Do You Know About Our Outreach Programs?

Cotuit Center for the Arts reaches people well-beyond our Cotuit campus. We continue to look for opportunities to bring the arts and arts education to underserved populations on Cape Cod and the surrounding areas. With your help, we can reach many others. Below is a list of just some of our outreach programs and community partnerships.

Art Bus: Purchased through a generous donation in 2021, the Center's new Art Bus, the Marjorie-Lynne, is a 40-foot-long school bus retrofitted as a mobile art classroom. Jackie Reeves painted the Art Bus in 2021, wrapping it in a breathtaking mural featuring what the Center does best: artmaking and community-building. In 2022 the Marjorie-Lynne will hit the road to bring free pop-up art-based events and workshops to local elementary schools that utilize Title 1 funding.

Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Cape Cod & the Islands: Every Saturday, Bigs and Littles are invited to participate in a free clay class in our McGraw Ceramics Studio where they learn to handbuild, sculpt, decorate, glaze, and fire their own clay creations. This program is generously funded by a McGraw Ceramics Studio patron.

CapeCodCAN: Cape Cod Collaborative Arts Network joined the Center in 2016 as an independent program under our umbrella. Through collaboration with local agencies, CapeCodCAN provides opportunities for inclusion and participation in literary, visual, and performing arts for people living with disabilities on Cape Cod. Over 250 people living with disabilities were served through this program in 2018, through CCCAN's ongoing classes, projects, and monthly coffeehouses, as well as annual shows on the Mainstage at the Center. Look for CCCAN's student-produced collaborative art installations all over Cape Cod, including their most recent work: the huge animal totem sculpture installed at the new MSPCA facility in Centerville! For more information, contact capecodcan@gmail.com.

Cape Cod Bonsai Club: The Cape Cod Bonsai Club has promoted bonsai horticulture since 1989, with many annual free exhibits and demonstrations by their members all over Cape Cod. CCBC meets here at the Center monthly.

Cotuit Bateria: Led by Cape-based percussionists Sam Holmstock (Entrain) and Michael Dunford (Cla da Bossa Nova), the Cotuit Bateria is a Brazilian Samba-infused drumming group that rehearses monthly and performs locally. This free jam session is open to all — come hit a drum or a bell, shake a shaker or even dance with wild abandon with us! Contact Michael Dunford at michaelsdunford@hotmail.com for more information.

Drumming Through Trauma: Drumming is a very effective way to reduce stress, improve mind-body connection, and increase mindfulness. Sam Holmstock (formerly of Entrain) offers free therapeutic drumming classes twice a week at the Center to veterans and first responders.

Nauset Academy and Teamworks Plymouth: Every Monday and Tuesday, CCftA faculty members and artists teach classes in music, art, and woodworking, year-round, to incarcerated youth. This is a Department of Youth Services state program funded by a grant from Commonwealth Corporation. Launched through the Center in 2013, it is the first program in the state to offer arts education classes in a residential setting, and we are a model for other state treatment sites.

Yoga Neighborhood: Yoga Neighborhood is a 501C non-profit organization dedicated to caring for the entire community of Cape Cod, with a focus on the needs of underserved and vulnerable populations. YN meets weekly on Sunday mornings at CCFTA in our beautiful Gallery for Sunday Morning Yoga, a 75-minute Hatha-based yoga class. Yoga Neighborhood meets Sunday mornings starting September 10, 2023. Yoga Neighborhood's class schedule is on its website: https://www.yoganeighborhood.org/