Mother’s Day Concert at Gloucester Meetinghouse

Tomorrow, Sunday, May 14th is Mother’s Day and at 3:30pm the Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation will present the last in its 2016-17 Concert & Lecture Series featuring the Ipswich-based ensemble ‘The Orchestra on the Hill’ under the direction of Tom Palance.  The featured work is Aaron Copland’s colorful and evocative suite “Appalachian Spring” plus RalphVaughan Williams’ “Suite For Viola and Orchestra” with viola soloist Karen McConomy and “The Banquet,” a two movement piece by Chris Florio, Ipswich resident and award winning composer and performer.  This wonderful program is the first performance by ‘The Orchestra on the Hill’ in Gloucester, whose home venue is the music room of the the Crane Estate in Ipswich.  A reception will follow in which you may greet the musicians, some of the finest players on the North Shore.

This is a great opportunity to take your mother, or perhaps an extra-special woman in your life, to lunch someplace on Cape Ann and follow it with a truly memorable musical experience.  The historic 1806 Gloucester Meetinghouse has been described as “a concert hall appearing to be a church,” blessed with extraordinarily fine acoustics that will allow Tom Palance and the orchestra to demonstrate the expansive tonal and dynamic beauty of these works.

The Meetinghouse, home to the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church, is located on the green at the corner of Church and Middle Street where you may park.  The entrance with an elevator is located on the side of the building at 10 Church Street.  Tickets are available at the door and online, with more information, at gloucestermeetinghouse.org

CEDAR ROCK GARDENS IS OFFERING A VERITABLE BONANZA OF BLOSSOMS, VEGGIES, AND HERBS FOR MOTHER’S DAY!

Elise and Sunshine

Cedar Rock Gardens is bursting with a fabulous selection of blossoms and veggies and all would be much loved by Mom. Load up now on milkweed, petunias, pansies, snapdragons, dianthus, violas, osteosperum, alyssum, thyme, cilantro, parsley, dill, and much, much, much more.

Check out Cedar Rocks Gardens updated and complete plant list here.

NEXT WEEKEND CEDAR ROCK GARDENS IS RELEASING THE TOMATOES!

 

Tucker is building dozens of new tray tables to hold all the fantastic seedlings coming along.

Jeffrey Thomas, Tucker Smith, and Irv Falk

Visitors from Out of State

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Couple enjoy a walk on the Lucy Brown Davis Pathway, on a very cloudy day.

They had plans to visit the Azorean, his ancestors were from San Miguel Azores.

Gloucester Smiles-604 In the Garden

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Cuteness overload

There is nothing more adorable than puppies and babies, except for maybe 3 little fox kits playing on a boardwalk!   Their mama was out hunting and they were just having a ball being mischievous.   Definitely a first for me and what a treat!

 

Action Inc. Annual Meeting – JUNE 1st

megmerlinaction's avatarCape Ann Community

Please join us for a breakfast buffet at the Gloucester House and hear the latest from your hometown Community Action Agency, Action Inc.! Proudly serving Cape Ann since 1965.

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Teacher Feature: Ms.L’s creature collection helps students learn biology

Biology teacher Jessica Lichtenwald with her pet snake.

THE GILNETTER
RACHEL VINCENT, Staff Writer
May 11, 2017
Filed under Features, Showcase

Are you an animal lover? Then head down to Gloucester High School’s very own zoo in Room 2411. There, you’ll find a variety of creatures – from the smallest cockroaches to to the longest snakes, and much in between.

Biology teacher Jessica Lichtenwald, also known as “Ms. L”, has accumulated these pets for years. Some she has bought on her own, while others were donated by students and friends. Her extensive collection contains a bull snake, corn snake, bearded dragon, tarantula, hedge hog, fish, and a colony of cockroaches.

“I like weird animals,” said Lichtenwald.  “I’m intrigued by the diversity, and the way they’re so adapted to their environments.”

When dealing with these different animals, Lichtenwald is able to get to know their different personalities.

Jasper, the corn snake, is very active in his cage but calms down when he is held. He’s not aggressive in anyway, in comparison to the bull snake, Snarky. “The bull snake, he’s more aggressive in general, especially about his food,” Lichtenwald said when asked about the contrasting natures of her snakes.

Mrs. L’s most recent addition was Libra, the hedgehog. This diminutive animal has come a long way from when she first arrived. When Libra was brought to her, she was very flea ridden and required special treatment to make the parasites go away. According to Lichtenwald, the animal is now much happier and slowly warming up to the people in her environment. However, because of the cool temperature in the classroom, Libra is being kept at Lichtenwald’s home until her return next school year.

READ MORE HERE

Join Betsy Williams at the Stevens Coolidge Place

Join Betsy Williams Sunday, May 21 at the beautiful Stevens Coolidge Place in North Andover to create a Fragrant Flowering Garden in a 14” pot.
We’ll plant a combination of 6 sweetly scented annual and perennial plants, such as nicotiana, stock, heliotrope, nepeta, lavender, sweet alyssum, violas and miniature roses, accented with climbing, twining vines and fragrant variegated greens. 
 
With proper care, your pot will bloom happily all summer long on a patio, porch, sunny balcony or doorstep.
Please bring an apron and floral scissors to class.
 
Sunday, May 21, 2017.  1-3pm
 
To register contact Kevin Block <kblock@thetrustees.org

WINSOME WILLETS

A Plain Jane, resting on a tuft of grass at the marsh edge, backlit, I at first thought she was a stone. A slight turn of the head and upon closer look, not a stone but a very large shorebird, with feathers worn in a subdued arrangement of brown and white—still, nothing special. Then she began to unfold her long elegant wings. Boldly barred in chocolate brown, this Plain Jane was swiftly transformed to Beauty Queen.

Willets are one of the few shorebirds that nest not in the Arctic tundra, but prairie and salt marshes of America and Canada. For over one hundred years Willets were hunted to non-existence in Massachusetts. Biologists have a name for this tragic occurrence, when a species is not extinct, but is no longer present in an area, and the term is extirpated. Because of the Migratory Bird Act of 1918, the Willet population is increasing and the Massachusetts coastline has once again become a safe home for these beautiful members of the sandpiper family.

Belonging to the same genus as yellowlegs, they do look similar to Greater Yellowlegs, but are comparatively larger, their beaks are thicker, and their legs are not yellow but gray. Look for Willets on beaches, marshes, mudflats, and rocky coasts. They forage on crabs and other small crustaceans, worms, mollusks, fish, and grass. The call of the Willet is unmistakable, piercing and urgent and their name comes from the ringing “pill-will-willet.”

Sadie Green’s

When at Walgreens at the Corner of Main and Rogers, take a stroll over to Sadie Green’s. Great gifts and the store is having a sale of 20% off. Here a a couple of photos of their inventory.

We are very lucky to have great shops to pick up gifts. No need to go up the line.

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Sadie’s Green’s Curiosity Shop
205 Main Street
Gloucester, MA 01930
978-281-8111
http://www.sadiegreens.com

This Weekend in the Arts

Stephen LaPierre, Rocky Neck Artist Offers
All Cape Ann Plein Air Pieces are Half-off Listed Price

Stephen LaPierre,  a master oil painter from the school of Hard Knocks, has settled into his studio, home and gallery at 75 Rocky Neck Ave (2nd floor), near his former digs on Mad Fish Wharf.

All fall and winter, when not capturing the loneliness of The Rudder in Snow,  Ginger’s House, or the barren rocks on Rockport’s Eden Road, the painter has been capturing today’s clowns with cell phones culture within his huge museum-quality pieces. Seeing is believing! (www.paintpaintpaint.org)

Meanwhile, falling in love and choosing an affordable Cape Ann plein air piece, pays the painter’s rent. So step right up those stairs, next door to The Rudder. All Cape Ann plein air pieces are half-off listed price… even The Rudder in Snow!!... through the merry month of May.

For more information email
info@stephenlapierre.com
Open Studio:   Monday- Sunday   noon-10PM 

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Hudson Gallery – Opening Gala and Inaugural Exhibit
Driven by Technology
Fields of the Mind: Images, Spaces and Feelings from the Subconscious Mind
Interactive Sound Sculpture and Experimental Art

May 13 to May 29, 2017, Gala May 13th from 7-10pm
120 Main Street, Gloucester, MA 01930

Hudson, Gloucester’s premier contemporary art gallery, announces an opening gala and inaugural exhibit showcasing creative technologist MJ Caselden and experimental artist Donna Caselden. Fields of the Mind is a mother and son synthesis of visual and aural artwork exploring sound, magnetism, self-reflection and contemplation. May 13 to May 29, 2017 with a gala reception on Saturday, May 13th from 7-10pm. A participatory Mother’s Day weekend event.

MJ Caselden’s sound-generating sculptures use varying magnetic fields to induce vibrations in metal and wood. Viewers cast shadows while electromagnets and vibrating metal strings on wooden sculpture create resonance and sound. Participants improvise and interact controlling the sound through motion. “So the vibrations are acoustic, coming from organic materials, but the experience is driven through contemporary technologies,” MJ Caselden said.

Magnetic sound sculptures can provide a fully immersive, transcendent experience. MJ has collaborated with teachers from long-standing healing arts practices such as Asana Yoga, Tibetan Tummo breathwork, acupuncture, and Ch’an meditation. He leads group listening rituals and innovative technology workshops exploring integration of meditative sound into healing arts and lifestyle. His sculptures have been featured in art, meditation, and retreat spaces worldwide, including the New Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Times Square.

Donna Caselden is an experimental two-dimensional artist. She works with acrylic, watercolor, encaustic and oil. Sensorial memories and experience render her canvases deeply personal. “The imagery is born of feeling, as my brush marries the canvas I wonder what it will birth,” Donna Caselden said. The featured works engage via layers, depth and color baths. Donna is an active member of Cape Ann’s Experimental Art Group at Rockport Art Association, Society for Encouragement of Arts, Rocky Neck Art Colony, and National Association of Women Artists.

MJ and Donna are natives of North Andover and Andover, Massachusetts, respectively, suburbs north of Boston. They both approach art abstractly guided by either irrational actions or emotion. “We both prioritize the feelings that our works inspire over conceptualization or analysis. So, we are both “feelers”, like that, although our mediums are totally different,” MJ Caselden said. A connection exists in that sound meditation is about tapping into oneself, and often involves accessing internal mental visions from subconscious places. “Our creative energies collide in similar realms. Painting abstractly entails drawing imagery from the subconscious and projecting it onto the canvas,” Donna Caselden said.

MJ studied electronics at the University of Southern California and New York University, sound design at Berklee College of Music and signal processing at Tsinghua University in Beijing and at USC’s Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI). His interest in energy exchange through technology led him to prototyping and electronics design. MJ presently directs a team
of engineers and designers creating innovative prototypes, products, and works of art for entities such as Intel, Lexus, and the Microsoft Music x Technology program with Listen.

Donna’s formidable design background includes interior space, experimental painting and wearable art. One wearable design was awarded the Certificate of Excellence by ManneqArt for recycled art. The dress was on public display in the greater D.C. area, and at the Peabody Essex Museum as part of the World of Wearable Art exhibit. Her work is shown in northeast museums and galleries. Donna attended Boston College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.

Hudson’s mission is to create community through art, education, and social activism. The gallery is part of a collaborative national initiative celebrating the Science Art Movement and the aesthetic, intellectual and political impact of technology on artistic practice and discourse.

For more information, contact:
Cynthia Belchou
thehudsongallery@gmail.com
617.755.6672

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Gloucester is Boston Globe 2017 Game Changer: where will the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute establish headquarters?

The Boston Globe named Gloucester to the 2017 Game Changers list!  “Bright ideas and breakthroughs, inventions and innovations, people and places making waves in the Boston area.”  This story was in a Boston Globe real estate section because the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute “recently received $2.7 million in state capital funding for its waterfront marine genomics research laboratory, which could be leased soon and occupied by next year, says executive director Chris Munkholm.”

Where will they land?

Boston Globe same article

See the latest 2017 Game Changers list

Continue reading “Gloucester is Boston Globe 2017 Game Changer: where will the Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute establish headquarters?”