About Arrow Street Arts
With the belief that art creates community and community creates belonging, Arrow Street Arts offers accessible, multi-arts spaces and production opportunities to artists and organizations who gather, engage, and connect their communities through the transformative powers of live, in-person performances.
An essential need.
A tremendous opportunity.
Arrow Street Arts was created to address a compelling need—the lack of top-quality, reasonably priced rehearsal and performance facilities in the Boston area. When Harvard Square’s Oberon theater became available, a team of seasoned arts professionals, led by Cambridge entrepreneur David Altshuler, joined together to form a nonprofit organization focused on unlocking the space’s immense potential.
Arrow Street will have a palpable and positive effect on the Boston-area cultural landscape from the moment our doors open. As an artist-focused, community-centered organization, Arrow Street will give local performance groups access to a venue where they can nourish their creativity, push the envelope, and transport their audiences to new and exciting terrain.
Empowering, engaging,
and accessible.
Arrow Street is much more than a rehearsal facility or a performance venue: it is first and foremost a vessel for celebrating and advancing creativity. Empowering local artists by enhancing their capacity to entertain, challenge, and connect with their audiences is our reason for being. Everyone we engage—performers, producers, partners, and audience members—will be encouraged to come as they are, and to let their imagination take flight in our inviting and inspiring spaces.
Flexible staging configurations and high-quality backstage facilities will give theater companies, dance troupes, musical ensembles, and other performers access to an environment highly conducive to developing and presenting groundbreaking work. Seating, public spaces, and other amenities have been designed to maximize comfort for audience members of different ages, identities, and abilities. Performers and audience members will benefit from extensive renovations to the space, including lighting, sound, projection, and video systems that embody the best of next-generation technological innovation.
Our fee structure will help ensure that these superb facilities are accessible to groups with limited budgets; through our partnership with the Cambridge Community Foundation, we are also establishing a fund that will provide rental fee subsidies to eligible organizations.
Centering and celebrating
our creative community.
In recent years, organizations throughout the local arts ecosystem have intensified their focus on making their programming more representative and inclusive. As a community-centered nonprofit, Arrow Street is committed to advancing the principles of DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) and celebrating the spirit of community in all we do.
We believe that, more than ever, the arts can play a pivotal role in centering the marginalized, challenging the status quo, and changing the social conversation. For that reason, Arrow Street’s programming will prioritize organizations from underserved and under-resourced communities who can benefit from access to high-quality rehearsal and performance space. In doing so, we will discover opportunities to collaborate with emerging and established artists from diverse backgrounds and perspectives whose compelling stories inspire, educate, and entertain.
Arrow Street Arts, Inc. is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that operates the performance spaces at 2 Arrow Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.