New community-supported art program to unveil first season's artists on Sunday

Everybody wants more art, right? But building an art collection can be an arduous, expensive endeavor. Then again, we used to say the same thing about getting a steady supply of organic, locally grown heirloom tomatoes, too -- and then along came community-supported agriculture, and changed everything. So who says that model couldn't work for art, too?

CSArt is an inspiring new community art project based at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, taking the model of community-supported agriculture and applying it to a program that supports local visual artists, ranging from painters and photographers to printmakers and sculptors. For the program’s first season, shareholders can pay $300 to receive artworks from nine different artists.

On Sunday, the nine Cambridge and Somerville artists selected by the CSArt panel will be introduced publicly at a reception from 5-6:30 pm at 42 Brattle Street in Harvard Square.

“Shareholders will get nine original works of art for somewhere between $30 and $40 each,” explains Susan Hartnett, CCAE's executive director. “They are works of art that are produced by your neighbors … You get really wonderful work,  and they are local products, so you are supporting a local business. And you are going to meet these artists and shareholders at three art delivery parties. So you will have a relationship with these producers… [like at Open Studios,] you get to have a conversation with them around it …so the chance to not just get the work but to have the engagement, the conversation.”

The CSArt program is operating thanks to an Adams Arts grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. CCAE’s program was inspired by a similar project launched in the Twin Cities last year by Minnesota’s Springboard for the Arts.

For more information, check the CCAE's website.