It’s Summer in the City

With the Cambridge Arts Council

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

This summer, for the 11^th year, the Cambridge Arts Council is presenting “Summer in the City,” a comprehensive spectrum of 16 live concerts and performances across the city. Dance, song, puppetry, circus theatrics, drumming and orchestra are only some of the components of the multicultural, multi-dimensional slate of events. Thus far, over 1400 children and adults have participated in the program, which is geared to children aged 4-11, yet has proven to be of interest and entertainment to all.

The city agency, founded in 1974 and located at 51 Inman St., serves Cambridge citizens through commissioning public art displays, sponsoring arts education programs, producing of art exhibitions and promoting community arts events.

The CAC also issues street performer permits, operates a competitive grant program, organizes arts symposia and conferences, serves as a liaison between artists and organizations, consults with artists and arts professionals and maintains registries for visual and performing artists.

The group, currently headed by Executive Director Jason Weeks, passed a 1979 ordinance requiring that that one percent of the total cost of all municipal construction projects be designated for art. Its subsequent Public Art Program, which has sited over 100 artworks in Cambridge, is a direct result of this mandate. Its focus on increasing quantity, quality and awarness of art throughout the city’s public spaces has resulted in rich displays in many locales including youth and senior centers, schools, libraries, parks, plazas and sidewalks.

Each month, the Public Art Director meets with the Public Art Commission. “A conservation and maintenance program was initiated in 1996,” explained Director of Community Arts Jane Beal, “to provide consistent professional care for the public art collection, and an education program was initiated in 1999 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to further the public’s appreciation and understanding of art sited throughout the city.”

Current CAC projects include work at the Area 4 Youth Center, City Hall Annex, Danehy Park, Paine Park, Valente Library Garden, Vellucci Plaza, Water Purification Facility and the Yerxa Road Underpass.

“The Council has also initiated an educational program with an NEA grant,” said Beal, “to create curriculum-based learning materials, museum-quality activity guides, self-guided public art walking tours and interactive online resources.” The group also sponsors the Cambridge River Fest.

Summer In the City’s sponsors include the Cambridge Community Foundation, Cambridge Savings Bank, Cambridge Trust Company, Mayor Michael A. Sullivan, and the Human Services Department's Recreation Division; its supporters include Club Passim's Culture for Kids program, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, the Community Schools Program of the Department of Human Services, the Cambridge Public Library, the Department of Public Works, and the Electrical Department.

Recent shows have included DeAma Battle, founder of The Art of Black Dance and Music, the No Strings Marionette Company, Behind the Mask Theatre, Sumaj Chasquis on ancient Bolivian instruments, Ernesto Diaz and Ana Norgaard’s Afro Caribbean dance music, Sol Y Canto, Stephen Baird on guitar, banjos, mandolins, autoharps, whistles and kazoos, Stan Strickland’s Express Yourself, with saxophone, flute, vocals, dance, composing and acting, Aparna Sindhoor’s traditional Indian dance and the Open Air Circus’ stilt walking, juggling, acrobatics, stage combat and other circus arts.

On July 31 at 7 p.m., harpist Deborah Henson-Conant will bring her jazz-pop-comedy-folk-blues-flamenco-celtic musical blend to Raymond Park at Upland, Walden and Raymond Streets (this precedes the monthly outdoor movie at Raymond Park).

“There Was Magic,” a magical performance troupe, will improvise an interactive story at McMath Park on Pemberton Street, across from Rindge Field, on August 1 at 11 a.m.

On August 7 at 10 a.m. and again at 11:30 a.m. at Riverside Press Park, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, founded in January 2001 for the purpose of presenting summer concerts which celebrate historical, geographical and architectural settings, will perform Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf. The show will be narrated by WCVB reporter Ted Reinstein.

The Orchestra, conducted by Cambridge resident Charles Ansbacher, is giving 24 concerts this summer which will include soloists from Boston, Moscow and Bosnia.

Ansbacher, 1998-1999 Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Music Department who currently serves as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Sarajevo Philharmonic, conducts throughout the world, paying special emphasis to developing nations such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

The BLO’s All-American Concert: Copland and Gershwin, Romantics in the Park: Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, Classical Classics: Mozart and Haydn and The Concerts for Children: Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf shows will be ongoing at various Boston area sites through August 18 (visit www.LandmarksOrchestra.org or call 617-520-2206 for more information).

On August 8, the Hammonds, which are master dulcimer player Lorraine Lee and guitar virtuoso Bennett Hammond, will perform at Hancock Park, between Harvard Street and Mass. Avenue.

Big Nazo, an international puppetry group which incorporates masks, stand-up comedy, daredevil stunts and live music in audience interaction, will be at Riverside Press Park on August 13 at 11 a.m. On August 15 at 7 p.m., Berkshire Bateria, a Brazilian ensemble which teaches children how to play native rhythms, will hold a drumming workshop entitled “The Joy of Samba” at Joan Lorenz Park at Broadway and Trowbridge in mid-Cambridge.

Rainsites have been designated for all performances; for further info, contact the Cambridge Arts Council at 617-349-4380 (TTY: 617-492-0235).