public art

Celebrating Wellspring’s 40 Years of Supporting Families with “Voices of Belonging, Immigration Stories in Light & Sound” public art event

~ madelinegamlen

Artist Stephanie Benenson’s Harbor Voices Public Art creates immersive family-friendly sound and light experience: May 6 & 7

For 40 years, Wellspring has supported hundreds of families from all ethnic backgrounds and walks of life achieve employment and financial security through stable housing, education, job training and career readiness. To mark its four-decade anniversary, the Cape Ann-based nonprofit organization is hosting “Voices of Belonging: Immigration Stories in Light & Sound” to bring the stories and sentiments of immigrant families alive with music, spoken word, and laser lighting for a captivating, participatory immersive experience.

Inspired by collective storytelling and powerful personal histories, Stephanie Terelak Benenson, a sound, light, and social impact artist, founded Harbor Voices Public Art  Art in 2017. Her laser and sound installations feature more than 100 global stories of recent and ancestral immigrants to Cape Ann, ages 6 to 86, as choreographed lasers immerse you in a multilingual sound & light public art experience. 

The works celebrate empathy, cultural identity, diversity, inclusivity, and resilience from the past to the present. The stories and experience then become a vehicle for social change. Her installations have been shared in Lynn, Worcester, Boston, Gloucester, Salem, and New York City.

The “Voices of Belonging” Friday Night Opening Party will be May 6 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $100 and can be purchased online. On Saturday, May 7, “Voices of Belonging” will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to the community at no charge for the family-friendly, all-are-welcome event. Free, timed tickets are strongly encouraged but walkups will be accommodated.

Floral Arrangements Paired with Artwork, on Display at Cape Ann Museum

~ madelinegamlen

Cape Ann Blossoms brings together 20 floral designers to create arrangements that are paired with artworks, on view Sat. May 14 & Sun. May 15, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

To celebrate the beginning of spring, 20 North Shore and Cape Ann floral designers will create eye-catching, beautiful arrangements that will be paired with art works around Cape Ann Museum as part of the popular Cape Ann Blossoms event on Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Cape Ann Blossoms will open with a ticketed Gala preview party on Friday, May 13 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The party will include hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, and a chance to have the first view of the inspired floral compositions located throughout the Museum. Tickets are available online at capeannblossomspreviewparty.eventbrite.com. Free guided tours will be offered on Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with Museum admission. Space is limited and is first-come, first-served.

The show also dovetails with Judi Rotenberg’s exhibition at the Museum, featuring large-scale paintings, many of them colorful, grand floral designs. Among the artists in the Museum collection who will be paired with local floral designers are: Walker Hancock, Virginia Lee Burton, Umberto Romano, John Sloan, Frank Stella, Fitz Henry Lane, and others.

Among the designers and garden clubs participating will be: All Purpose Flowers, Audrey’s Flower Shop, Backyard Growers, Cape Ann Garden Club, Celia’s Flower Studio, Danvers Garden Club, Generous Gardeners, Glass Onion Floral Design, Ipswich Garden Club, Maia Mattson, Manchester Garden Club, Melon Rose, Meredith McCarthy Floral Design and Event Styling, Rockport Garden Club, Sage Floral Studio, Two Finches, and Vidalia’s, Leslie Pope & Mary Ethel Stuck, and Rumphius Flowers.

Tickets for the Cape Ann Museum can be purchased here: https://www.capeannmuseum.org/visit/hours-and-admission/

Vibrant contemporary work by Judi Rotenberg, well-known Cape Ann painter and gallery owner

~ madelinegamlen

Large-scape paintings on view: April 30 to July 3, 2022

In time for spring, the Cape Ann Museum will proudly host an exhibit of the vibrant, large scale works of Judi Rotenberg. Life-long Rockport summer resident and highly-respected gallery owner, Rotenberg has spent 40 years creating vivid, colorful floral still life paintings that capture the fragility and strength of life. Her works will be on view from April 30 to July 3 at the Museum at 27 Pleasant St., in Gloucester.

Working primarily in acrylic, Rotenberg’s recent paintings are unabashedly beautiful, alive with color and motion.  Each composition is vibrant and fresh and represents a new challenge for her. Her canvases are rich in detail, from the foreground and the table on which a vase and bouquet sit, through the center of the canvas with its explosion of blossoms, to the top of the composition where she often includes the view across her studio or out over Rockport Harbor.     

The tradition of women artists working on Cape Ann is a strong one and through her work Rotenberg has earned a place among the most accomplished of them.  Although long overshadowed by their male counterparts, women have consistently made important contributions in the field and continue to today. Many women painters have focused on still lifes, perhaps most notably Nell Blaine, but none have endowed their work with the color and power that Rotenberg has.

In connection with this special exhibition, the Cape Ann Museum is pleased to be presenting an encore of its 2019 program, Cape Ann Blossoms, May 14 and 15. Gallery talks are also planned and information on them can be found at www.capeannmuseum.org.

Tickets for the Cape Ann Museum can be purchased here: https://www.capeannmuseum.org/visit/hours-and-admission/

Sculpting Self: Student Sculptures Paired with Works by Walker Hancock

~ madelinegamlen

A unique Cape Ann Museum exhibit: Youths learned about renowned sculptor and created own renditions, on view April 16 to June 12, 2022

Sculpting Self is an inventive program that had eighth graders learning about the renowned work of Cape Ann sculptor Walker Hancock (1901-1998) while creating their own sculptures for an exhibit that will pair the student and master works together. They will be on view at the Museum, 27 Pleasant St., in Gloucester from April 16 to June 12, 2022.

The program was inspired by Hancock’s Basketball Series. Over 15 years from 1961 to 1977, the sculptor made sculptures inspired by watching the Gloucester High School varsity basketball team practice.

During the 2021-2022 school year, Cape Ann Museum Education Manager Miranda Aisling visited three area schools with classes of eighth graders twice to talk about Hancock’s work and to teach the students how to create their own wire armature and then cover it in clay. Each student was asked to portray themselves doing their favorite activity from reading to dancing to listening to music to playing video games. The sculptures capture the interest of eighth graders from Manchester-Essex Middle School, Rockport Middle School, and Gloucester’s O’Maley Middle School.

Beginning in 2020-2021, the Museum sought to bring together community members across Cape Ann for its annual Community Art Exhibition. The unique initiative provides an opportunity to celebrate student artwork alongside the Museum’s collection, creating a juxtaposition of emerging and established artists’ works. Last year, the exhibition was Quilted Together, featuring more than 637 self-portraits drawn by area residents of all ages during the pandemic.

In connection with Sculpting Self, the Cape Ann Museum will be free for families during April Vacation Week and will give a Free Family Tour on the Sculptors of Cape Ann on Saturday, May 28. The exhibition opening will take place on Saturday, April 23 from 3:00 – 5:00 pm. Meg Black, PhD will be presenting CAMTalks: Behind Walker Hancock’s sculptures, The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane on Saturday, May 21.

Tickets for the Cape Ann Museum exhibits can be purchased here: https://www.capeannmuseum.org/visit/hours-and-admission/

Collaborative Public Art Projects to Reinvigorate Gloucester in 2021 Thanks to Funding from Essex County Community Foundation

~ backyardgrowersgloucester

Projects include Agri-Culture, led by Gloucester-based food access and urban agriculture nonprofit Backyard Growers

Gloucester, Mass., February 18, 2021 – After a long winter in isolation, the Gloucester community will come to life through new public art projects that seek to promote hope, connection, and diversity. Agri-Culture, headed by nonprofit organization Backyard Growers in collaboration with Gloucester Housing Authority and Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, is just one of six new collaborative public art and creative placemaking projects being funded by Essex County Community Foundation’s Creative County Initiative (CCI). Launched in 2018 through a partnership with the Barr Foundation, CCI is designed to elevate arts, culture and the creative economy in Essex County. 

Agri-Culture is a project that will use storytelling, multimedia arts, and a participatory design process to create dynamic spaces in and around the community garden managed by Backyard Growers at Willowood Park, a Gloucester Housing Authority development on Maplewood Avenue in Gloucester.

“We are thrilled to forge this expanded partnership with Gloucester Housing Authority and the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce aimed at connecting and celebrating the voices of diverse communities in Gloucester through public art,” said Lara Lepionka, Executive Director of Backyard Growers. “We are also pleased to be in such good company with LuminArtz, which is leading the other Gloucester-based project funded through CCI in this selective round.”

 “The idea of creating a space where anyone and everyone can access art and culture is paramount to our vision for Essex County,” said CCI Program Director Karen Ristuben. “We were really inspired by these new collaborations, which have not only designed innovative, creative plans to bring people together through art and culture but have also managed to persevere through COVID-19,” added Ristuben. 

“During these difficult times, it is vital that our residents have a sense of hope and transformation, and that our community increase its sense of inclusivity,” said Gloucester Housing Authority Executive Director David Houlden. “Our public art project, Agri-Culture, based in and around the Willowood Community Garden, will bring new energy to the Willowood community using the arts to celebrate diverse cultures and improve healthy food access.”

A second Gloucester project was also funded by CCI called Centuries in the Making, led by LuminArtz. It is a project which brings the iconic fishermen’s and fishermen’s wives’ memorial statues in Gloucester to life through art technology and sound effects. These two new Gloucester-based projects will join an already impressive list of CCI-funded public art projects that have successfully mobilized collaborations of nonprofits, artists, municipalities and local businesses to transform their communities through art. For more information about ECCF’s work in arts and culture, please visit eccf.org/arts-and-culture.

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About Backyard Growers

Backyard Growers is a grassroots organization that connects people and communities through access to healthy food. Founded in 2010, its community programs and award-winning school programs have connected thousands of people to the resources to grow their own food. Learn more about Backyard Growers and its work in schools, public parks, and housing developments at www.backyardgrowers.org.

About ECCF

The mission of Essex County Community Foundation is to inspire philanthropy that strengthens the communities of Essex County. We do this by managing charitable assets, strengthening and supporting nonprofits and engaging in strategic community leadership. Since 1998, ECCF and its family of 250 charitable funds have granted $85 million to nonprofits, schools and students in Essex County and beyond. Our ultimate goal is to have 34 thriving cities and towns in Essex County and to improve the quality of life for the region’s nearly 800,000 residents. Learn more at eccf.org.