Cultural Services in the City of Cambridge are provided by staff in the Community Services Department.  The City operates the Cambridge Centre for the Arts which is a municipally owned facility that enriches and engages area residents, artists and organizations through the provision of quality artistic experiences and opportunities that stimulate, promote and support the arts in Cambridge.  We work with the Cambridge Arts Guild who is a group of dedicated volunteers that act as an advisory board, an advocacy group and a fundraising body of the Centre.  The initiatives of the Arts Guild expand and enhance the diversity and quality of Arts Centre programming and events, and provide support to community arts initiatives.

Several special events are held throughout the city during the year.  These special events are organized by committed volunteers who take pride in offering quality events to area residents.  The City of Cambridge supports these events by offering staff assistance and an annual operating grant.

The City has a very active Arts and Culture Advisory Committee whose mandate is to provide recommendations and advice to Cambridge City Council on matters pertaining to arts and culture activities in the community.

The City recently moved into new municipal offices this past year.  The City undertook its first public art competition and following a national call to artists, awarded the $150,000 project to Stephen Cruise.  The project, known as “indigena domain”, pays homage to the inhabitants of the founding communities and to their original town symbols.  It will be installed in the fall of 2008 in civic square of the new City Hall.

The City is currently completing an Arts and Culture Master Plan.  We have retained the services of TCI Management Consultants who are in the process of extensive community consultation and research.  A draft plan is expected to be completed by late fall of 2008 with the final draft being presented to Council in the spring of 2009.

For further information please contact

Reg Weber

(519) 740-4681  ext 4635

weberr@cambridge.ca

Cambridge Galleries are a part of the Cambridge Public Library system with art exhibition spaces at Queen's Square, Preston and the new Design at Riverside location. Together, the three galleries host approximately 23 exhibitions per year reflecting a range of local, regional, provincial, national and international developments in contemporary and historical visual art.

An extensive program of art education is offered at five Cambridge locations, including studio art courses for children, teenagers and adults. The Printmaking Studio within the University of Waterloo School of Architecture provides opportunities for artists, students and members of the community to develop skills in this lively medium.

Lectures, concerts and bus trips are offered throughout the year. Cineseries is an ongoing program of alternative film, organized in conjunction with the Film Circuit of the Toronto International Film Festival. The Queen's Square location is home to a growing collection of contemporary Canadian fibre art as well as being the site of the Public Art Program, an annual outdoor installation of a contemporary work of art.

Cambridge Galleries are supported by the membership, the City of Cambridge, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

For further information call 519-621-0460 or e-mail Cambridge Galleries.

www.cambridgegalleries.ca