To wrap up this winter season of talks, GMGI welcomes our neighbor (in Boston), Dr. Jeff Kneebone, Senior Scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium. His work sheds light on the mysterious underwater life of some of New England’s resident fish through the use of two very different, but complimentary, techniques – electronic tagging and DNA analysis.
Join us on Thursday, February 29th at 7p for Dr. Kneebone’s talk, Magic Markers – How Electronic Tags and DNA Help Us Understand the Life of Marine Fishes and the Impact Humans Have on Them. Click here to register!
As always, the GMGI Science Hour is free and available to all who are interested!
Questions? Please reach out to Maggie Costello at maggie.costello@gmgi.org
🌱🌿🍅 Join Backyard Growers for an ONLINE WORKSHOP and FREE SEED GIVEAWAY to jumpstart your growing season. We’ll be sharing tips and tricks, plus offering a live Q&A, on how to successfully start seeds indoors this winter, followed by a drop-in free seed giveaway at our offices at 103R Maplewood Ave in Gloucester.
A bowl will be provided AT NO COST for each person to paint, along with all the materials needed! Your bowl will be fired and distributed through The Open Door Empty Bowl flagship fundraiser on April 24, which supports summer programs of The Open Door including Summer Meals for Kids and Mobile Market programs.
APPLY NOW: Applications are now open for Backyard Growers’ 2024 Community Programs, with a mission to empower more Cape Ann residents to grow their own food and connect people to veggie gardening resources. Learn more & apply here: www.backyardgrowers.org/community-programs
Programs include:
Community Garden Program: Join one of six community gardens in Gloucester to connect with neighbors and grow your own food, including Burnham’s Field Community Garden and gardens in Gloucester Housing Authority and Caleb Group communities.
Backyard Garden Program: Backyard Growers builds raised garden beds for Gloucester residents each spring, enabling them to grow their own food at their homes. Your backyard could be next!
GrowBag Garden Program: Cape Ann residents receive a container garden (3 GrowBags) with resources to grow fresh food at home, without needing to install a garden bed. This is a great option for renters or people without traditional outdoor growing space.
All program participants receive access to growing space with nutrient-rich soil, gardening & cooking workshops, vegetable seeds & seedlings, and an optional gardening mentor.
Questions? Reach out to Backyard Growers at community@backyardgrowers.org or call 978-281-0480.
The Gloucester Education Foundation is looking forward to this elementary band concert on Monday! We are proud to fund band for grades 4-8 to the tune (see what we did there?) of $98,100 this year, and have already begun to secure funding for next year’s programming. Look for an article in the Gloucester Daily Times next week about the generosity of our community – especially the JMR Barker Foundation and the Byrnes family – in its support for our schools and the arts.
All are invited to join the Greater Cape Ann Chamber’s 102nd Annual Celebration at Shalin Liu Performance Center on Friday, January 26 from 5 to 9 PM as we welcome incoming 2024 Board President Karen Ristuben and thank 2023 Board President Loran Caputo. Tickets may be purchased online at bit.ly/AnnualCelebration2024 or by calling the Chamber at 978-283-1601. Ticket options include Program and Cocktail Reception plus Live Performances for $100; or Live Performances Only at $45 for adults and $20 for youth under 18. See below for a list of the talented performers (there will also be a surprise guest performer!)
With the 2024 theme of Creativity, Culture & Commerce: Stronger Together, our goal this year is to inspire new synergies between greater Cape Ann’s arts, culture, and business communities. This unique Annual Celebration represents the visual and performing arts – music, painting, drama, poetry, and dance – from all five of our communities.
The Program and Cocktail Reception will be held from 5 to 7 PM (heavy appetizers). The Live Performances begin at 7:30 PM.
LIVE PERFORMANCES
Cape Ann Big Band with featured vocalists: Alexandra Grace, Emily Grace, Rhiannon Hurst, Scott Parisi, John Rockwell, and Nathan Seavey
BrassFed Nation Youth Swing Orchestra with featured vocalists: Scarlett Berge, Jessica Cote, Alexis Geary, and Alessandro Schoc
Spoken Word: Luce Wren Brandt and Kaley Fantasia
Dancer Performance: Sarah Slifer Swift and Carey McKinley, Movement Arts Gloucester MA (MAGMA)
Lanes Coven Theater Co: Lily Narbonne and Justin Genna
Live Art: Loren Doucette, Seven Suns Gallery. Pastel Artwork*
ADDITIONAL ARTISTS
Wood Carving Demonstration by Harold Burnham*
Live Painting Demonstration by Joli Ayn Wood*
Centerpieces: Chubby Clay Bodies by Miranda Aisling, filled with beautiful floral arrangements by Betsy Morris Quinn (Dirt Floral Works). (Flat-fee purchase price of $40 each – first-come, first-served)
Life-sized Portrait of “Captain Kyle Nelson, Pigeon Cove Lobsterman” by Leslie Heffron, in the Lobby. (Available for purchase from the artist.)
Photography Display by Melissa Cox. (Available for purchase from the photographer.)
* Finished artwork to be sold via Silent Auction. Silent Auction bidding sheets are available in the Lobby. Additional art pieces by Loren Doucette will be on display and available for retail purchase.
The Sawyer Free Library is pleased to host the Cape Ann Climate Coalition on Thursday, January 25, from 5:30 to 6:30 pm at 21 Main Street for an interactive presentation on the benefits of electrifying everything in your home.
Whether you rent or own, are ready to make decisions, or are gathering information for future decisions, you’ll want to attend this free discussion. Learn from Cape Ann residents about what you can do as a Cape Ann resident to “Electrify Everything” and make your home here on Cape Ann more energy efficient.
The event will feature a “Breakfast for Dinner” demonstration on induction cooktops. They will make pancakes, hot cocoa, and tea for everyone to eat and drink using induction cooktops; explain the benefits of cooking with induction stoves; raffle off a portable induction cooktop; and discuss the energy rebates and incentives for all income households, including tenant households. The event is free and open to all. Registration is requested at sawyerfreelibrary.org.
The Sawyer Free Library, temporarily located at 21 Main Street and online 24/7, is looking forward to officially opening its new and modernized space in the fall of 2025. The renovated and expanded 2025 Sawyer Free Library will be the first public building on Cape Ann that generates renewable energy from solar and uses no fossil fuels for the building’s site energy. The Sawyer Free Library is committed to achieving a LEED Gold Certification and Mass Save Path 1 Net- Zero-Ready Verification —a status achieved by minimizing energy demand, generating as much electricity on site as possible through solar, and securing a renewable source for additional electricity to achieve net-zero energy.
The Sawyer Free Library knows that every action we take individually and collectively toward making our environment resilient and sustainable is a step toward a net zero-impact future.
Recently winning Editor’s Choice for 2024’s Best Bridal Shows by Northshore Magazine, join the Beauport Hospitality Group’s Wedding team (Beauport Hotel, Cruiseport Gloucester, Beauport Cruiselines) and the best Professional Vendors in the business for our annual Wedding Showcase hosted by The 617 Event Group!
Meet, mix and mingle with vendors in every category, leading up to and during your wedding day, while viewing one of the North Shore’s premiere wedding venues – Cruiseport Gloucester.
We will also be showcasing Beauport Cruiselines, Editor’s Choice winner for Unique Venues 2024 by Northshore Magazine, docked just outside Cruiseport. Specializing in all of life’s celebrations, our Cruiseship is perfect for your unique rehearsal, dinner or wedding!
Please join the Sawyer Free Library and the Gloucester 400+ on Wednesday, January 31 from6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Beauport Hotel Gloucesterto celebrate the launch of theGloucester Timeline: An Interactive History and the relocation of the digital Gloucester 400 Stories Projectto the Library.
The celebratory community event will feature story-tellers from the community, an interactive Gloucester trivia game, and a demo of the Library’s new interactive research tool. The evening is FREE and open to all to attend. No registration required.
The Gloucester Timeline is the Sawyer Free Library’s legacy gift to the City to commemorate its 400th anniversary. The Timeline traces Gloucester’s unique history through culturally and historically significant people, places and events that have made Gloucester what it is today. Spearheaded by Sawyer Free Library with support from the Cape Ann Museum and Gloucester City Archives, the Gloucester Timeline also connects people to cultural organizations, archival repositories and historical collections where more information is available. Gloucester 400+ staff have made extensive use of the Timeline in 2023 to illustrate and highlight significant events in our history. The launching of the Gloucester Timeline by SFL makes this new interactive research tool available to the public online.
The collection of stories gathered over the course of the past year has been assembled into the Gloucester 400 Stories Project. This award-winning digital collection of stories, poems and videos, has until now, been available on the Gloucester 400+ website. The collection is about Gloucester people by Gloucester people and is a powerful voice of ordinary and not-so-ordinary citizens. The Gloucester 400 Stories Project too represents a 400+ legacy gift to the City.
Now that the quadricentennial year is over, the Gloucester 400 Stories Project collection will be permanently housed in the 2025 Sawyer Free Library’s new Local History Research Center located on the first floor of the newly renovated, expanded, and modernized Library, the Local History Research Center.
APPLY NOW: Applications are now open for 
Cape Ann Community 