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The Sawyer Free Library welcomes new Board President and Trustees

~ Sawyer Free Library

The Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library (SFL) is pleased to announce that Marion (“Mern“) Sibley has been elected President of the Library Board of Directors. She succeeds John T. Brennan, who has been Board President for the past three years and will be leaving to become the President of the Sawyer Library Foundation. Mern Sibley joined the Sawyer Free Library Board of Trustees in 2017 and recently served as its Vice President. She formed and Chaired the Saunders House Stewardship Committee (SHSC), which is committed to ensuring that the venerable Saunders House, built in 1764, is restored, preserved, and fully accessible to the public to enjoy as an essential part of the Library. Sibley said, “I am excited to get started in my new role. I am fortunate to have much good groundwork laid by the collaboration between John Brennan, our hardworking past President, and our energetic, imaginative Library Board. These will be challenging and critical years for the Sawyer Free Library and our city.” She added, “Our Library is a key partner in sustaining the educational, economic and civic health of our community in a time of dramatic change and uncertainty. In Gloucester, we have something great in the Sawyer Free Library, and our Board and our Library staff want to make it even better.”

After being away for twenty-eight years, Ms. Sibley, a Gloucester native, proved you can go home again and returned to her old East Gloucester neighborhood in 2002. She credits her early experiences growing up in this fishing town for giving her a love of nature and its complexities, leading Sibley to embark on a career in biology. After a long career in research and process development at New England Biolabs in Ipswich, MA, she retired in the fall of 2016. Finding herself with more time to get involved in her community, Ms. Sibley was drawn to the work ongoing to maintain and improve the Sawyer Free Library. “For me, the Library has always been a place to study, to find resources, to meet people, and sometimes, to just sit and daydream. It is a haven for people of all ages and from all walks of life – providing free programs and resources that improve lives across our great city and beyond,” said Sibley.  “And I believe, now more than ever, with schools closed, programs cancelled and everything seemingly on hold, SFL and its committed librarians continue to demonstrate creativity, resourcefulness, and the essential role the library plays to so many during this time of unprecedented community need.”

Joining Sibley as a part of the leadership team of Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Board of Trustees will be the newly elected Vice President Fran Aliberte.  Anne-Marie Anderson will serve as Secretary, with Joe Grella remaining as the Treasurer, and Budget, Finance, and Investment Chair.  Also, Melanie Murray-Brown and Neil Glickstein were elected as the newest members of the Library’s Board of Trustees. 

Melanie Murray-Brown, who has been a volunteer on the Library’s Corporate Communications Committee for many years, is the Director of Development of Backyard Growers. The longtime Gloucester resident brings to the Board over 20 years of experience working with mission-driven nonprofit, community, and government organizations.

Neil Glickstein is a retired science teacher who moved to Gloucester in 1979, where he and his wife, who is also an educator, raised their two sons. Upon moving to Cape Ann, he first directed an aquaculture training program in Gloucester Harbor. He then began his long and fulfilling teaching career at several secondary schools, colleges, and schooner training programs, including Governor’s Academy, Waring School, Endicott College, and, most recently, GMGI’s Gloucester Biotechnology Academy.

SFL board members have a variety of experience and backgrounds, including finance, business management, research, writing, legal, and marketing. SFL board members volunteer their time and talents and have three-year staggered terms.

A blog from Backyard Growers: what you should be doing in the garden right now

~ backyardgrowersgloucester

Simpsons

🥕 Check out the latest blog post from Backyard Growers‘ founder & executive director Lara Lepionka, where she’s sharing guidance on what you should be doing in your veggie garden NOW, and the three attributes of a successful vegetable gardener during the pandemic growing season 🌿🍅🦋  Happy growing!

Here’s an excerpt:

“Don’t forget to mulch around your veggies to keep the weeds down and the soil moist. Thin your carrots. Those tomato seedlings look small now, but they will soon take over so stake or cage them now. Eat your spinach before the leaf miners wreak havoc or before it bolts in the heat. There’s nothing sadder than a bolting spinach. Nothing.

As we move forward into the heart of the growing season and into the great ridiculous unknown, I would like to share with you what I think are the top three attributes of a successful vegetable gardener during the pandemic growing season.”

Click here to read on.

Gloucester Biotechnology Academy Accepting Applications for Next Class!

~ Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute

Gloucester Biotechnology Academy’s Class of 2021 is set to begin in the fall, and applications are still being accepted! This affordable, 9-month program is an incredible opportunity to gain the skills needed to start a new career in biotech.

Please visit our website at gmgi.org/apply or reach out to Education Director John Doyle at john.doyle@gmgi.org for more information – we are happy to answer any questions you have!

Academy Marketing PDF

Cape Ann Museum launches “Virtual Vault” lecture series and more stay-at-home activities during temporary closure

~ laurenren

Cape Ann Museum Logo

Virtual programming from the Museum’s exhibition lectures, educational programs, and archives offers at-home opportunities during closing for COVID-19

Cape Ann Museum Video Vault

GLOUCESTER, MASS. (May 20, 2020) – Although the Cape Ann Museum is closed temporarily during the pandemic to protect staff and visitors, there are many rich opportunities to experience the Museum virtually with a new initiative called CAM Video Vault, which features 60 lectures, programs, and archival material dating back to 1992.

The wide range of offerings include exhibition and program lectures by curators, artists, community leaders, educators, and others. Featuring discussions about past museum exhibitions, well-known artists with Cape Ann roots, natural environments and habitats around Cape Ann, as well as the region’s maritime history all 60 programs are accessible via the Museum’s website.

To help at-home educators and parents looking for a variety of online resources for their children, the Museum is also adding educational content from its robust programs, using art and the region’s history as the basis for art-making activities, reading adventures, and virtual tours and experiences. From the Museum archives and library, there is also now online content called “Stories from the Stacks.”

For more information about the exhibition and related programming, please visit the Museum’s website www.capeannmuseum.org.

The Cape Ann Museum has been in existence since the 1870s, working 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 June 2021, the Museum will open a new 12,000-square-foot collection storage and public exhibition space in Gloucester as part of its Cape Ann Museum Green campus. The campus includes three historic buildings – the White Ellery House (1710), an adjacent Barn (c. 1740), and the recently acquired Babson-Alling House (c.1740) which are located on the site at the intersection of Washington and Poplar Streets in Gloucester.  Visit capeannmuseum.org for details.

The Cape Ann Museum is located at 27 Pleasant Street in Gloucester. While temporarily closed due the COVID-19 pandemic, regular hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. 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 x10. Additional information can be found online at www.capeannmuseum.org.

For a detailed media fact sheet please visit www.capeannmuseum.org/press.

 

 

Backyard Growers’ Virtual Seedling Sale + curbside pickup

~ backyardgrowersgloucester

🌱🌞🎺🙌🏽 Our Online Shop is BACK, selling warm weather seedlings like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and more! Don’t wait to place your order – these are super popular seedlings and they’re going to get snapped up quick! Also explore our shop for other garden supplies from Black Earth Compost and Neptune’s Harvest, garden-themed 🌺 cloth face masks, and our own coffee blend made in collaboration with our neighbors Breakwater Roasters ☕

CLICK HERE TO SHOP.

FullSizeRender (2)

The fine print: Curb-side pick-up only, next Friday May 22, outside Maritime Gloucester at Harbor Loop. We’ll once again be observing social distancing and assigning pick-up times based on alphabetical order. Pre-orders only; no seedlings available for purchase on the day.

Corporate spon incl CRG (1)

Additional sponsors

Online workshop “Gardening for the Zombie Apocalypse” with Backyard Growers – a second session!

~ backyardgrowersgloucester

Zombies2

It’s spring, and even though it’s the zombie apocalypse out there, we have people to feed! So what to plant? What crops will produce the most food? With the most calories? And the most beneficial nutrients? With the best storage capacity? In the least amount of time?

To find out, register for the second session of our Gardening for the Zombie Apocalypse on-line workshop, which will take place on Tuesday, May 12 from 4-5:30 pm. Your workshop fee of $20 will help support our urgent zombie apocalypse work in the community. You’ll receive an overview on how to:

🌿 Plan a small urban garden for the greatest yield in terms of calories and amounts of veggies
🌿 Maximize small growing spaces with the square foot gardening method and succession planting
🌿 Sheet mulching and container gardening to grow food anywhere
🌿 Harvest water, save seeds, find free local growing resources, and be a general DIY garden ninja
🌿 Cooperate with the humans around you to support yourself and others
🌿 Kill zombies with gardening implements

Click here to purchase tickets.

Zombie Sponsors (1)

Cape Ann Museum plans illuminated message on new campus to pay tribute to city, front line workers during pandemic

~ laurenren

IMG950196

Rendering Courtesy of Harbor Voices Public Art

GLOUCESTER, MASS. (May 7, 2020) – In an effort to boost the city’s spirits during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cape Ann Museum is presenting a CAM Contemporary exhibition involving the projection of an illuminated multilingual message on the nights of May 6 to 8, 2020, saying “Thank You Frontline Heroes.” The installation is called “In Gratitude.”

“We know many of our neighbors, friends, and families are struggling at this time of social distancing, isolation, and anxiety around health and financial concerns from the coronavirus,” said Museum Director Oliver Barker. “We want to send a message of solidarity, gratitude and hope to our community.”

This “Thank You Frontline Heroes” illumination planned for the side of the White-Ellery Barn at the Cape Ann Museum Green, 245 Washington Street in Gloucester, was created by Stephanie Terelak Benenson, a North Shore artist and founder of the nonprofit, Harbor Voices Public Art. The projection will take place from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. on Wed. May 6 to Friday, May 8. The message itself will be in several languages – Portugese, Spanish, Italian, and English – and is dedicated to the COVID-19 crisis’s frontline responders such as nurses, doctors, hospital staff and administrators, delivery, teachers, grocery personnel, and the many non-profits supporting our community at this time.

This projection is sponsored by LuminArtz Communications Ink., as part of the “Light Up the Night” series that is bringing rays of light into the community during the pandemic. The group will preview the installation on Luminartz’s Facebook Live event on Wed. May 6 at 9 p.m. Visit harborvoices.com or action@harborvoices.com for more details.

Unlike the Museum’s other events and with a view to current social distancing requirements at present this pop-up projection of thanks is not meant to be attended in person. It is strategically placed and timed for workers to notice when driving home.

Visit capeannmuseum.org for more details.

————————————————————————————————————————

The Cape Ann Museum has been in existence since the 1870s, working 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 June 2021, the Museum will open a new 12,000-square-foot collection storage and public exhibition space in Gloucester as part of its Cape Ann Museum Green campus. The campus will also include three historic buildings – the White Ellery House (1710), an adjacent Barn (c. 1740), and the recently acquired Babson-Alling House (c.1740) which are located on the site at the intersection of Washington and Poplar Streets in Gloucester.  Visit capeannmuseum.org for details.

The Cape Ann Museum is located at 27 Pleasant Street in Gloucester. While temporarily closed due the COVID-19 pandemic, Regular hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. 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 x10. Additional information can be found online at www.capeannmuseum.org.

For a detailed media fact sheet please visit www.capeannmuseum.org/press.

MEDIA CONTACTS:          

Diana Brown McCloy
Teak Media

(978) 978-697-9414
Diana@teakmedia.com

Meredith Anderson
meredithanderson@capeannmuseum.org
(978) 283-0455 x15