Good Morning Gloucester

Cat Ryan submits-

There’s a magnificent permanent art collection displayed throughout Gloucester’s City Hall, its public buildings and many outdoor locations. In an effort to promote, encourage and share current local art and artists with the public, Mayor Romeo Theken showcases a wide variety of media on temporary loan throughout the Mayor’s office. I took some photos back in February. She requested that buoys painted by our local youth at Art Haven be featured in Kyrouz Auditorium, along with the ‘Downtown Quilt’, the 13^th panel from the Gloucester Neighborhood Quilt Project. These quilts are made by residents creating art with Juni Van Dyke, the Art Program Director Gloucester Council on Aging at Rose Baker Senior Center. (Twelve panels were prominently displayed for the 2014 Inauguration for former Mayor, Honorable Carolyn Kirk.)

Office of Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, City Hall, Gloucester, February 2015

Donna Ardizzoni, business owner, GMG contributor https://ardizzoniphotography.wordpress.com/about-2/

Ana Connoli, photograph, Gloucester from Port. Hill

Phil Cusumano, painting, http://www.philcusumanoart.com/

Tina Greel, statue, https://www.facebook.com/tina.greel

Jennifer Johnson, photograph

Ken Knowles, painting, http://www.kenknowlesfineart.com/ken_final/home.html

Marty Luster, photograph, GMG contributor

Bridget Matthews, photograph

Sam Nigro, painted oar, http://www.gloucestertimes.com/news/local_news/talk-of-the-times-gloucester-man-grows-a-squash-for/article_76b0f29b-1e05-527f-b676-889ee7768aa9.html

Shelly Nugent, photograph

Eileen Patten Oliver, painting, http://eileenpattenoliver.com/ and here https://goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/14-works-by-eileen-patten-oliver-at-island-art-and-hobby/

Premier Imprints, tea tray, http://www.premier-imprints.com/

Louise Welch, photograph City Hall

The local art on display had me thinking about the collection at the ‘People’s House’ for our Nation: what’s the best art inside the White House? No matter what is your artistic preference, Gloucester and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts could top the charts as the City and state with the best and most art ties featured at the White House. Let’s break down a selection of that Massachusetts list currently on display at the White House room-by-room, shall we?

In the Oval Office:

Not one, but two Edward Hopper paintings, lent by the Whitney Museum of American Art, are installed one over the other, Cobb’s Barns, South Truro and Burly Cobb’s House, South Truro.  There are more than 100 Edward Hopper works inspired by Gloucester, MA. The Childe Hassam’s painting, Avenue in the Rain, and Norman Rockwell’s painting, Statue of Liberty, remain on view.

In the Blue Room:

Fitz Hugh Lane’s Boston Harbor gifted by Lew Wasserman

In the East Room:

Gilbert Stuart’s Washington, John Singer Sargent’s Roosevelt

In the Green Room:

Sargent’s Mosquito Net, John Marin’s Circus, George Peter Alexander Healy’s painting of Adams and Polk and Louisa Adams by Stuart

In the Red room:

Martin Johnson Heade’s Sunrise, Bricher’s Castle Rock Nahant, more portraits by Stuart and Healy

In the State Dining room:

Healy’s portrait of Lincoln

In the Ground floor corridor:

Healy’s Millard Fillmore portrait, Thomas Ball Daniel Webster sculpture, a craftsman chair attributed to Samuel MacIntire, and Charles Hopkinson’s portrait of Calvin Coolidge

In the private quarters:

William Glackens Pavilion at Gloucester, and two Maurice Prendergast’s paintings, Boston Harbor and Revere Beach

More examples in the collection and in storage such as: Augustus Saint-Gaudens bronze bust of Lincoln, John Henry Twachtman’s oil painting, Captain Bickford’s Float; Henry Hobart Nichols painting, Gloucester Dock; and Worthington Whittredge oil painting, Thatcher’s Island off Rockport, MA.

Several artists are represented by more than one piece. How does the White House collection work? It is unusual for the White House to accept art by living artists. There are more than 450 works of art in the permanent collection. New art enters the collection after its vetted and is restricted to works created at least 25 years prior to the date of acquisition. For the public rooms, the Office of the Curator works with the White House advisory committee, the First Lady serves as the Honorary Chair, and the White House Historical Association. The private rooms are the domain of the First Family. Works of art from collectors, museums, and galleries can be requested for temporary loans and are returned at the end of the President’s final term. The Obamas have selected contemporary art, including abstract art, from the permanent collection, and borrowed work for their private quarters. Besides the Hopper paintings and John Alston’s Martin Luther King sculpture, they’ve selected art by *Anni Albers, *Josef Albers, Edgar Degas, Jasper Johns, Louise Nevelson, *Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Ruscha, and *Alma Thomas. * indicates works that have been donated to the permanent collection. The Obama Administration upgraded the website so that anyone unable to visit in person can have open access. I encourage visits to the website https://www.whitehouse.gov/about/inside-white-house/art. I love the diverse rooms and all the interconnected doors such as the splendid Green Room installation with the Marin and the Jacob Lawrence activating the threshold.

My gratitude to Chris Pantano, Office of the Mayor, Gloucester, MA,  and the Office of the First Lady and the White House Office of the Curator for various courtesies shown to me while I prepared this entry.