalves, Nico Chandler, Samadhi Simmons, Matt Keane, and Amara Henry-Guity) with support from Buildingways, Friday Night Hype, Citizens of the World, Olin College of Engineering, Jennifer Lee, Cambridge Public Health Department and Pneuhaus. They write: "SHADE addresses the mental health crisis among teenagers by providing a dedicated outdoor space for them to connect and feel a sense of belonging, away from direct and overwhelming adult oversight." | |
"FunkFest: A Celebration of All Thangs Funky" brought dance, music and live graffiti painting to the FOUND in Central Square Block Party on Aug. 10. It was presented by A Trike Called Funk, Cambridge Arts, and Central Square Business Improvement District. | |
Kelsie Norman of Norman Paints sanded the walls of Cambridge Arts’ Gallery 344 in September to get ready to paint them for our next exhibition. | |
During the annual Cambridge Arts Open Studios on Sept. 21 and 22, more than 70 artists opened their studios or shared their creations in group exhibitions at Common Venues all across the city. | |
Folks from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and A Better City in Boston visited Russell Field on Sept. 24 to learn about the City of Cambridge's Shade Is Social Justice program, which installed three temporary public art shade structures across the city this summer. Architect Alejandro Saldarriaga (right), who designed “Growing Shade” at Russell Field, and Claudia Zarazua, Arts and Cultural Planning Director for the City of Cambridge, spoke about the program, which aims to help Cambridge adapt to global warming by strengthening our climate resilience and preparedness. It uses the power of art and design to shape perception, stimulate discussion of the challenges, and find solutions. | |
Maura Mendoza, who became Cambridge Arts' Community Arts Administrator in 2024, sang at the City's Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month Celebration for city employees on Sept. 30. | |
Free Dance Party at the Cube in Jill Brown-Rhone Park--one of the innovative shade structures installed around the city as part of the Shade Is Social Justice program--on Oct. 9, 2024. with DJ Nomadik, Brian Arrington of EventKore, and friends. | |
Opening reception for “The Community Grafting Project-Science. Art. Social Experiment. Joy" on Oct. 21. When a beloved apple tree was removed as part of the reconstruction of the City of Cambridge's Tobin Montessori and Darby Vassall Upper Schools complex, cuttings from the tree were saved. The exhibition at Cambridge Arts' Gallery 344 through Feb. 7, 2025, shows how “The Community Grafting Project,” a public art project the city has commissioned from the architectural and design studio TSKPxIKD, is giving the original tree new life. | |
Fabrication of a mosaic designed by Andromeda Lisle for the renovated Tobin Montessori and Darby Vassall Upper Schools was progressing in early November at MOSAIKA in Montreal. Mosaics designed by Ekua Holmes and Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya will also be among the public art commissioned by Cambridge Arts and the City of Cambridge for the new schools complex. | |
The rootstock tree for the “The Community Grafting Project" arrived on Nov. 13 to overwinter at the City's tree nursery. When a beloved apple tree was removed as part of the reconstruction of the City of Cambridge's Tobin Montessori and Darby Vassall Upper Schools complex, cuttings from the tree were saved. This rootstock tree is expected to be planted at the renovated schools next spring. When it gets well rooted there, plants grown from the cuttings of the original apple tree will be grafted onto it. The project has been developed in partnership with the Mount Auburn Cemetery Greenhouses and Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum. | |
Rehearsing for the Asian American Playwright Collective Playfest 7 on Nov. 15 and 16. Supported by a Local Cultural Council Grant from Cambridge Arts, the theater festival at Cambridge’s Foundry presented eight new plays written by member playwrights and directed and performed by local AAPI and allies. | |
25 local artists shared their creations at Cambridge Art's Holiday Art Market at 650 East Kendall St. on Dec. 7 and 8, presented in partnership with BioMed Realty. | |
The plan from TSKP x ikd "was to take cuttings from the original [Cambridge schoolyard] apple tree before it was cut down, propagate them off site and distribute the saplings to Cambridge residents to grow," WBUR reported on Dec. 9 about the Community Grafting Project, a living public artwork commissioned and overseen by Cambridge Arts. "Then, project leaders will take cuttings from residents’ trees and attach them to a new apple tree in the school yard two years from now, in 2026. They’ll combine the new with the old through a process called grafting – a method of propagation that joins pieces from different plants to grow together as one plant." | |
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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.
We are the Cambridge Arts Council, a City agency that funds, promotes, and presents high-quality, community based arts programs for the benefit of artists, residents, and visitors in Cambridge. Active since 1974, Cambridge Arts is one of the most dynamic local arts agencies in the country. Cambridge Arts exists to ensure that the arts remain vital for people living, working and visiting Cambridge.
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.
The City of Cambridge does not discriminate on the basis of disability. We will provide auxiliary aids and services, written materials in alternate formats, and reasonable modifications in policies and procedures to persons with disabilities upon request.
For information contact Cambridge Arts: cambridgearts@cambridgema.gov, 617-349-4380 or TTY: 617-492-0235.
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