Location: The Cultural Center at Rocky Neck, 6 Wonson Street, Gloucester
Exhibition Dates: through October 13, 2025
Artists Panel Discussion: September 28, 4:00 – 5:30 PM
Gallery Hours: Thursday-Sunday, Noon – 5 PM

Eight artists focused on the health of the ocean and our relationship to it make up the multimedia exhibition, Navigating Art & Science, now showing at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck through October 13.

Incoming Ocean, a site-specific video installation by Georgie Friedman, splashes across the interior architecture of the Cultural Center. The waves, filmed at nearby Halibut Point State Park, break over walls and doors, advancing toward one’s feet while also washing across a school of 50 life-sized Ghost Cod, hand-carved by Jessica Straus. Meanwhile a soundscape of whale songs and ocean sounds, Sky Fathoms Water by Perri Lynch Howard, arrives softly, builds momentum, and ebbs quietly. The visitor is fully immersed in sight and sound. 

Beauty is a key ingredient in artist Resa Blatman’s toolbox; her drawings and paintings reflect her reverence for the natural world. Her works are both contrary and compelling. Finally, visitors who have been drawn in by the captivating image announcing this show and the city-wide STAND UP for ART & SCIENCE initiative, can see more of Michelle Samour’s brilliantly colored hand-made paper works on the walls at the Cultural Center. 

The public is invited to join several of the artists at the Cultural Center on September 28, from 4:00-5:30 PM for a lively conversation exploring how connections between artistic expression, scientific understanding, and imaginative thinking can address the challenges of the changing ocean. The panel will be led by Christopher Volpe, artist, writer and educator, whose paintings are literally created with the toxic waste from fossil fuels, tar and oil. Peaks Island, Maine sculptor, Daisy Braun, joins the panel, bringing her perspective on plankton, those sustainers of life that uphold the food chain and produce over half the earth’s oxygen. Michelle Lougee, who makes colorful playful sculptures of sea creatures out of post-consumer plastic a material that both “horrifies and beguiles” her, rounds out the panel. 

Navigating Art & Science exhibition continues through October 13, at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck, 6 Wonson Street, Gloucester. Gallery hours are noon – 5 PM, Thursday through Sunday. To learn more visit: www.rockyneckartcolony.org.

Who: New England Experimental Art Group
What: An evening with Steve Bennett
Where:  ZOOM
When:  September 17, 2025, 7:00pm

New England Experimental Art Group Presents Artist Steve Bennett

Please join us as we listen to respected artist Steve Bennett discuss his artistic journey. This exciting talk is open to all members of New England Experimental Art Group.

When is a small piece of icy window screen the building block for a metropolis? How can strips of quilling paper become building blocks for a cosmic slot canyon? Steve Bennett will show us his approach to creating/reimagining cities and fashioning natural worlds in miniature. He’ll also talk about his new experiments with what he calls “hybrid photography”—using traditional photos as compositional and stylistic prompts for editing with AI. Steve will show us examples of how he uses the “3B’s’’ (bending, breaking, and blending) to create artworks that take us on a visual journey through alternative realities filled with tensions between the actual and the possible and “what is” and “what if.”  

The New England Experimental Group is a creative forum, its main mission is to increase public awareness and to foster self-expression by bringing artists together to explore and share ideas that cultivate creative freedom.   

If you would like to learn more about The New England Experimental Art Group please contact: Nella Lush, Experimental Group, Chair, via email at experimentalartgroup@gmail.com.

Elaine Buckholtz
SPECTACLEPrints, Light, and the Optical Art of Seeing
September 19 – October 12, 2025

Opening Reception: September 19, 4-7pm

Spectacle is a visual experiential exhibition. Elaine Buckholtz, a Light Installation Artist with a 25-year career in Lighting Design, has worked with artists such as Meredith Monk and Merce Cunningham. She brings a long history and depth of understanding to her light-based practice. Buckholtz has shown work in national and international venues and is currently a professor at The Massachusetts College of Art and Design in The Studio for Interrelated Media. ABOUT – Elaine Buckholtz

The COSMOS Gallery exhibition will introduce Buckholtz’s new optical devices designed for viewers to manually manipulate the light in their environment. Through handheld lenses, faceted glass orbs, and shifting light, the viewer is invited to create their own optical adventure – an exploration of mediated sight, wonder, and the luminous space shared between observer and world.

Test Prints
In addition, Spectacle will feature Buckholtz’s Test Prints, created by optical manipulation which converts a visual image into an abstraction of the essential colors. The prints will run from wall size to small, available for collectors. Even more optical innovation will be on display with Elaine’s accordion prints. 

Buckholtz also promises to add some luminescence magic to the interior of the COSMOS Gallery, and perhaps to the exterior as well. 

Elaine Buckholtz
Elaine Buckholtz is a Light Installation Artist operating in the space between installation, architecture, and landscape with interests in public revelation, physical and metaphorical transformation, biotechnology, and the technologically sublime. Her work transforms environments and sites into quiet spectacles, inducing a sense of wonder by activating architectural forms and spaces with moving light, sculptural elements and sound. 
Buckholtz  has shown work nationally and internationally at venues including Electric Works Gallery (San Francisco, CA); Proof Gallery (Boston, MA); Souzy Tros (Athens, Greece);  In the Backyard Stories Festival (Batumi, Georgia); The Lumiere Festival (Durham England); Sonoma Valley Museum (Sonoma, CA); The Swiss Technorama Museum (Winterthur, Switzerland); Yerba Buena Center For The Arts (San Francisco, CA); The Claremont Museum (Claremont, CA); Pierogi Leipzig (Leipzig, Germany); The Wexner Center For The Arts (Columbus, OH); Sun Valley Center For The Arts (Sun Valley, ID); and Fusion Art Space (San Francisco, CA), among others. 

Sam WebbThe collaborative optical devices, conceived and designed by Elaine Buckholtz, are fabricated and engineered by Sam Webb. He is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans from intimate, handheld optical devices to expansive, immersive installations. He holds a BFA in Interrelated Media from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Raised in the Berkshires, Webb draws deeply from the landscape of rural New England, grounding his work in a lifelong dialogue with the natural world. 

COSMOS Gallery, GloucesterCOSMOS Gallery opened February 2025, with frequent exhibitions for mostly regional artists and no constraints on aesthetic genres. The gallery builds on the Cape Ann COSMOS media platform and our mission to enrich the good cultural life! 
COSMOS Gallery
20 Pleasant Street
Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930
www.cosmos-gallery.com

A JOURNEY THROUGH HISTORY, MYSTERY, AND ART AN EVENING WITH LOCAL HISTORIAN RICHARD CARLSON

The Cultural Center at Rocky Neck, 6 Wonson Street, Gloucester, MA  

Date: September 10, 2025

Time: 6:30PM

Admission: Suggested donation: $10 to benefit the Rocky Neck Art Colony

Gloucester, MA – Join us for an unforgettable evening as speaker and historian Richard Carlson brings to life the rich and storied past of Ten Pound Island, one of Rocky Neck’s most iconic and intriguing landmarks. His engaging presentation promises a journey through centuries of history, mystery, and artistic inspiration.

Ten Pound Island has been a central figure in the area’s history since well before Samuel de Champlain chartered the coast in 1606. Rich will explore the island’s many chapters—from its early days as a fish hatchery, to its role as a Coast Guard airfield during Prohibition, to its enduring legacy as home to the beloved Ten Pound Island Light.

This lively talk will also dive into the island’s more enigmatic moments. Expect tales of sea monster sightings, the infamous Great Rat Flood, and the ways in which artists have been captivated by the island’s beauty over the years.

Whether you’re a history buff, maritime folklore lover, or simply curious about Gloucester’s hidden gems, this is an event you won’t want to miss.

Come uncover the captivating history and legends of Ten Pound Island—right in the heart of Gloucester. Free (or Suggested Donation of $10.00) and Open to the Public

 For more information, visit www.rockyneckartcolony.org 

Sunday September 7th @ 7:00pm
Annisquam VIllage Church
820 Washington Street . Gloucester MA

The Lobster Cove String Quartet embarks on its third season with a performance at the Annisquam Village Church, Sunday, September 7 at 7:00pm. The program’s title, In Search of Lost Time, is a nod to the novel of the same name by Marcel Proust, and the ways memory, art, history, and inner life intertwine in the human experience. The quartet is joined by guest clarinetist Bill Kirkley, whose playing the Boston Globe calls “emotional, committed, and intensely exciting.” The Brahms Clarinet Quintet anchors the program, alongside works from living composers Caroline Shaw and Kenji Bunch,as well as miniatures by Schumann and Gershwin.
Scott Moore, LCSQ violinist and Artist-in-Residence at the Village Church, writes: “We are all shaped profoundly by the past: the stories and relics we carry with us, and which we continue to discover as we move ever on into the present moment. We might look back with nostalgia, or else seek to learn from earlier lessons. We study the works of past masters, looking to them for inspiration as we try to make some kind of sense of our own experiences, searching for meaning or connection. We are moved by a work of art, and realize the artist was also a person on their own similar search. Brahms came out of compositional retirement to create the Clarinet Quintet: a piece only a master could write, whose autumnal tone and retrospective feeling are unmistakable. The music is quintessentially Romantic, quintessentially Brahms; yet if we listen carefully, we hear in Brahms the influence of Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, at every turn. This piece was loosely modeled after Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, written a century before. Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte is a sort of riff on the classical minuet and trio; inspired partly by Haydn, it nonetheless sounds completely fresh and new—contemporary in the most attractive, vital, and approachable way. Kenji Bunch has referred to his String Quartet No. 3, subtitled Apocryphal Dances, as a ‘love letter to the 18th and 19th centuries’. Yet while the forms take inspiration from the old, the harmonic and melodic language is playfully postmodern. Meanwhile,Gershwin’s ‘Promenade’ and Schumann’s ‘Abendlied’ (written for his children) are charming vignettes from times gone by—little glimpses into the past, which stir our souls across the years.”
In Search of Lost Time
the Lobster Cove String Quartet with Bill Kirkley, clarinet
Sunday, 7th September at 7pm | $35 suggested
Annisquam Village Church | 820 Washington St . Gloucester, MA 01930

Opening reception:
Saturday September 6, 2025, 4 – 6 pm

Artists’ Talk:
Sunday September 21, 2025, 3 – 4 pm

A drawing is simply a line going for a walk.
Paul Klee

Three Women Draw brings together three artists whose work differs in style, but not in seriousness. Gabrielle Barzaghi, Ann Ledy and Susan Erony all feel a need to make art, a need that goes beyond choosing to do so, and one that makes their studios the places they feel most at home. In this show, the unifying element is drawing, the basis of art making for all of them. Drawing is a universal practice, though most people may not realize it. Anyone who learns to write, learns, in effect, to make marks, to draw, and mark making has been a human practice going back tens of thousands of years.

Title: Navigating Art & Science

Location: The Cultural Center at Rocky Neck, 6 Wonson Street, Gloucester

Dates: August 28 – October 13, 2025

Opening Reception: 4–6 PM, Sunday, September 14, 2025 

Gallery Hours: Thursday–Sunday, 12–5 PM

Free and Open to the Public.

Navigating Art & Science featuring eight artists who are deeply involved in scientific inquiry and activism. While local scientists search for ways to help ocean species be more resilient to survive the rapidly changing marine environment, these artists, alert to the predicament, are creating art with urgent messages for stewardship and action.  

The exhibit coincides with a city-wide initiative STAND UP for Art & Science, coordinated by Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute volunteers.

While all the work in the exhibition has been created in response to human impact on the environment, in addition, several of the artists have been inspired by expeditions to the Arctic Circle and Greenland and residencies in marine laboratories on Cape Ann and beyond. The seven-week exhibit shows how art can transform the impact and implications of science into something concrete, visible and personal. 

The public is invited to celebrate Navigating Art & Science at the Opening Reception on Sunday September 14, 4–6 PM. Mark your calendars for exhibition-related programming at the Cultural Center: a sneak preview of Ken Riaf’s new play, “Copy and Acknowledge” read by Lanes Coven actors on September 7 at 7:00 PM and an artists’ panel discussion on Sunday, September 28 at 4:00 PM, moderated by artist and writer, Chris Volpe.

Exhibiting Artists: Resa Blatman, Daisy Braun, Georgie Friedman, Perri Lynch Howard, Michelle Lougee, Michelle Samour, Jessica Straus, and Christopher Volpe.

Rocky Neck Art Colony presents: Rephrasing at Cove Gallery 8/21-9/14

Exhibition Title:  Rephrasing

Location: Cove Gallery, 37 Rocky Neck Avenue, Gloucester, MA 01930

Dates: August 21 – September 14, 2025 

Opening Reception: Thursday,  August 21 from 4-7PM

Hours: Sunday and Monday, 12-5PM; Thursday – Saturday, 12-7PM

Rocky Neck Art Colony is proud to present Rephrasing, an exhibition curated by Janice Brand. This show, the fifth for the season at Cove Gallery, encompasses the mixed-media work of four artists who utilize the concepts of adaptation and revision.  

Shira Karman focuses on fragments that relate to some other time or place, whether known or unknown. She is interested in how these fragments tell a story that she may know or hope to uncover.  

Tobi Klein explores mono-printing, collage, and other mixed-media techniques, taking inspiration from the continual shifting of light, color, and pattern of the granite quarries and the sea. She builds a story, inviting viewers to peel back the layers and look below the surface.

Helen Tory uses diverse media to express her connection with birds described in her father’s 1930s nature diaries. A variety of paint, mark-making, torn papers, and string elicit each bird’s particular characteristics.

Patricia Wellenkamp uses a series of carved linoleum blocks to print on cotton and other fabrics. She incorporates embroidery, paper, and other elements to add ornamentation and complexity to images that might come from an ancestor’s dress, dahlias in her garden or imagined landscapes.

###

The Rocky Neck Art Colony (RNAC), a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, nurtures excellence in the arts through exhibitions, workshops, residencies and vibrant cultural events for its members and the public. On picturesque Rocky Neck in Gloucester, Massachusetts, RNAC operates three exhibition spaces, open to the public for free: The Cultural Center at Rocky Neck (6 Wonson Street); The Salted Cod Arthouse (53 Rocky Neck Ave.), a partnership gallery and café; and Cove Gallery (37 Rocky Neck Ave.), open seasonally in the former gallery of local artists Gordon and Judith Goetemann. Check the website, www.rockyneckartcolony.org, for hours, openings and special events. For more information, see the website or call 978-515-7004.

Sunday August 17, 2025, 7:00 to 8:00

Bagpipes!

The best popcorn in Massachusetts is here!  Children are especially welcome.  Folding chairs and blankets are good. 

Logan LaRue, Conductor and Music Director

The Rockport Legion Band will perform the third free concert of our 92nd summer concert series at the Back Beach Bandstand, Beach St, Rockport, MA.

Sunday July 27, 2025, 7:00 to 8:00

Out of This World

The best popcorn in Massachusetts is here!  Children are especially welcome.  Folding chairs and blankets are good. 

Logan LaRue, Conductor and Music Director

The Rockport Legion Band will perform the third free concert of our 92nd summer concert series at the Back Beach Bandstand, Beach St, Rockport, MA.

Sunday July 20, 2025, 7:00 to 8:00Let’s Dance!

The best popcorn in Massachusetts is here!  Children are especially welcome.  Folding chairs and blankets are good. 

Logan LaRue, Conductor and Music Director

Location: The Cultural Center at Rocky Neck, 6 Wonson Street, Gloucester, MA
 Exhibition Dates: July 17 – August 24, 2025
 Opening Reception: Sunday, July 20, 5:00–7:00 PM
 Gallery Hours: Thursday 12–7 PM; Friday–Sunday 12–5 PM
 Admission: Free

Gloucester, MA – Rocky Neck Art Colony is pleased to announce the opening of Boundless: The Art of the Book, on view at the Cultural Center at Rocky Neck from July 17 through August 24, 2025.

This dynamic exhibition explores the rich and ever-evolving world of the book as an art form. Featuring artist books, altered books, and book illustration, Boundless showcases imaginative approaches to storytelling, visual poetry, personal narratives, and inventive book structures. Visitors will encounter works that range from the traditional to the avant-garde—books that hang, twist, stand, open like advent calendars, or defy conventional forms altogether.

The exhibition presents an array of techniques including letterpress, etching, monoprint, painting, photography, and mixed media. Through these varied practices, artists interrogate themes of memory, imagination, identity, and the contemporary moment.

An Opening Reception will be held on Sunday, July 20, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. The public is warmly invited to view the work, meet the artists, and enjoy refreshments and lively conversation.

Boundless features contributions from a distinguished group of artists, including local creatives, university faculty, and artists affiliated with book arts communities throughout New England and beyond, including Boston, Philadelphia, New York, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Exhibiting Artists:
 Ren Barnes, Stevens Brosnihan, Rachel Church, Pamela Courtleigh, Haig Demarjian, Mary Dewey, Madge Evers, Lynda Fatalo, Cristina Hajosy, Hannah Jacoby-Brooks, Linda Kauss, Giles Laroche, Kelle Louaillier, Leslie Lyman, Fred Lynch, Claire B. Marcus, Cynthia Marsh, R. Ellis Orrall, Sarah Parella, Rhoda Rosenberg, Lynne Sausele, Mary Beth Smith, Lorna Stevens, Juni Van Dyke, Anna Vojtech, Larry Volk, Karen Watson, Antoinette Winters, Kyung Eun You.

The Rocky Neck Art Colony (RNAC), a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, nurtures excellence in the arts through exhibitions, workshops, residencies and vibrant cultural events for its members and the public. On picturesque Rocky Neck in Gloucester, Massachusetts, RNAC operates three exhibition  spaces, open to the public for free, The Cultural Center at Rocky Neck (6 Wonson Street); The Salted Cod Arthouse (53 Rocky Neck Ave.), a partnership gallery and café; and Cove Gallery (37 Rocky Neck Ave.), open seasonally in the former gallery of local artists Gordon and Judith Goetemann. Check the website, www.rockyneckartcolony.org, for hours, openings and special events. For more information, see the website or call 978-515-7004

The Rockport Legion Band will perform the second free concert of our 92nd summer concert series at the Back Beach Bandstand, Beach St, Rockport, MA.

Sunday July 13, 2025, 7:00 to 8:00

Childrens Concert: For the Young At Heart

The best popcorn in Massachusetts is here!  Children are especially welcome.  Folding chairs and blankets are good. 

Logan LaRue, Conductor and Music Director

The Salted Cod Gallery is delighted to announce that Judy Robinson-Cox, a celebrated Gloucester-based multimedia artist, will be the featured guest artist for the month of July. Known for her imaginative Lilliputian landscapes and whimsical visual storytelling, Robinson-Cox’s work invites viewers to see the extraordinary in the everyday.

A fixture in the New England arts scene, Robinson-Cox has exhibited extensively throughout the region and beyond, with solo and group shows at institutions such as the Rockport Art Association, Marblehead Arts Association, Griffin Museum of Photography, Johnson & Wales Culinary Arts Museum, and even Neiman Marcus. Her miniature, meticulously crafted environments blur the boundaries between photography, sculpture, and montage—offering humorous, surreal, and poignant glimpses into tiny imagined worlds.

“My art has always been a space to explore the humorous, surreal, and poignant elements of life—often through a very tiny lens,” says Robinson-Cox. “It’s a joy to bring these worlds to new audiences, and I’m thrilled to show this body of work at The Salted Cod.”

Visitors can view Judy Robinson-Cox’s work daily throughout July. The Salted Cod Gallery is open from 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM, located in the heart of Gloucester’s working waterfront. Admission is free and open to the public.

About the Venue: The Salted Cod Arthouse
In 2021, local residents Matthew Moynahan and Thomas Aurelio purchased the historic “Tin Building”—a former fish preparation and paint warehouse—alongside the iconic Rudder Restaurant. Committed to revitalizing Rocky Neck, they reopened the building in 2022 following the thoughtful restoration of its second floor to create additional space for the arts. Today, The Salted Cod Arthouse proudly serves as a creative and cultural hub, offering local art, libations, and essential provisions to sailors, fishermen, artists, visitors, and curious passersby in America’s oldest seaport and working art colony.