Good Morning Gloucester

I met Catherine initially through my work designing the HarborWalk gardens as she was very much involved with making the wonderful granite story markers placed throughout the HarborWalk (she also had a hand in many aspects of the HarborWalk’s creation). Catherine is a regular contributor to Good Morning Gloucester and her posts most often feature the work of Gloucester artists, along with covering a wide range of art and cultural related events.

I am so appreciative of our friendship, and also want to highlight some of the valuable volunteer pro bono work she does as the Mayor’s Representative on Gloucester’s Committee for the Arts. In that capacity, she works with the steering committee for the Gloucester Harbortown Cultural District,  provides on-going expertise for the Gloucester HarborWalk, and works on countless other statewide and New England regional outreach projects, coordinating with many cultural districts beyond our own.

As you may or may not be aware, Catherine created the interactive Google map with over 100 sites and images by Edward Hopper from his many visits to Gloucester: See Edward Hopper All Around Gloucester here.

Gloucester to Berkshires Map by Catherine Ryan. Click to view larger.

I was so touched by Catherine that she made the above map for my participation in the Berkshire Museum’s exhibit “Butterflies” and for my upcoming film screenings there. On Friday I learned that the Museum has scheduled a showing of Life Story of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly to air on Sunday, July 13th. We are planning additional activities around the event and I will keep you posted. So many thanks to Catherine for making this helpful map and providing a handy visual for GMG readers planning to make the trek out to Pittsfield and the Berkshires. 

Catherine writes ~

“I am SO HAPPY for you! Here’s a visual map to Western MA and proximity of some of the major Berkshire art & cultural highlights including 5 nearby Cultural Districts.

Gloucester to Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA 169 miles
Berkshire Museum to Mass MoCA 35 miles
Berkshire Museum to newly re-opened Clark 31 miles
Berkshire Museum to Tanglewood 14 minutes
Berkshire Museum to Amherst (many museums in this area, too) approx. 1 hour and twenty minutes

*Gloucester has 2 Cultural Districts and Pittsfield has one also. There are 4 other cultural districts in western MA (3 are within the Amherst vicinity): Springfield, Northampton, Easthampton + Shelburne.”