Gloucester Schooner Fest and Maritime Heritage Day
Gloucester Schooner Fest is only a week away, and we here at Maritime Gloucester are diligently getting ready for the festival, especially Maritime Heritage Day on August 31st, taking place right on the pier on Harbor Loop.
Heritage Day features vendors, educational activities, demonstrations and music, bringing together people of all ages to celebrate Maritime culture across our community before the schooners head out on the water.
Where: Maritime Gloucester (23 Harbor Loop) & I4C2 Lot (dirt parking lot between the Building Center and The Gloucester House)
When: Saturday August 31st 10 AM-4 PM
Price: Free and open to the public
In addition to our exhibitors we will have music, schooner charters, and delicious local fare. Many of the Gloucester Schooner Festival’s visiting schooners will be open to deck tours and charters. This festival will take place over two locations on the Gloucester Waterfront, our own Harriet Webster Pier on Harbor Loop as well as the new Schooner Docks at the neighboring I4C2 lot.
This is an exciting day with something for everyone from the budding marine biologist to the maritime history enthusiast. An ever growing list of our vendors can be seen below and a schedule of events will be posted soon.
VENDORS
Non-Profit and Community Organizations
- Art Haven
- Cape Ann Museum
- Cape Ann Vernal Pond
- City of Gloucester
- Discover Gloucester
- Essex Shipbuilding Museum
- Gloucester 400
- Great Salt Marsh Project
- Lowell’s Boat Shop
- Maritime Gloucester
- Ocean Alliance
- OLLIE Ocean Labs
- Sawyer Free Library
- Sea Scouts Ship 5
- Seaside Sustainability
- Schooner Adventure
- Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey Association
Food Vendors
- The Eclectic Clam
- Gig Rower Hot Dog and Veggie Burger Stand
- Kim Gregory Pure Pastry
Artisan Vendors
- Melissa Cox Photography
- Design of Mine
- Fast Food Prints
- John Bergmann Art
- Karol Peralta Art
- Sonal Henna and Sand Art
Hope to see you there!
The Gloucester Schooner Festival is a program of Maritime Gloucester and made possible by:
Maritime Curator Erik Ronnberg, Jr. to receive Edgar B. Caffrey Award
Tribute to a career dedicated to maritime heritage; ceremony on August 24, 2019
The Cape Ann Museum’s esteemed Maritime Curator Erik Ronnberg Jr., who for many years worked as a shipmodel maker on Cape Ann, will be receiving the Edgar B. Caffrey Award during the 37th Annual Antique & Classic Boat Festival August 24-25, 2019 at the Hawthorne Marina in Salem, Mass. The award will be conferred on Saturday August 24 at 11am.
Ronnberg, the son of a Swedish-born Master Mariner who arrived in America in 1939, grew up in a household where he and his father would make shipmodels together. After graduating with a degree in biology, Ronnberg decided to pursue a career in model making, firstly as an apprentice at the Newark Museum and then as an Assistant Curator at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Today Ronnberg’s models are in many private collections and Museums including the Smithsonian Institution, MIT Museum, Mystic Seaport Museum, New Bedford Whaling Museum and the Cape Ann Museum.
A model (above) made by Ronnberg together with his father is currently on view at the Cape Ann Museum as part the Museum’s recently opened “Homer at the Beach” exhibition which features 51 works by original works by renowned American artist Winslow Homer (1836–1910). The exhibition is the first close examination of the formation of this great artist as a marine painter. The Cape Ann Museum will be the sole venue for this exhibition, which includes loans from some 50 public and private collections.
Following a decline in the shipmodel market in 2014, Ronnberg joined the Cape Ann Museum as Maritime Curator and has carried out extensive research about the Museum’s Fishing and Maritime industry collections. Ronnberg’s deep maritime knowledge was instrumental most recently in preparations for the “Homer at the Beach” exhibition, and his research and writings were integral to the Museum’s creation of an online catalogue raisonne of the works by Fitz Henry Lane (1804–1865), a Gloucester born artist who is today known as America’s preeminent marine artist of the mid-19th century.
“We applaud Erik for this award in recognition of his lifelong passion and deep maritime knowledge,” said Oliver Barker as Director of the Cape Ann Museum. “This is a wonderful accolade for Erik who is one of the most highly regarding model makers in the country” said Barker.
Sawyer Free Library Events 8/19-8/24
Gloucester Schooner Fest is Around the Corner! Volunteers Needed!
Well known to the world as Gloucester’s major maritime and sailing event, the 35th annual Gloucester Schooner Festival is organized by the Gloucester Schooner Festival Committee and Maritime Gloucester, held August 30th-September 2nd, 2019.
Taking place in the harbor and nearby waters of America’s oldest seaport, the Gloucester Schooner Festival honors the major role the fishing schooner has played in the heritage of Gloucester and the eastern seaboard.
A spectacular highlight of the Gloucester Schooner Festival is the Parade of Sail on Sunday morning, as the participating schooners make their way through the harbor and out past the breakwater, to the Mayor’s Race starting area off Eastern Point.
Volunteers are still needed for this year’s festival! If you would like to be part of Maritime History with us, email Kelly at kopris@maritimegloucester.org
Sponsors for this year’s festival include Gloucester 400, Sawyer Free Library, Discover Gloucester, City of Gloucester, First Ipswich Bank, Cape Ann Savings Bank, and Building Center. To learn more about the festival and it’s sponsors, visit @GloucesterSchoonerFestival on Facebook, or https://gloucesterschoonerfestival.net/ .
O’Maley Free Performance Friday
Please Join Us For Our
End of Summer Celebration of Learning
When: Friday August 16th, 2019
Where: O’Maley Innovation Middle School Auditorium and Gym
When: 12:00 noon – 2:00 PM
*Performing Arts Musical Review to start right at 12:00*
Light Food and Beverages will be served
This is a FREE Event
Help us celebrate the end of our summer programming!
…and sign up for O’Maley Academy Fall Programs!
Special thanks to the Open Door Food Pantry, Children’s Family and Friend, The WellSpring House, And The Massachusetts Migrant Education Program for their support of this event
A Few Spots are Still Left in Gloucester Biotechnology Academy’s Class of 2020 – Apply Now!
Classes begin in early September, but there is still time to apply! For more information and to apply, go to:
http://www.gmgi.org/program-features/
The Great Rowing Adventure
Join us for the Great Rowing Adventure- the first collaborative rowing program with Lowell’s Boat Shop and the Essex Shipbuilding Museum! The program starts on Thursday, September 12, with a tour of Lowell’s Boat Shop. Then to Plum Island to board the rowing vessels, a Surf Dory built at Lowell’s and two Sharptown row boats built at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum. From the Joppa Flats, we will wend our way through the marsh and creeks ending the first day at Steep Hill Beach on the Crane Estate; a delicious meal will be provided in the Pine Grove, where we will camp for the night.
Next morning, we will get back into the boats to begin the magical journey through Fox Creek into Essex Bay stopping for lunch along the way. By afternoon we will be closing in on the end of our journey as we make our way up the Essex River to the Essex Shipbuilding Museum to learn about the 350 year tradition of shipbuilding in Essex. The finale of the trip is a dinner at a local Essex restaurant.
For more information visit: https://www.essexshipbuilding.org/museum-store/great-rowing-adventure
Sawyer Free Library Events 8/12-8/17
Saturday Night’s Block Party Schedule
This Saturday night, August 10, the Gloucester Block Party has another full schedule of entertainment! Join us on Main Street in Gloucester from 6-10 PM for the second Gloucester Block Party of the summer.
This Saturday we have a new addition… A BEER GARDEN sponsored by BankGloucester featuring live music by Toni-Ann Enes and the John Jerome Band!! On your stroll down Main Street you’ll also find two more stages with live music, exciting street performances, local food, Main Street merchants, vendor booths and more.
Visit Gloucester Block Party on Facebook for more info. We’ll see you on Main Street on Saturday night!
Cape Ann Community 