Pick #1:  Harvest Music Festival

September 15, 2018 from 10:30am to 8pm

$20 per ticket
Children 12 under free | Rain or Shine
No Refunds | 21+ Area Beer Garden
No Coolers | Chairs Encouraged

The GLOUCESTER HARVEST MUSIC FESTIVAL blends art and music in one of the country’s most unique and rich artist communities. We invite you to experience the beauty and friendliness of Gloucester through a day long festival showcasing music, arts and culture while supporting our local community hospital (Addison Gilbert Citizens Fund) and community based outreach programs. Our hope is to make this a destination festival with a mission that all proceeds from the GLOUCESTER HARVEST MUSIC FESTIVAL go directly to the Addison Gilbert Citizens Fund, which is to guarantee the continued existence of a full service hospital. By supporting this, it will ensure the safety and well-being of the community and beyond.

READ MORE HERE

Pick #2: Family Farm Day at Appleton Farms

Sunday 10:00-3:00

Always a really fun day at the farm!  We love when the stars align and our hockey schedule works out so that we can attend!

Come celebrate the fall harvest with some good old-fashioned fun on America’s oldest working farm. Grab your friends and family and join us at Appleton Farms for our annual Family Farm Day!

Visit with our farm animals, paint your own pumpkin, learn about beekeeping, challenge your friends at the potato spoon relay or hay obstacle course, and make sure to enjoy a pony ride! Looking for more? There are old-fashioned games like tug-o-war, crafts, face-painting, farm tattoos, and live music. Hop on the Hay Ride and go for a spin around the farm!

All this activity will surely have you hungry for some fresh-from-the- farm food. Visit the food court where you will find and local food trucks. Snacks, drinks, and dessert will include ice cream, cider donuts, popcorn, Mojo cold-brewed coffee, and lemonade.

Admission includes everything except food and beverages. This event runs rain or shine. Admission fee is per car.  Trustees members don’t forget your membership card to receive discounted admission. Not a member yet? Join at the event and receive a free promotional surprise! See you there!

Pick #3:  Festival at the Farm

Both Saturday and Sunday….so attend Gloucester’s Harvest Festival on Saturday and then keep dancing your way to Canton on Sunday.

Music Festival, Canton Ma

READ MORE AND PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

As always, for a comprehensive list of family activities, please visit our friends at North Shore Kid.

We stumbled upon the Mother of Grace Club’s annual celebration last weekend and found it delightful. I understand their motto is Pray for Peace and that the members direct their prayers to keep our military safe from harm. As I do not speak Italian, I could not understand most of what was being said during this part of the celebration, but I can attest to the sincerity and beauty of the celebration.

Awaiting the return of the procession:

Escorting Blessed Mother of Grace on her birthday:

Young and old alike participated:

Re-placing the statue with great care and reverence:

Celebrating:

Singing the special song:

Joyous celebration enjoyed by all.

The gallery is pleased to present :
Neither Mustard Nor Teeth | Peter Morse and David West
September 1 -30 . Reception September 29th . 5:00-7:00pm

Neither Mustard Nor Teeth, by artists Peter Morse and David West, is an exploration of the everyday discipline of the artist searching to find the extraordinary and the beautiful among the  quotidian rhythms of ordinary life.

Morse’s photos call attention to the overlooked. They catch moments of light, pattern, form and structure that might otherwise be sensed only out of the corner of the eye. What is captured in the frame draws us nearer, asks us to pause. While grounded in the ordinary, they leave the viewer with questions about time and place and the seemingly familiar.

West’s drawings feature the townscape of Gloucester as seen by a non-native. They are visual handshakes from a Southern alien coming to terms with a new place for the first time. The quiet empty spaces offer little peace; the architectures crowd each other and jostle for attention as they attempt to stay upright.

Both bodies of work are rooted in the act of stopping and looking, the life blood of the artist. Slowing down. Being present in the moment long enough to pay attention and to record. Whether the action is contained in the fraction of a shutter click, or the longer process of drawing, each is a response to the quiet call of objects and moments at hand.

The phrase — neither mustard nor teeth — is from the essay, Of Power and Time, by the Massachusetts poet Mary Oliver. Oliver tells of the tensions between the necessity of living in the world with its demands of time and task and energy, all the while striving to see the inherent beauty of it all, to make sense of it through the creative process:
It is six a.m., and I am working. I am absent-minded, reckless, heedless of social obligations, etc. It is as it must be. The tire goes flat, the tooth falls out, there will be a hundred meals without mustard. The poem gets written. I have wrestled with the angel and I am stained with light and I have no shame. Neither do I have guilt. My responsibility is not to the ordinary, or the timely. It does not include mustard, or teeth. 

Peter Morse lives in Amesbury, and David West is resident here in Gloucester. Both artists are in need of going to the grocery as well as the dentist.

Peter Morse holds a BA Summa Cum Laude from Gordon College and an MFA in Photography from the University of Hartford, CT.  Residencies include Berlin, Germany, New York, NY and Portland OR.  He teaches at Gordon College where he is also Manager of the Barrington Center for the Arts and the Gallery.  He has exhibited in the US, Germany and Cuba. Morse maintains a studio in Amesbury MA.

David West is originally from Mississippi.  He holds an MFA from Louisiana State University with a concentration in printmaking. He is Associate Professor of art at Gordon College, Wenham MA where he is Chair of the Art Department.  West is also Co-Founder/Curator of ArtSpace 86 Gallery in Jackson MS.  He has exhibited widely in the US.  West is now living in Gloucester MA.

The exhibition continues through September 30, 2018.
Gallery hours: Fri & Sat 11am-4pm . Sunday 1-4pm