Day: September 7, 2014

Hey Joey,
Could you post that a young blue parakeet was found and rescued from two cats on Lincoln ave in downtown Gloucester tonight.
Owner can contact me at songbirder@hotmail.com.
Thanks!
Caroline Haines

seARTS Announces Partner With an Artist Grant Recipients

in Gloucester Harbortown, Rocky Neck and Essex River Cultural Districts

Public invited to join artists and partners for event spotlighting PWA program and exhibitions in all four Cape Ann cultural districts

Gloucester, MA, September 4, 2014: seARTS announced the recipients of its 2014 Partner With an Artist (PWA) grants, which will be used to fund three diverse projects that reflect the breadth of the Cape Ann arts community:
–    an “audio soundscape” that captures the sounds of the historic Essex shipyard;
–    a mural in downtown Gloucester honoring writer Vincent Ferrini; and
–    a silkscreen print of the Rocky Neck Cultural Center building.

Launched in 2008, the seARTS PWA program has provided grants to dozens of artists who have created art in partnership with local businesses.  PWA, seARTS’ signature community arts program, provides grants to artists to create new work — in any medium: visual, performing, multimedia art — in partnership with local businesses.  These installations are generally site-specific and designed to draw the public’s attention to art in everyday places. The PWA program is focused on celebrating the arts, strengthening partnerships with the business community, and promoting a vibrant and culturally rich economy on Cape Ann.
 
These most recent grants –$1,500 for each project — are part of a seARTS PWA effort focused on Cape Ann’s four cultural districts — Essex River, Harbortown, Rocky Neck and Rockport.  A grant was awarded to glass sculptor John Bassett in the Rockport Cultural District in 2012, and the grants announced today will fund artist/business partnerships in the three other districts:
–    in the Essex River Cultural District, Jay Havighurst is partnering with Essex Shipbuilding Museum to create the “audio soundscape” of the Essex shipyard;
–    in Harbortown Gloucester Cultural District, Tricia O’Neill is partnering with the Gloucester Writers Center to create a mural honoring famed writer Vincent Ferrini;
–    in the Rocky Neck Cultural District, Jane Keddy is creating a silkscreen print of the Rocky Neck Cultural Center building, which is the center of that historic artist colony.

The grant recipients were selected by the curators for this current PWA program – Leonie Bradbury and Maggie Cavallo of the Montserrat College of Art in Beverly – who reviewed proposals from all three cultural districts.  Bradbury is director and curator of the Montserrat College of Art Galleries, and Cavallo is curator of education.

Each of these works will be presented in the coming months.  seARTS is holding a special Arts & Cultural Exchange Member Night at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum on Wednesday, September 17, to spotlight the PWA program, the Cape Ann Cultural Districts and the three artists/business partnership grant recipients.  The event will take place from 6pm-8pm at the Water Line Center at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum, 66 Main Street in Essex.

PWA: A History of Creative Collaboration
seARTS Partner With an Artist program is made possible by financial support from
the Bruce J. Anderson and Selma and Andrew Bayness Funds of The Boston Foundation.

Over the past nine years, PWA has brought together artists and business to collaborate on a variety of artwork outside of traditional art spaces, providing high-profile exhibition and career-building opportunities for contemporary artists and creating exposure and economic opportunities for both artists and businesses. 

The Cultural Districts connected to the current PWA effort were designated by the state’s Cultural Council (MCC) — Gloucester’s Rocky  Neck  and  Rockport  Cultural Districts in March 2012, and Gloucester Harbortown and Essex River in 2013. 

About seARTS
seARTS is a coalition focused on cultivating Cape Ann’s position as a world-class center for working artists.  Established in 2000, seARTS is working to help to transform the region’s economy by bridging its maritime heritage and a future powered by the arts. For more information on seARTS, visit www.searts.org .

HOLY FAMILY HARVEST FEST

Come celebrate Autumn at Holy Family on Saturday, October 4, 2014 Sunday, October 5, 2014.  The Fest will begin on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. with homemade Cider Donuts, Pumpkin Muffins and coffee.  If these Fall treats don’t appeal to you, we will have a bakery table with pumpkin, apple and pecan pie and seasonal breads.  And if that still isn’t enough, we will be featuring our famous Italian cookies and Carmel Apples! Brazilian and Lebanese pastries and Portuguese Sweet Bread along with homemade candy and a variety of jams will top off these delectable confections!  Everyone needs a pumpkin on their front step!  A selection of decorated and plain pumpkins will be for sale along with bittersweet, dried hydrangea and wood vines garden art will be available for your Autumn decorations.  Cape Ann is known for the colors of the marshes during the fall season and what better way to start the season than at Holy Family Parish.  See you there!

National Book Award-winning author at Toad Hall Sep. 10

Dear Joey,

One of our most celebrated authors, Julia Glass, makes an appearance at Toad Hall Bookstore in Rockport this Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 7 pm. It’s open to the public and free of charge.

Glass, whose novel “Three Junes” won the National Book Award for fiction in 2002, has recently released her fifth novel, “And the Dark Sacred Night.” She will read from this newest novel, answer questions and sign copies of her books.

“And the Dark Sacred Night,” tells many stories at once. Kit, a husband and father of 10-year-old twins, decides to set aside other priorities and responsibilities to seek the father he never knew. Kit is in his early 40s and the low-level distress he’s experiencing prompts his wife to insist on this road trip. Like a missing puzzle piece, Kit takes his place amid the extended, blended family he discovers and then opens himself up to. Other people, other stories, fall into place. Any many lives change. Glass understands extended family and elegantly notes its value in supporting people like Kit as he tries to find his way as a father and a husband.

Glass builds complex and interesting characters as she slowly spins out her mesmerizing story. Her ability to bind the reader to the page with underlying, low-level tension is one of her defining attributes as a writer of fiction. In “And the Dark Sacred Night,” she manages a deft juggling act, with people and their stories, present and past, all in play at the same time.

Glass was born in Boston. She worked as an editor and freelance journalist in New York City, and now lives in Massachusetts. She studied art at Yale, painted for a while and took up writing in her forties.

For more information, please contact Toad Hall at 978-546-7323.