On Monday night, the Cambridge Community Preservation Act Committee voted to allocate $56.5k to complete the landscape design for Magazine Beach Park. The City Council will vote to approve (or not) CPA Committee recommendations on Monday, Sept. 15 at 5:30pm. May they approve them and, if they do, start thinking about how we could best improve our local riverside park!
How do you want to use and enjoy Magazine Beach?
The Magazine Beach Committee of the CNA receives Matching Funds from DCR
At yesterday’s ceremony at the State House, DCR presented the Magazine Beach Committee of the CNA with a certificate awarding us $56,500 of matching funds to complete the park’s landscape plan. This will allow us to move forward with other improvements at the park: a new water feature, play structure, picnic tables and benches and a great lawn where there is now sunken pavement.
We’ll know in the next weeks whether Cambridge’s CPA Committee will match this. Please cross your fingers and encourage CPA Committee members and City Councilors to provide support.
DCR’s 2015 Matching Funds Program will fund 21 projects in state parks and other facilities across the Commonwealth. DCR will invest $567,719 in capital investments, matching $427,271 in non-state partner contributions.
Thank you once again, DCR! Working together, we’re creating a nicer park.
Thank you, Bread & Puppet, the Cambridge Arts Council, the Cambridge Community Center, Sanofi and DCR for a splendid last day of August at Magazine Beach. Didn’t make it? Want to relive the event? See Werner Grundl of Videosphere’s video of it right here. And the Boston Globe‘s coverage here and the Cambridge Chronicle‘s coverage here. Photos by Julie O’Neil and Cathie Zusy.
B&P will perform at Magazine Beach Park today. See you there!
Looks like a perfect day for Bread & Puppet Theater’s The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus this Sunday, Aug. 31, at 3pm, at Magazine Beach Park. But just in case, the rain location will be at the Cambridge Community Center at 5 Callender Street.
Description: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus is for the not yet existing
upriser masses and their kids who need to practice their upriser skills by
teaming up with butterflies, cockroaches and elephants. Lions, horses and
dogs are also employed to invent the correct rhythmical patterns that fight
planetary destruction. The boot flags of the 15th century peasant revolution
lead the way, with a lively brass band for accompaniment. Bread & Puppet’s
“Circus” acts can often be politically puzzling to adults, but accompanying
kids can usually explain them. Sourdough rye bread will be served and cheap
art will be available for donation after the performance.
Presented with assistance from the Cambridge Arts Council, the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, and the Cambridge Community Center.
Our 2014 summer programs at Magazine Beach Park have been sponsored, too, by Sanofi and the Charles River Conservancy.
Thank you, all, and see you there!
Arneis Quartet performs in the park.
On Friday night the Arneis Quartet performed our first classical concert at the park. Tanglewood East! Thanks to the Arneis Quartet for performing, to Victoria Cheah for producing the event, to Whole Foods and Taco Party for providing refreshment, and to Sanofi and the Charles River Conservancy to making this all possible!
The Powder Magazine gets a new roof!
In the background was the Powder Magazine—almost with a new roof—and the swimming pool. Today is its last day for the season; it’s open until 7pm tonight.
Last day to swim at Magazine Beach this summer!
It’s been a fabulous summer at the park. Thanks to the many who have contributed in so many ways.
Our last event for the season: Bread & Puppet perform their “Nothing is Not Ready” Circus on Sunday, Aug. 31, 3-4pm. Rain location: Cambridge Community Center at 5 Callender St. Our event co-sponsors: Cambridge Arts and the Cambridge Community Center. Thank you!
There’s a cool breeze, calling at Magazine Beach. Stop down by the river!
Thanks to the employees of Cambridge Associates who volunteered at the park today. They painted benches and picnic tables, weeded the front garden bed, and picked up garbage. Thanks also to Danielle Stehlik of the Charles River Conservancy for organizing this event!
Remember, our last session of yoga for the season is tomorrow, Saturday, Aug. 16th at 9am, just on the Magazine Beach side of the pedestrian footbridge. Bring a mat and a water bottle. Free, but donations are welcome.
And 2 more events in August: next Friday, Aug. 22, 6-8pm, the Arneis Quartet will serenade us and on Sunday, Aug. 31, 3-4pm Bread & Puppet performs their “Nothing is Not Ready Circus.”
About the Arneis Quartet’s program:
It will begin with New England composer George Whitefield Chadwick’s String Quartet no. 4, composed in 1895–a joyful expression of the early American folk style in classical music featuring soaring pentatonic melodies and a Yankee sense of humor. This will be followed by Erwin Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet (1924), paying homage to folk music in a different way, evoking a Viennese waltz, a serenade, Czech folk dances, tango, and the tarantella. Mendelssohn’s richly romantic String Quartet in A minor, op. 13 (1827) will complete this elegant program.
Thank you to Tori Cheah for producing this event and to Sanofi and the Charles River Conservancy for sponsoring it! Note: In case of rain, this event will be cancelled.
The Reid/White/Mills/Shepard family of Cambridge had their 16th annual reunion at Magazine Beach Park on Saturday. Over 200 came… Butch Reid and his son Kamaul organize these to promote higher education and accomplishment among their family. At their first reunion, only Butch had graduated from college. Sixteen years later, 20 family members have Bachelors of Science degrees, 3 or 4 have Masters, and 2 or 3 have PhDs! As a family, they pool money to help pay for books and expenses for the first semester of college. Go Reids and what an amazing day for a reunion.
The 1818 Powder Magazine has been added to DCR’s Historic Curatorship Program
The Powder Magazine is Added to DCR’s Historic Curatorship Program
Many thanks to our State Senator Anthony Petruccelli and State Rep. Jay Livingstone for introducing this legislation and nursing it along. Senate Bill 1966 passed by a 39-0 vote on Thursday, July 31. On Wednesday, the Governor signed it into law. This is big news: the legislation will allow DCR to lease the building to a third party in exchange for converting it to its next use. A powder magazine in 1818, a bathhouse for Charles River swimmers in 1899, a concession/meeting space/pop-up performance space in 2015?
Longleaf Lumber to the Rescue: Donating Heart Pine for the Rafter Tails
More big news! This morning Marc Poirier of Cambridge’s own Longleaf Lumber delivered old-growth, reclaimed longleaf heart pine for the structure’s rafter tails. When we realized that the new pressure-treated pine boards ordered for this purpose were already twisting and cracking, we give Longleaf a call and they delivered! Thank you, Longleaf. They “repurposed” posts from the old Crocker Paper Mill in Holyoke, MA to serve our renovation of the oldest building on the Charles River Basin. The wood is over 200 years old! Thank you to DCR, the Cambridge Historic Commission, Clark & Green Architects, Restoration Consultant Bill Finch, and Stanley Roofing for your commitment to fixing the building right. If history is any guide, this is a once in a hundred-year opportunity.
For further information about this, see: http://www.longleaflumber.com/magazine-beach-powder-house/.
Arneis Quartet performs Fri., Aug. 22nd
Friday August 22, 6-8 pm Free
Praised for their “beautiful sound” (Beijing Global Times), the Arneis Quartet is proving to be one of the finest emerging ensembles of its generation.“As a relatively young quartet, they have already achieved something it often takes years to develop: a unique, collective sound which is as warm and full of sparkle as liquid gold” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). Foodtrucks, too: Whole Foods and Taco Party! In case of rain, this event is cancelled. Thank you to Sanofi, our lead sponsor for this summer’s programs at Magazine Beach!
Bread & Puppet perform Sun., Aug. 31st
Sunday August 31, 3-4 pm Free
The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus is for the not yet existing upriser masses and their kids who need to practice their upriser skills by teaming up with butterflies, cockroaches and elephants. Lions, horses and dogs are also employed to invent the correct rhythmical patterns that fight planetary destruction. The boot flags of the 15th century peasant revolution lead the way, with a lively brass band for accompaniment. Bread & Puppet‘s “Circus” acts can often be politically puzzling to adults, but accompanying kids can usually explain them. Sourdough rye bread will be served and cheap art will be available for donation after the performance. Presented with assistance from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association. Rain Location: Cambridge Community Center at 5 Callender Street.
Last night the fantastic musicians of the Boston Percussion Group (BPeG) played new music and old favorites to an enthusiastic audience at Magazine Beach’s Music in the Park series. The versatile members of BPeG all met while studying at the acclaimed Boston Conservatory and now, as BPeG, perform music from all styles and genres, from arrangements of popular tunes to Ghanaian folk music to cutting-edge contemporary and classical works. Friday’s audience relaxed, picnicked, and danced to BPeG’s beats as the sun set on Magazine Beach.
Part of our recent efforts to revitalize Magazine Beach through the arts, Music in the Park is a series of free concerts taking place outside and (very soon, we hope!) inside the Powder Magazine building on Magazine Beach in Cambridgeport. Each Music in the Park concert features a professional music ensemble from the Boston/Cambridge area, each expressing a unique point of view on music today.
Don’t miss the next Music in the Park on August 22, 6-8pm, with the Arneis Quartet performing elegant and exciting works for string quartet!
–Tori Cheah
Thank you to Tori Cheah for producing this event and to Sanofi and the Charles River Conservancy for sponsoring it! Thanks also to Julie O’Neil for the closeup photo of BPeG performing!
Remember, yoga in the park each Saturday through August 16.
Magazine Beach 