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Cambridge Artists Co-Op Needs a New Home

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Art on the Move!
Cambridge Artists Cooperative needs a new home.

We are reaching out to you for help so that we can keep our beloved gallery alive! Can you help us turn on the lights in a new space? 

Your generous donation will help our small business move to a new location where we can continue to support hundreds of artists from all over New England and the United States. We provide the public with a wonderful destination to shop, and uphold our mission to support over 200 American artists who own and operate small, independent businesses.

Our goal is to raise $30,000. All funds will be used to relocate our gallery:

  · Move-In/Move-Out expenses (hiring a moving company, packing expenses)
  · Build out including; lighting, signage, flooring, display & general construction in our new space
  · Legal Fees & deposits associated with moving to a new location
  · Marketing Costs: advertising campaign to announce move, printing fees for promotional items
  · Unanticipated general expenses

After 31 years in Harvard Square, The Cambridge Artists Cooperative needs to relocate. We are looking at retail space of approximately 1,000 square feet with good foot traffic and access to public transportation.

Our current lease expires June 30, 2019. We have thrived here in Harvard Square for 30+ years. The area is changing for independent retailers. Recent property transfers and numerous development and construction projects have diminished the once thriving retail community leaving many storefronts empty.

We are reaching out to you to help us keep this wonderful place alive! How many of you have felt enriched by a visit to CAC? A very common conversation between working artists and customers includes a thank you for being there and a comment that the visit to CAC was very much like a museum visit!

CAC has remained an artist owned and operated gallery with a mission to support, promote, and sell Contemporary American Craft. We love our cooperative and hope you will support us in our quest to continue to thrive in a new location!

The Back Story to Our Plight

With the current construction plans taking place, and rents skyrocketing in Harvard Square we are sorry to see that many small businesses, including ours, are being pushed out of our treasured spaces. We LOVE Cambridge and want to continue to be a vibrant part of its creative community, so we plan to relocate within a 3 mile radius of our current location. You can help us achieve this goal!

As other neighboring retailers abandon the square, we are becoming a lonely island in a sea of vacant storefronts. Harvard Square was once a very dynamic retail community.

In a recent article from the Boston Real Estate Times: “Harvard Square is Not a Shopping Destination Anymore”. The paper quoted the Executive Director of the Harvard Square Business Association as citing that decreased foot traffic in the wake of the Harvard Square Theater’s closing in 2012 as a reason for the commercial turnover in the Church Street area.

“It goes back to what we know about the theater and our concern about that building…being dark for such a long time. The theater closed in July of ’12, we’re coming up on July of ’19, and it’s estimated that there are 1,000 fewer people on Church Street every day,” 

Your Donations

Your donation will not only be helping a small, local business, you will be supporting hundreds of artists from across the United States.

Please help us keep CAC a wonderful place to visit & explore and help us Keep Art Alive & Thriving!

To help us get the word out, please share the link to your Facebook timeline, Twitter & Instagram accounts

https://cambridgeartistscoopshop.com 



Donate

Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $6 (Offline)
    • 4 yrs
  • Susan Bush
    • $100 (Offline)
    • 4 yrs
  • Vanessa Hogan
    • $30 (Offline)
    • 5 yrs
  • Reme Gold
    • $25 (Offline)
    • 5 yrs
  • Lisa May Tobin
    • $25 (Offline)
    • 5 yrs
Donate

Fundraising team: CAC Members (4)

Beverley Coniglio
Organizer
Cambridge, MA
Ariel Kessler
Team member
Elaine Yoneoka
Team member
Wendy Bergman
Team member

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