‘ The Cambridge Community Foundation is widely known as a grantmaker. For over 100 years, it has received and managed gifts from local donors to build an endowment for Cambridge, drawing funds to support the work of nonprofit organizations serving local needs. But the Foundation also pursues grants to strengthen the good work of others. Last year, that effort bore fruit in the form of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, which was augmented by funding from the Foundation’s resources, to support community-based arts programs. On the receiving end were five very different organiza- tions that enliven the arts scene in the neighborhoods close to Central Square, a creative hub for the city. These included Cambridge Community Center’s program The Hip Hop Transformation; Gallery 263; Community Art Center; Central Square Theater; and CCTV, the city’s cable news source. Projects ranged from community-based painting (online and in gather- ing places); a performance and spoken word project to give teenagers a platform to make art from their lives; theater and dance with a focus on community connection; and an ongoing project called Home Port that uses visual and performance arts to celebrate the extraordinary history of The Port neighborhood. And CCTV was enlisted as the documenting partner for the organizations. The big goal of the grant was to honor and raise visibility for arts organizations in Cambridge’s historic Central Square district, that in turn raise up a deeply rooted tradition of cultural expression as part of what makes Cambridge Cambridge. Central Square Theater brings art to a local audience and uses theater arts to explore the world from a local perspective. Youth Underground, Central Square Theater. Photo by A.R. Sinclair Photography 20 GRANTEE STORY Funding arts programs in Central Square