Gloucester Education Foundation presents: Parenting Middle and High School Children During a Pandemic
Month: March 2021
The Cape Ann Museum pays tribute to local pandemic victims with new COVID-19 Memorial
Virtual Dedication Ceremony: March 10 at 6 p.m.
Rendition of COVID-19 Memorial at Cape Ann Museum (CAM) Green by artist Pamela Hersch.
GLOUCESTER, Mass. (March 2021) – Nearly one year ago, the coronavirus pandemic forced the state to shut down and declare a state of emergency. To commemorate the community’s profound loss, the Cape Ann Museum is creating a temporary art installation to pay tribute to those who died from the deadly virus including at least 41 people in Gloucester, 61 people from Cape Ann, and more than 2,000 people from Essex County. The COVID-19 Memorial will be dedicated at CAM Green during a virtual online ceremony on March 10 and will be open to the public through March 14.
In partnership with the City of Gloucester and LuminArtz, the Cape Ann Museum COVID-19 Memorial is comprised of three parts: a video art installation from LuminArtz, the Cape Ann Cairns Memorial, and the Gloucester Memorial Quilt. These interconnected projects seek to humanize the unfathomably large number of deaths in the past year, place the deeply felt local losses in the broader national conversation, and provide a space for visitors to take steps toward the long process of grief and healing. Understanding that the pandemic is ongoing, this memorial takes place outside at CAM Green and is a temporary installation.
“Observing social distance practices to keep each other safe has left many of us wondering how we can process and acknowledge the tragic losses experienced locally, regionally, and internationally this past year,” says Oliver Barker, the Museum’s Director. “Art and cultural institutions, so devastated by this tragedy, have a central role to play as we reopen in telling these stories and providing ways for all of us to grieve, remember, and heal. It’s our sincere hope that this memorial will help start that long process.”
On Wednesday, March 10, the state’s emergency shutdown anniversary, the Museum will present a live-streamed virtual memorial ceremony at 6 p.m. that can be seen live on Facebook and YouTube. This ceremony will serve as an opening for the Cape Ann Museum COVID-19 Memorial and a vigil for those lost. Due to current gathering restrictions, visitors will not be allowed onsite during the ceremony. Instead, they are encouraged to watch from home and visit the memorial in person afterwards. Visitors can reserve free, timed entrance to see the memorial at CAM Green from Thursday, March 11 through Sunday, March 14 between 12:30 – 8:00 pm.
Among those scheduled to speak at the ceremony are: local political representatives, community members, and artists including Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, State Senator Bruce Tarr, poet Caroline Harvey, musicians Brian King and Nathan Cohen, the Associated Clergy of Cape Ann, and representatives from the Museum.
About the Cape Ann Museum COVID-19 Memorial
The three simultaneous projects that make up the Museum’s COVID-19 Memorial recognize the local, regional, and national realities of the pandemic in unique yet interconnected ways.
The Gloucester Memorial Quilt was coordinated by the Cape Ann Museum and Roseanne Cody, Board Member on the Gloucester Council of Aging, at the request of Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken. This quilt memorializes 35 Gloucester citizens who died as part of the COVID-19 Pandemic, some remain anonymous and others are personally identified by request of the families. The names were embroidered by Monograms by Diane of Gloucester, and the squares were quilted together by Ingrid Schillebeeckx-Rice, a member of the Burlington Quilters Guild. There is a long-standing tradition of quilts used to memorialize and comfort, most significantly the AIDs Memorial Quilt which was displayed for the first time in 1987 and continues to this day.
To commemorate the more than 55 Cape Ann residents who died during to the pandemic, Miranda Aisling, the Museum’s Education Manager, will work with volunteers from Cape Ann Tree Company to build 55 cairns out of Cape Ann Granite in front of the White Ellery house. By request, the Museum will put small markers in front of a cairn to designate it for a specific individual who died of COVID-19. Unless personally requested, the cairns will remain anonymous, holding space for all those who have been lost from the region. The Museum encourages visitors to bring tokens of respect, traditionally small stones or flowers, which can be left on the cairns.
The Cape Ann Cairns and the Janet & William Ellery James Center will be illuminated by LuminArtz, a nonprofit that brings art to light collaborating with local artists, businesses, and the community to transform streetscapes into vibrant installations. Pamela Hersch, a Boston-based, multidisciplinary artist originally from Mexico, will create a video art installation that places the local COVID-19 deaths within the regional, state, and national context.
The Cape Ann Museum encourages anyone who would like their loved one to be memorialized in these projects to reach out to Miranda Aisling at by email at education@capeannmuseum.org or by phone at 978-283-0455 x125. Family members and friends are asked to provide the name of the deceased as well as their town so that the Museum can make sure they are included in the memorial. For more information about the Cape Ann Museum Covid-19 Memorial, visit www.capeannmuseum.org/covidmemorial
The Cape Ann Museum, founded in 1875, exists to preserve and celebrate the history and culture of the area and to keep it relevant to today’s audiences. Spanning 44,000 square feet, the Museum is one of the major cultural institutions on Boston’s North Shore welcoming more than 25,000 local, national and international visitors each year to its exhibitions and programs. In addition to fine art, the Museum’s collections include decorative art, textiles, artifacts from the maritime and granite industries, three historic homes, a Library & Archives and a sculpture park in the heart of downtown Gloucester. In Fall 2021, the Museum will officially open the 12,000 square foot Janet & William Ellery James Center at the Cape Ann Museum Green. The campus also includes three historic buildings – the White Ellery House (1710), an adjacent Barn (c. 1740), and the recently acquired Babson-Alling House (c.1740), all located on the site at the intersection of Washington and Poplar Streets in Gloucester.
The Cape Ann Museum is located at 27 Pleasant Street in Gloucester. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation, operating hours have been reduced to better protect the safety and well-being of visitors, staff and volunteers. The Museum is currently open Thursday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Timed tickets are required for all visitors at this time and can be reserved online at www.camuseum.eventbrite.com. Admission is $12.00 adults, $10.00 Cape Ann residents, seniors and students. Youth (under 18) and Museum members are free. Cape Ann residents can visit for free on the second Saturday of each month. For more information please call (978)283-0455 x110 or visit www.capeannmuseum.org.
For a detailed media fact sheet please visit www.capeannmuseum.org/press.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Diana Brown McCloy
Teak Media
(978) 697-9414
Diana@teakmedia.com
Meredith Anderson
meredithanderson@capeannmuseum.org
(978) 283-0455 x115
Don’t forget to register for GLOUCESTER TRIVIA NIGHT this Thursday, March 11 at 6:30pm
How much do you really know about Gloucester? Join the Sawyer Free Library’s Local History Librarian as she hosts a fun competitive evening of GLOUCESTER TRIVIA, this Thursday, March 11 from 6:30-7:30pm and find out!
Register here as a team or by yourself, all are welcomed. Zoom link will be provided. Community teams are encouraged. Winners are entitled to indefinite bragging rights!
For more information visit: sawyerfreelibrary.org or call 978-325-5500.
Free webinar: “Dangerous Tempotation or Genuine Opportunity: ‘Factory Girls’ in Fact and Fiction”
New England parents in the 19th century nervously allowed their daughters to leave the countryside for work in the textile mills of the new era. For young women it was a unique opportunity to participate in the growing cash economy, help support their families, and experience life outside the home. Did work in the textile factories represent a step forward in women’s independence? The mills and mill-towns were full of disease, dangerous machinery and duplicitous men! The conjunction of innocent young females and the rough life of the mills generated reams of sensational fiction in the 19th century—lurid tales warning young women to stay home if they wished to avoid ruin. In her illustrated talk, Elizabeth DeWolfe, professor of history at the University of New England, explores the promise and the perils of 19th century factory work for women through the essays, poetry and prose of the era. DeWolfe is the author of ‘The Murder of Mary Bean,’ an award-winning book and true story of a ‘factory girl’ who lost her life in the upheavals of an industrializing nation.
Where: Zoom
When: Thursday, March 11, 6 pm
Tickets: Admission to this webinar is free but reservations are required. Click here to register.
Cape Ann Museum hosts virtual lecture series on how John Singleton Copley painted women
Monthly lecture series allows attendees to celebrate cultural history of Cape Ann
Friday, March 19 at 4:00 p.m.
Erica Hirshler (left) and Jane Kamensky (right)
GLOUCESTER, MASS. (March 2021) – To honor and celebrate Women’s History Month, the Cape Ann Museum welcomes historian Jane Kamensky from Harvard University and curator Erica Hirshler from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston on Friday, March 19 at 4 p.m., to discuss how—and why—the instrumental American portrait artist John Singleton Copley painted women.
Jane Kamensky, Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University, and Erica Hirshler, Croll Senior Curator of American Paintings, Art of the Americas, at the Museum of Fine Arts, will discuss a series of paintings that Copley made of women—young and old–in Boston and in London in the mid to late 18th century.
“We are excited for the opportunity to host a conversation about the ways in which women have historically been portrayed in the fine arts,” said Museum Director Oliver Barker. “The lecture is being offered in conjunction with a special installation at the Museum titled Our Souls Are by Nature Equal to Yours: The Legacy of Judith Sargent Murray, which features a famous portrait of Judith Sargent Murray by John Singleton Copley. Murray was an early advocate for women’s rights and an important figure in the history of women in Colonial America. We are grateful to have the portrait on loan from the Terra Foundation for American Art.”
WHEN and WHERE: Friday, March 19, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. EST. Register online at https://www.capeannmuseum.org/events/how-copley-painted-women/ or call 978-283-0455 x10 or email to info@capeannmuseum.org. Free for CAM members; $10 for non-members.
Next scheduled lecture in the series will be on Wednesday, March 31 at 5:30 pm: Proving Her Metal: The Life and Sculpture of Katharine Lane Weems with Rebecca Reynolds, Manship Artists Executive Director, Jonathan Fairbanks, Katharine Lane Weems Curator Emeritus, MFA Boston, and Robert Shure, sculptor and proprietor of Skylight Studios.
The Cape Ann Museum, founded in 1875, exists to preserve and celebrate the history and culture of the area and to keep it relevant to today’s audiences. Spanning 44,000 square feet, the Museum is one of the major cultural institutions on Boston’s North Shore welcoming more than 25,000 local, national and international visitors each year to its exhibitions and programs. In addition to fine art, the Museum’s collections include decorative art, textiles, artifacts from the maritime and granite industries, three historic homes, a Library & Archives and a sculpture park in the heart of downtown Gloucester. In Summer 2021, the Museum will officially open the 12,000 square foot Janet & William Ellery James Center at the Cape Ann Museum Green. The campus also includes three historic buildings – the White Ellery House (1710), an adjacent Barn (c. 1740), and the recently acquired Babson-Alling House (c.1740), all located on the site at the intersection of Washington and Poplar Streets in Gloucester.
The Cape Ann Museum is located at 27 Pleasant Street in Gloucester. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation, operating hours have been reduced to better protect the safety and well-being of visitors, staff and volunteers. The Museum is currently open Thursday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Timed tickets are required for all visitors at this time and can be reserved online at www.camuseum.eventbrite.com. Admission is $12.00 adults, $10.00 Cape Ann residents, seniors and students. Youth (under 18) and Museum members are free. Cape Ann residents can visit for free on the second Saturday of each month. For more information please call (978)283-0455 x110 or visit www.capeannmuseum.org.
For a detailed media fact sheet please visit www.capeannmuseum.org/press.
MEDIA CONTACTS: Ashley Elias
Teak Media
(213) 400-3402
Ashley@teakmedia.com
Meredith Anderson
meredithanderson@capeannmuseum.org
(978) 283-0455 x115
Sawyer Free Library presents Self Care in Uncertain Times: Hiking Cape Ann on 3/8 at 7pm
Join the Sawyer Free Library on Monday, March 8 from 7-8pm when Taylor Ann Bradford, local reporter, certified backpacking guide and author of the weekly column: Woods to Writing Desk, will share her favorite hiking trails throughout Cape Ann, give tips on best practices and share some of her favorite tales from the trails. Registration is required for this fun and engaging live Zoom program, space is limited. Register here.
For more information on the many programs offered by the Library, free to the community, visit sawyerfreelibrary.org
Sawyer Free Library Program “What She’s Reading” Shares Women Leaders of Gloucester’s Must Read Books for Women’s History Month
In celebration Women’s History Month, the Sawyer Free Library asked several of Gloucester’s cultural, civic, and community women leaders to share books that they love or have inspired them, written by fellow women. The results are a mix of close to 100 titles, including classics, new discoveries, and more. To see the full list of What She’s Reading at SawyerFreeLibrary.org. Recommended books are available at Sawyer Free Library or are easily ordered from libraries in their consortium.
Mark your calendar, the Sawyer Free Library is hosting a virtual screening of the documentary “Left on Pearl” presented by The 888 Women’s History Project on Saturday, March 20 from 2-4pm. This special viewing will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers, Susan Rivo and Iftach Shavit. “Left on Pearl,” tells the inspiring story of the highly significant but little-known event of the 10-day occupation of the Harvard-owned 888 Memorial Drive by grassroots feminist organizers during a 1971 International Women’s Day protest. With contemporary interviews, archival photos, and TV news footage, this lively documentary follows the movement as women vocalized the necessity of equal pay and access to child care, birth control, and many of the hopes, triumphs, conflicts, and tensions of Second Wave feminism. Registration through Library website for this event is required.
For more information about these programs and other Women History Month activities at the Sawyer Free Library visit: SawyerFreeLibrary.org
Sawyer Free Library Announces New Staff to their Team
The Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library (SLF) is pleased to announce the appointment of four new additions to its staff. Julie Travers has recently joined SFL as a new Community Librarian. Katelyn Rivela is the new Library Assistant in the Children’s Room, and Leah Svensson is the new Library Assistant at the 1st Floor Service Desk. Annemarie Sanfilippo was recently appointed to the position of Administrative Assistant. Also, Joann Dunajski was promoted to a newly created position, Library Public Technology Assistant.
“I am beyond pleased to welcome such an exceptional and experienced group of professionals to our dedicated and talented staff at the Sawyer Free Library,” stated Jenny Benedict, the Library Director. “Their innovative thinking, commitment to the community, and boundless enthusiasm will only help us better support our patrons of all ages, diverse and growing needs and connect them with ideas, information, the world of imagination, and each other.”
The recent vacancies at SFL arose due to three long-serving staff retiring, one taking a promotion at another library and one deciding to stay home with her infants.
Julie Travers brings her extensive library experience in adult fiction collection management and programming for diverse populations to her new position as Community Librarian. “As a lifelong lover of libraries, I’m so excited to contribute to the already vibrant library culture that exists here in Gloucester,” said Travers.” I look forward to bringing individuals across the community together for literacy and learning and developing the Library’s fiction collection.” She comes to Gloucester from the Swampscott Public Library, where she was the Head of Circulation. In addition, Julie coordinated innovative library programming in response to community needs, including the popular Librarians by the Sea Podcast and the Swampscott: Life in Quarantine project. Julie will be the Library’s community contact for newcomers and English language learners and work in partnership with Wellspring, Action Inc., Gloucester Housing, and Gloucester Public Schools
Children’s Room Library Assistant, Katelyn Rivela, comes to SFL from the Bigelow Free Library in Clinton, Massachusetts where she was an assistant children’s librarian. Before that, she worked as a substitute teacher in the Hudson Public Schools. She has worked with children of all ages and is passionate about fostering literacy through programming and readers’ advisory. She said, “My favorite part about the Sawyer Free Library is the sense of community felt between the staff and all the patrons. I hope to continue to make the Library feel like a fun and safe space that allows our wonderful patrons of all ages to keep exploring their passions, curiosities, and imaginations!”
A recent graduate from the University of Massachusetts Lowell with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Leah Svensson, the Sawyer Free’s new Library Assistant, has extensive experience and education in writing, editing, public relations, content marketing, social media, and literary analysis. Having grown up in Gloucester, Leah says, “I’m thrilled to become part of the Sawyer Free Library, a place that was a big part of my childhood, and have the opportunity to share my passion for literature while contributing to the supportive and enthusiastic atmosphere that the Library emanates.”
Annemarie Sanfilippo has recently stepped into the Library’s Administrative Assistant‘s vital role, where her support of the Library Director and Assistant Director is indispensable. A Gloucester native, she is thrilled to be back working in her hometown. Annemarie previously was an office manager for 14 years at Endicott College. “The opportunity to work at the Sawyer Free Library feels like somewhat of a homecoming for me,” Annemarie shared. “I am so pleased to be working with such joyful, engaged colleagues and helping to build on the Library’s outstanding service to my own community.”
Already a familiar and welcoming presence at SFL, Joann Dunajski has been promoted to Library Public Technology Assistant. Joann has extensive experience in teaching technology and a passion for serving the public. Her patience, encouragement, and humor have been proven to be a winning combination, supporting even the Library’s most reluctant learners. Besides providing one-on-one instruction for consumer and library applications, Joann will deliver basic technology instruction online. She will also configure and maintain the Library’s Digital Devices To Go collection. “I’m incredibly enthusiastic about this new position. I have always had a passion for technology, and I look forward to assisting our patrons in using public computers and routine use of various applications on the computers,” said Joann. “I also help maintain and promote the Library’s ever-growing digital device collection, including Chromebooks, Hotspots, eReaders, App Sampler Tablets, and PressReaders.”
Just as a reminder, the Sawyer Free Library is open for select onsite services, six days a week, Monday through Saturday, from 10 am to 5 pm, except for Thursday, when it is open from 12 to 7 pm. Visitors are requested to keep their visits to 30 minutes or less, and all visitors will be required to wear masks, practice physical distancing and all public spaces have limited capacities. The Library’s online services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at https://sawyerfreelibrary.org
The GMGI Science Hour with Aquanaut Dr. Shirley Pomponi: Thursday, March 4th at 7:30pm
Please join us via Zoom this Thursday, March 4th to hear from Dr. Shirley Pomponi, research professor, ocean explorer, and part-time aquanaut, as she describes her experience living in the underwater laboratory Aquarius for nine days in 2019. Dr. Pomponi was selected to participate in one of NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO), testing out techniques and protocols for future space missions.
You can read about Dr. Pomponi and what you can expect from her fascinating talk on our website, and can register for the talk here.
Please reach out to Ashley Destino at ashley.destino@gmgi.org with any questions.
Sawyer Free Library will be closed on Tuesday, March 2 for the day
The Sawyer Free Library will be closed on Tuesday, March 2nd for a professional development day.
Both in-person and curbside services will be unavailable until the following day, Wednesday, March 3rd at 10am.
We are excited to use the knowledge and skills we develop to further improve our services at the Library!
If you expect to need computer services on this day, consider borrowing one of our Chromebooks and wireless hotspots or reach out to us for information about other services in the community.
Don’t forget that our databases, eBooks, and other online resources can be accessed 24/7 at www.sawyerfreelibrary.org
Cape Ann Community 