Day: June 22, 2016

The Gloucester Arts and Cultural Initiative (ACI) is excited to announce the receipt of a $5,000 lead gift to its Campaign for the Arts.  An anonymous donor will match the next $5,000 in contributions to ACI dollar for dollar.  ACI seeks donors to help meet this donor’s challenge and double the power of their gift by giving today.  All gifts will help meet the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) Adams Grant minimum fundraising requirement of $16,800 by June 30, 2016.

ACI  invites people who live and work in Gloucester to take the lead in building Gloucester’s communities through arts and culture by supporting the Campaign for the Arts.  To make a tax deductible donation, please press the donate button on our Facebook Page, @GloucesterArtsAndCulture,  or send a check made payable to our Fiscal Agent “Rocky Neck Art Colony/ACI” to Gloucester Arts and Culture Initiative, 6 Wonson St, Gloucester, MA 01930.

The Gloucester Arts and Cultural Initiative was founded in 2015 by Rocky Neck Art Colony, seARTS and ArtsGloucester to address ongoing needs in arts and culture identified in Gloucester’s 2001 Community Development Plan.  Today, backed by more than fifty collaborators and a $45,500 two-year Adams Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC), the Gloucester Arts and Cultural Initiative is a unique opportunity to leverage these resources and the mandate to reach the goal set in the 2001 Plan.  The mission of ACI is to support the City’s arts and cultural heritage sector and to strengthen and promote the cultural vitality of the City’s waterfront and neighborhoods.

Background

The Gloucester Arts and Culture Initiative (ACI), an exciting opportunity to build community through arts and culture. Dedicated to sustaining Gloucester’s rich heritage of cultural traditions and artistic accomplishments, ACI aims to broaden awareness, participation, and enjoyment of arts and culture for everyone who lives or works in Gloucester. Together, we will rejuvenate of our sense of place and foster diverse creative expression within our city. The need for such an Initiative has been recognized for over 15 years, and today Gloucester is well positioned to act on that need.

In 2001, Gloucester’s Community Development Plan set a goal “to support Gloucester’s arts and cultural community as a cultural and economic resource by integrating the arts and culture into the life of the community, downtown, and in villages and neighborhoods.” It went on to identify areas for action and specific goals, and it recommended that a municipal arts organization take the lead in moving Gloucester towards them. Three new arts groups responded, and they have achieved crucial results, but fifteen years later, no group has been established with the authority and resources needed to fulfill the highest and most far-reaching goal of broad integration of Gloucester’s communities, artists, businesses, organizations, and government through support of arts and culture. Our research confirms that this goal remains as important as ever to our community.

Today, backed by more than fifty collaborators and a $45,500 two-year Adams Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC), the Gloucester Arts and Culture Initiative has a unique opportunity to fulfill the mandate of the 2001 Community Development Plan.

ACI will celebrate Gloucester’s strong cultural heritage and use it as a bridge to a future that recognizes the creative expression all around us and the value it brings to our lives, our community, and our world. As Gloucester’s umbrella arts and culture organization, ACI will work with the broader community in three principal roles:

1. Catalyst

ACI will serve as a catalyst for projects and collaborations that address unmet needs and pursue opportunities for creative expression.

In this role, ACI hosted four Ward Forums in April 2016 in which over 70 participants identified development of studio and performance space as a top area of need. Participants also expressed hopes for expanding the range of Gloucester citizens who experience, appreciate, understand, make, perform, and participate in arts and culture. ACI will host future forums to explore ways for groups to work together to address identified needs efficiently, uncovering synergies and overlapping goals to strengthen groups and address gaps in support for the full range of our community.

2. Manager

ACI will manage arts and culture initiatives to address identified needs.

In this role, ACI will partner with local businesses, arts groups, and elected officials to identify underutilized spaces and create zoning overlays to provide needed visual and performance studio spaces, with an aim to cluster artists together to promote creative collaborations, innovations, and economies of scale.

3. Clearinghouse

ACI will act as a clearinghouse for information about resources of interest to local organizations and artists.

In this role, ACI will gather and disseminate information about grants, business courses for artists, marketing partners, municipal contacts, and more. By serving as the Gloucester’s central point of contact for artists, cultural organizations, event organizers, and creative businesses, ACI will foster connections, collaborations, synergy, and innovative ideas that enrich our lives and community.

To complete the establishment of a successful program, the Gloucester Arts and Culture Initiative needs to do two things: build awareness of the Initiative, and raise $16,800 in matching funds required by the MCC Adams Grant. Our Campaign for the Arts aims both to open the door to continued significant support for Gloucester from the state of Massachusetts and to begin to assume an umbrella role by building broad public awareness and support. We are currently seeking generous lead donors to help fuel a campaign to educate the community and gain support for the Initiative.

Campaign for the Arts

1 x $15,000 one donor — accomplished as MATCH (anonymous donor)

2 x $12,500 two donors

5 x $11,000 five donors

5 x $11,800 multiple donors

Total 5 x $16,800 matching funds required by MCC grant

ACI invites friends of Gloucester to take the lead in building Gloucester’s communities through arts and culture by supporting the Campaign for the Arts. Should you care to make a tax deductible donation, please press the donate button on our Facebook Page, @GloucesterArtsAndCulture, or send a check made payable to our fiscal agent “Rocky Neck Art Colony/ACI” to Gloucester Arts and Culture Initiative, 6 Wonson St, Gloucester MA 01930. Thank you for supporting and being part of Gloucester!

Project Manager

Martha Wood

Program Partners

Rocky Neck Art Colony

seARTS

ArtsGloucester

Steering Committee

Henry Allen

Jo-Ann Castano

James Caviston

Jo-Anne Crawford

Tom Daniel

Robert Haverkamp

Judith Hoglander

Suzanne Gilbert Lee

Brenda Malloy

Valerie Nelson

Martin Ray

Matthew Swift

CONTACTS:

Martha Wood

Project Manager

Gloucester Arts and Culture Initiative

Martha@GloucesterArtsAndCulture.org

(978) 857-6731

Matthew Swift

Steering Committee

Gloucester Arts and Culture Initiative

Matthew@Trident.Gallery

(978) 491-7785

Rockport’s newest Contemporary Art gallery is welcoming the Summer season with an exhibit of creatively reimagined Contemporary seascapes.  The exhibit will feature work by Nationally recognized local and regional artists including physicist-turned-artist Dr. Regina Valluzzi, former Czech spymaster Lawrence Martin-Bittman, and Rockport and Gloucester native Kathleen Miller.

Waves of Inspiration

What: Contemporary Seascapes at G19 Gallery, featuring the work of gallery artist Dr. Regina Valluzzi and local artists Kathleen Miller and Lawrence Bittman

Where: G19 gallery, 19 Broadway, Rockport, MA 01966

When: June 7 – July 1;   Gala Reception:  Saturday, June 25, 4pm – 7 pm

Contact:  Cynthia Belchou (978) 290-1411   artfulartisans@gmail.com
Gallerist Cynthia Belchou, owner and Art Director of G19 Gallery in Rockport, MA has curated an exciting exhibit of seascapes by artists with a connection to Cape Ann.  The seascape subjects in the exhibit acknowledge Rockport’s long history and storied tradition of creative art and artists.  The artists’ creative use of color, form and media infuse the exhibit with a fresh, exciting and thoroughly modern contemporary flair.

The sea and shore have always inspired artists.  In Contemporary Art, seascapes lend themselves to abstraction and to modern styles.  The simplicity of seascape compositions both invite and require an artist’s creativity to bring motion, interest, a story, or a meditation into each scene.  The artists in “Waves of Inspiration” approach the Sea in unique and personal ways.  Each artist brings a different and fascinating insight into the subject of “Sea”.

Featured artist Dr. Regina Valluzzi is an Arlington, MA resident with strong ties to Rockport’s artistic community.    Her frequent visits to Rockport, MA allow her to appreciate the area’s unique seacoast, skies, natural habitats and beauty with fresh eyes on each excursion.  Valluzzi was trained and worked as a research scientist for over a decade before switching to art 5 years ago.  Her history as a Materials Science innovator informs her approach to painting.  Valluzzi uses the unique properties of acrylic paint and media to create dazzling scenes.  Transparent patterned layers of acrylic modulate sparkling metal and dimensional patterns of glimmering mica, while tiny glass spheres focus and reflect light.  Valluzzi sees seascapes as a unique challenge for painting.  How can a painter capture something that is always in motion?  How can paint capture a scene whose essence is dancing patterns of light?  By using the transparent properties of acrylic with light manipulating media, her work brings the light and movement of the sea into her mixed media paintings.

Featured artist Kathleen Miller is local to Cape Ann.  She grew up in Gloucester and currently lives and works in Rockport, MA.   Her sensitive approach to her medium and her subjects has created a strong regional following for her work.  In her abstracted seascapes light and color are fractured and abstracted into juicy chunks of clear color.  Her style could be described as a modernized re-imagined pointillism.  Many of her paintings use sand and other natural local materials to create subtle variations in texture and granularity.  The play of patterns created through her confident brushwork and finely detailed textures lead the viewer to imagine scintillating patterns of water, sand and sky.   Kathleen Miller’s seascapes often feature people enjoying the scene.  The human element blends perfectly with her nuanced and textured use of oil painting media.

Another featured artist on exhibit is Lawrence Martin-Bittman.  An ex-spy from the former Czechoslovakia, he fled to the West and defected to the USA during the Cold War.  After a successful career as a Journalism professor at Boston university, Larry Bittman (Larry the Spy) relocated to Gloucester, where he maintains a studio space and a small gallery.  Larry is an avid fisherman with a special relationship to the sea.  His works are a clever and sophisticated mix of influences.  One can see the threads of both the Folk art and Fine art of his Czech heritage running through complex pieces that draw from his deep knowledge of Art.  His pieces are often clever and humorous and are infused with allusions to a secret narrative.  looking at his work, one can glimpse entire mythologies he has created, capturing his special relationship with the Sea.

Cape Ann is known for beautiful scenic coasts and charming towns full of character.  The beauty of the area and independent Yankee spirit has nurtured generations of artists and spawned a number of notable Art Colonies and Schools of Artistic expression.  Rockport, MA has been home to The Rockport School of painting, and to generations of creatives working and exhibiting in the Rockport Art Colony.  Contemporary Art is flourishing in Rockport, continuing a storied tradition with renewed vibrancy.

G19 Gallery:         https://www.facebook.com/G19-Artisans-346696715526515/
Regina Valluzzi:   http://DreamingLines.com
Kathleen Miller:   https://www.facebook.com/kmillergallery/
Lawrence Bittman:     http://www.studio006andahalf.com/

Local College student  Samatha Ryder officially opens her new  business “ScooterTown”  located at 21 Main Street adjacent to Tonno’s Resturant!  If you are planning a trip to Gloucester this summer and want to tour our beautiful island on your own definitely add this to your to do list! When you stop by to rent a scooter be sure to tell Samatha Sista Felicia sent you!

Second Annual FEEL BEAUTIFUL event is looking for some Photographers, Make-up Artists and Hair stylists to volunteer a few short hours for their event this Sunday, June 26^th from 11-2pm.  This event is held for women of all shapes and sizes to have their hair, makeup and photos done professionally to celebrate beauty equality.   The event is free and open to anyone who identifies as female and is 12 years of age or older.   Emily MacDougall is 20 years old from Gloucester and the Director of the FEEL BEAUTIFUL event and founder of Project Positive Role Models which is an online support system of women encouraging beauty equality, and promotes female empowerment and self confidence.    The FEEL BEAUTIFUL event is free to participants so the event couldn’t happen without the many VOLUNTEERS.    Contact Emily at 978-810-8447.

Looking good.  As if the beautiful scenery isn’t lovely enough.

Time for our Madonna to get a make over. This Concrete Maddona Statue is over 25 years old. She has been standing guard in our yards for a long time. It has withstood many storms through those years.
She’s been rained on, pelted with hail and covered with snow. This will be her 3rd time being repainted.
She also was blown over and had her head knocked off when she hit the rock she was standing in front of. She’s not protected by a bathtub like her Sisters.
This is part one of three steps to restore her.
First step is to remove all loose paint and sand. I won’t be using any chemicals on her, just a sanding.
I’m thinking of moving away from the typical colors that her sisters and her are painted. Stay tuned for part 2.