Community Stuff June 8th, 2012

Safe Summer Fun Kit program

Photo L – R ~ Rick Doucette, Executive Director of Teen and Camping Services, North Shore YMCA, Scott Hitchcock, Executive Director, Cape Ann YMCA and Gerald MacKillop, Jr., Public Relations Manager for Northeast Health System.

Gerald MacKillop shown donating "Safe Summer Fun Kit" to Rick Doucette and Scott Hitchcock. This is the fifth year of the program which provides a beach pail/shovel, beach ball, sun screen and information from the American Cancer Society’s Slip Slap Slop program to the youngest age group of YMCA summer campers.  Northeast Health System donated over 500 kits through the North Shore YMCA’s summer camps.  This project was partly funded by Northeast Community Bank.

MARSDEN HARTLEY (1878-1943)

Summer Outward Bound, Gloucester

1931

Oil on board

17 ½” x 23 ½”

Collection of the Cape Ann Museum, gift of Robert L. and

Elizabeth French, 2009

This special exhibition of paintings and drawings of Dogtown Common by American modernist Marsden Hartley includes oil paintings and ink drawings from the Cape Ann Museum’s own holdings as well as from museum collections across the country, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) visited Cape Ann and Dogtown just a handful of times, between 1920 and1936, but carried a vision of the area with him throughout the rest of his life. When he arrived for the first time in 1920, Dogtown looked much as it had for the preceding century. Pasture lands and woodlots which had helped support a Colonial-era settlement were still visible. Quietness hung over the place which stood in sharp contrast to Cape Ann’s bustling harbor front and beach areas. For Marsden Hartley, Dogtown offered the chance for renewal through contact with the land. He wrote that the place looked “like a cross between Easter Island and Stonehenge—essentially druidic in its appearance.”

The Museum is publishing a color catalog with essays by Curator Martha Oaks, James F. O’Gorman and Peter Anastas to accompany the exhibition. Additionally, a generous selection of related programming will be offered, including walking tours into Dogtown, book discussions, children’s programs and more.