The Cambridge Arts Council

Office Hours:  8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Location:      City Hall Annex
               57 Inman Street, Second Floor
               Cambridge, MA 02139
               (617) 349-4380
The Cambridge Arts Council (CAC) is the City's 20-year-old Department of Public Celebrations! Its mission includes integrating the visual, performing and literary arts into the fabric of City life by commissioning public art, exhibiting Cambridge artists' work, producing festivals and events, re-granting Arts Lottery funds to artists and arts organizations, and implementing the Street Performers' Ordinance.

CAC's programs focus on the arts expressive of the City's diverse cultural heritage. CAC coordinates services with other groups, agencies and institutions to stimulate public awareness of, support for, and employment opportunities in the arts. Subsidized by the City, CAC staff raise funds from public and private sources to provide free arts programming throughout the City.

CAC operates in a challenging urban environment which includes many other cultural organizations, world-renown academic institutions, and an ethnically and economically mixed population of more than 95,000 people. CAC's programs add to the cultural offerings and aspire to and achieve rigorous standards of excellence while attempting to address the needs and interests of the local community.

The "Council" is a 15 member citizen advisory group made up of professionals interested in arts and culture, appointed by the City Manager to serve as an oversight board to the work of the department. Representatives from the Council serve on sub- committees, such as the Arts Lottery Committee and the Public Art Committee. CAC is currently staffed by 4 full-time art professionals and a part-time arts administrator.

Principal activities of CAC include the production of City-wide events such as the Cambridge River Festival, neighborhood events such as the Summer Concert Series, commissioning of public art through the implementation of Cambridge's Percent for Art Ordinance; juried one-person exhibitions and presentations by Cambridge artists at Gallery 57 in City Hall Annex, issuance of Street Performers' Permits for the performance of music, mime, clowning and juggling in City Squares; re-granting of Massachusetts Arts Lottery funds to artists and arts presenters via a competitive application process; maintaining an updated "Artscall" phone line informing residents and visitors about cultural events; and maintaining a visual arts Slide Registry and Performance Bank of artists' work.

Frequently Asked Questions

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