For the last 18 years, Gallery 263 has been described as “the living room of Cambridgeport.” As one of the few surviving nonprofit galleries in Cambridge, we are the only such in the greater Boston area that operates without taking proceeds from art sales.
In our work we intentionally highlight the work of local emerging artists amid established artists and jurors whose works have been featured in major museums. We are proud to be a third space for our community, and all are welcome within our doors.
Outside of roughly 10 contemporary art exhibitions each year, we host a wide variety of events, programming, and community-based projects. These range from networking nights, artist workshops, book fairs and markets to biweekly yoga and children’s art exhibitions in collaboration with the Morse Elementary School.
Our gallery has been both a career launchpad and home for many. We have featured some artists’ first solo exhibitions, like Hannah Latham, whose photographic work explored substance use disorder in rural Maine. To help us continue this work of supporting the next wave of contemporary artists, we host an annual fundraiser that transforms the gallery walls into a dining room each fall, the Foraged Banquet.
In the fall of 2025, a documentary crew worked to reveal the craft of this curated affair with some broader history about our founding, ethos and community-oriented programming. This film will forever be a testament to our work as one of the last standing nonprofit art galleries in Cambridge.
Foraged Banquets at Gallery 263 are completely home-cooked and served in true grassroots spirit: our board, staff, volunteers, friends, and neighbors work together to invent fresh, delicious, and beautiful dishes. The long-standing Gallery tradition of Foraged has been reimagined each year by co-founder David Craft, board member Jaime Guyon, Kate Merrill, and Gallery 263’s board, staff, and a host of friends and donors.
Fittingly, the building housing Gallery 263 has a long history entwined with the Cambridge art scene. From the 1970s into the 1980s, it was the location of the Brinkerhoff gallery, a hub of art and music in the area. In 1975, the Jeff Goldblum movie Between the Lines was shot in the space, telling the story of an underground newspaper in Boston trying to maintain its independence while faced with a corporate take-over.
After a couple of decades as a furniture store called the Organic Furniture Cellar, the space was transformed into a gallery space once again in 2004 under the name Gallery 263. From 2004 to 2008, Gallery 263 was a personal art studio, featuring the first several exhibits of our history. In September of 2008, Gallery 263 transitioned into an exhibition venue with a mission to provide a place for artists to exhibit and engage the Cambridge community. In the summer of 2010, Gallery 263 established an artists-in-residency program and was approved as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
