Kristine Fisher and Jackie Ganim DeFalco stop by to talk all about seARTS and all of the exciting programs happening including the get the vote out effort to inform people about the American Style Magazine voting for Gloucester.
Kristine writes-
As a community we have a unique opportunity to select Gloucester as a Top 25 Arts Destination in the US……and we need your votes to make it happen!
Please join seARTS’ ( The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts) grass roots campaign to help elevate Gloucester’s visibility as a top U.S. arts destination. Deadline for voting is March 5th ! Please vote multiple times! Link below!
One of our interests is to help drive up the cultural/creative economy for all of Cape Ann. We have succeeded in getting Gloucester nominated as a Top 25 Art Destination in AmericanStyle’s survey. AmericanStyle is a highly respected national publication focusing on art and travel, and is an excellent resource for artists and art enthusiasts. It publishes the top art events across the country, highlighting select destinations and profiling individual artists.
The readership of AmericanStyle represents the cultural/creative economy that our community is hoping to attract and grow. Securing Gloucester on their list as one of America’s Top 25 Arts Destinations will elevate Cape Ann on the national stage. We have over 2,000 working artists on Cape Ann and a thriving community that celebrates the arts of all disciplines. After all, our Rocky Neck is the country’s oldest continuous working art colony in the U.S.!
Because AmericanStyle’s survey is “city based,” we chose Gloucester, as it has the largest population. seARTS has been sending weekly e-blasts to our membership requesting folks to vote by March 5, 2011. It is only through votes that Gloucester will secure a place on the list as a Top 25 Destination in AmericanStyle’s spring/summer issue to come out in May 2011. We are hopeful that you will be comfortable voting “early and often” between now and March 5th. Here is a link to the voting form. http://www.americanstyle.com/current-issue/
Please scroll down to the “Small Cities” list and cast your vote for Gloucester!
Good Morning Gloucester 
I voted again, and he is what I gave as my reason why Gloucester should win:
Gloucester is home to the Rocky Neck Art Colony, the oldest art colony in the country. Folly Cove was the home of the Folly Cove Designers, influential to this day in print design and technique. Gloucester’s scenic beauty, active fishing industry, and renowned arts community have attracted and inspired painters since the early 19th century, as they do today. The first Gloucester painter of note was native-born Fitz Henry Lane, whose home still exists on the waterfront. The premier collection of his works is in the Cape Ann Historical Museum, which holds 40 of his paintings and 100 of his drawings. Other painters subsequently attracted to Gloucester include William Morris Hunt, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, John Twachtman, Frederick Mulhaupt, Frank Duveneck, Cecilia Beaux, Jane Peterson, Gordon Grant, Harry DeMaine, Emile Gruppe, Stuart Davis, Joseph Solman, Mark Rothko, Milton Avery, Barnett Newman, William Meyerowitz, Joan Lockhart, Theresa Bernstein, and Marsden Hartley and artists from the Ashcan School such as Edward Hopper, John Sloan, Robert Henri, William Glackens, and Maurice Prendergast.
Several important sculptors have lived and worked in East Gloucester, Annisquam, Lanesville and Folly Cove. They include George Aarons, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Charles Grafly, Paul Manship and his daughter-in-law Margaret Cassidy Manship, Walker Hancock, and George Demetrios. In addition, Aristides Demetrios grew up in Folly Cove.
Gloucester has it all when it comes to the arts, and has for a very long time. It should be recognized for what it already is, one of the top art destinations in the country.
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And not just the visual arts!!! Gloucester is also the home of Gloucester Stage Company founded by world-renowned playwright Israel Horovitz, as well as some distinguished musical venues including Cape Ann Symphony, Coro Stella Mara, Chorus North Shore, etc. And then there is the legacy of poetry by Charles Olson and Vincent Ferrini and filmmakers like Shep Abbott and Henri Ferrini… the list is endless.
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Another great painter who should have a mention is Nell Blaine. She lived in East Gloucester and painted colorful, impressionistic images of the harbor from the vantage point of her studio in her home. I’m reading her biography now,” Nell Blaine, her Art and Life”. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in painting. The color plates are stunning. Does anyone know where she lived exactly? I’d love to walk by and see the spot from which she painted. There are quite a few images in the book titled, ” Inner Harbor from Banner Hill”, but I don’t know where that is.
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The link to vote is now on the seARTS web site at http://www.searts.org!
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Did you put the video up there as well?
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Yes I did.
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Here is another page online to direct people to. It’s American Style online magazine where POP Gallery in Gloucester is featured. Would be good to get people to post comments on the article. More exposure for everyone, especially for the POP Gallery artists.
http://www.americanstyle.com/2010/11/style-spotlight-news-from-the-gallery-front/
The page also has a link to vote Gloucester for a Top 25 Arts Destination in the US. Thanks to Kristine for all the leg work and letters/emails and calls she has sent out to promote this and the board and staff for their support. Keep going !
If we can interest editors and writers in major art publication to do reviews on individuals or groups of artists and exhibitions here, that is of greater value and target market for the artists. Many times an inn or hotel may sponsor the writer’s/critic’s overnight stay in return generates a mention in the article or just for the good “word of mouth” extended value. Eateries are also ones who like to sponsor a dining experience for our guests to Gloucester and Cape Ann and lends itself well to experiencing the true working character of our community that we cherish here.
Geo Tourism seems an option people are interested in as well. Discussions on how to create sustainable opportunities for artist to continue their work by ideas such as supporting cultural facilities funding for live/work space and their venues, by defining the very diverse target industries and their market will help to tell the story of their work. It’s the opportunities for, the stories of, the working artists and their art that creates a cultural destination and need for open dialog.
Sounds like seARTS is off to a good and exciting year. The annual meeting and guest speakers addressing opportunities for cultural economic development regarding the community development projects of the City should be well worth all those interested in attending. Public discussion and the artist’s and cultural community’s input to future vision with mutual goals and needs being addressed is the foundation seARTS was built on. I was thrilled to see Susan Silberberg-Robinson name announced as the keynote speaker. Now we’re talking business! Good luck seARTS 2011!
How about a “1% for the Arts” in Gloucester?
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