My View of Life on the Dock
Please help spread the attached announcement with your networks.We look forward to seeing you on Thursday February 2nd!
!NEW! Harbortown Arts Market at I4-C2 (65 Rogers Street)
We have some exciting news!
Carol Thistle, Senior Project Manager for the Tourism Commission, reports that fully one third of revenue collected from the hotel and motel tax will go toward promoting tourism. Carol broke the news at the joint spring meeting of Gloucester’s Harbortown and Rocky Neck Cultural Districts held Tuesday night at the North Shore Art Association.
HARBORTOWN CULTURAL DISTRICT
PARTNERS CELEBRATION
You are cordially invited to celebrate!
Harbortown Cultural District’s Annual Meeting and Soiree
Wednesday, November 5, 2014, 5:00pm to 7:00pm
The Hive
Complimentary refreshments, entertainment and more!
Meet the new Harbortown Cultural District Partners
RSVP: Carol Thistle, cthistle@gloucester-ma.gov, 978-281-9781
Join us in celebrating a spectacular year filled with museum openings, special events, national press, and other landmark happenings!
Friday was an especially terrific day for me as my article for Cape Ann Magazine hit the newsstands and later in the day, I learned that part two of my article for the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, “Gloucester Harbortown Cultural District,” was posted on the MOTT blog, Mass Finds.
I was completely taken by surprise that my photo was chosen for the cover of Cape Ann Magazine and just happened to be in Joey’s office down at the dock when Andrea Holdbook, CAMag’s editor-in-chief posted on goolge that the summer issue had hit the stands. It was especially fun to share the news with Joey because he provides a tremendous forum here on GMG highlighting all the good happenings and events in our community, and because he is so supportive towards all his contributors.
Yesterday I posted an excerpt from Cape Ann Magazine’s “Cape Ann to Mexico: The Monarch Butterfly Connection,” and the following is an excerpt from the MOTT article. Please share with your friends. Thank you! Part One is posted here.
Excerpt:
The last days of winter and first days of spring herald the beginning of the nine-day novena leading up to the Feast of St. Joseph, which always takes place on March 19th. With its thriving Sicilian American community, Gloucester is one of only a handful of American cities that celebrates the Feast of San Giuseppe with traditional Sicilian customs. Homes are decorated with altars devoted to the patron saint of the poor and orphaned, and a special trolley takes everyone who is interested around the city to view the altars of San Giuseppe. Special Saint Joseph bread, oranges, and lemons are given to all who come, while everyone eagerly anticipates the coming feast day.
Saint Joseph Trolley Participants
Summertime is Gloucester’s high season. The city is alive with nightly live music, an embarrassment of riches in fabulous restaurants, and bustling shops and galleries. On specially designated nights, Main Street is closed to traffic and the entire town becomes one giant block party. Restaurants open onto the street, merchant booths appear, shops have special offerings, and there are street performers and family-friendly activities at every corner.
Bill and Mayor Carolyn Kirk Family and Friends at the Block Party
In August the tall ships arrive from around the world to participate in Gloucester’s Schooner Festival. “Le Beauport,” Gloucester’s beautiful working harbor, is the backdrop for the races and parades of these magnificent traditional fishing vessels designed during the age of sail. The afternoon lobster bake, nighttime nautical Parade of Lights, and fireworks that brilliantly illuminate the harbor are just some of the fun family-friendly activities that take place during the three-day long Schooner Festival.
George and Charles Ryan at the First Annual Schooner Festival Lobster Bake
Don’t miss the opportunity to take a sunset tour of Gloucester Harbor aboard one of the exquisite schooners built by the living legendary ship builder and National Heritage fellow, Harold Burnham, on either the 65-foot Thomas E. Lannon with Captain Tom Ellis or the Pinky Schooner, operated out of Maritime Gloucester.
My favorite event of the summer is the annual St. Peter’s Fiesta, with both its deeply religious aspect of honoring St. Peter, the patron saint of fishermen, and the jubilant festivities that take place throughout the city during the five-day celebration. Read More Here.
My first article for the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism was posted today. The article is part one (highlighting fall and winter) of a two part series about our Harbortown Cultural District. Part two showcases events that take place during the spring and summer, for example, the Feast of St. Joseph, St. Peter’s Fiesta, and the Schooner Festival, and will appear early this spring.
MOTT Article
Gloucester HarborTown Cultural District
Part One
By Kim Smith
I stand on a rooftop facing east toward Gloucester Harbor. Brisk autumn breezes and fresh salty scents lend color to the air of the moment. I can see far out to the Dog Bar Breakwater and Eastern Point Lighthouse, and still further beyond to the white diamond-studded sparkling sea. I see a single seagull arcing through the sky followed by hungry bevies chasing vessels. But it is the view of the harbor’s inner beauty that causes me to standstill and absorb all that I see. The beauty is in the mix of large fishing ships and smaller lobster boats powering through the water—coming and going—in and out to sea; the beauty is in the mix of flat-topped boxy ice buildings, the old Paint Factory, hipped-roof homes, and fish shed peaks; the beauty is in the mix of ships’ masts and riggings, hulls painted shiny red, ochre, and marine blue, new wooden docks and weathered wharf pilings, and everything playing to a soundtrack of gull cries and ships’ engines.
Surrounding the harbor is a blanket of golden hills, made rugged from granite outcroppings formed of earth’s crusty movement long ago, glowing golden from the angled sun’s light and brilliant fall foliage. Saffron tree ribbon circling the harbor runs into silhouettes of neighborhoods with bright sandy beaches that meet ultramarine water. I turn to the west, and looking north and south are the densely packed rooftops of nineteenth- and twentieth-century gables, pitched in shapes and sizes manifold, their architecture mirroring the many cultures and centuries that have shaped this city’s skyline.
This is my adopted city, Gloucester. Like many New England cities and towns Gloucester has riches thought unique to their community, but unlike many hometowns Gloucester’s richly varied and thriving cultural community is grounded from the inside by a framework created from families long associated with her working waterfront. Abounding in maritime heritage, Gloucester is the oldest seaport in America; Gloucester is home, too, to Rocky Neck, the nation’s oldest art colony. For over four hundred years her beauty and bounty have attracted fishermen and artists alike. Along with Rocky Neck, Gloucester’s Harbortown Downtown district is a designated Massachusetts Cultural District; Gloucester is the only city in Massachusetts to boast two such cultural districts! Throughout the four seasons visitors from near and far travel to Gloucester to enjoy her beautiful shores, take part in her fiestas and festivals, dine on fresh seafood, meet her friendly people, and explore her arts, architecture, and entertainment.
Congratulations everyone! Just received word back from Springfield that we received the designation for the Gloucester Harbortown Cultural District. This has been a remarkable effort by so many people who have come together with a common vision for our beautiful city. Thank you all.
Mayor Kirk
We covered the process here on GMG. At the meeting in which community leaders explained to The Mass Cultural Council Why Gloucester is so special and deserves to be the first City with more than one Cultural District-
Posted on February 21, 2013 by Joey C
The Mass Cultural Council came to G-Town to listen to and observe what makes Gloucester so special. There are no other towns that have more than one Cultural District. Gloucester already has Rocky Neck. If approved for Downtown Gloucester, Gloucester would stand as the only City with more than one Massachusetts Cultural District.
When sitting in the room and listening to the distinguished assembly of community people that showed up it was obvious about 10 minutes in that honestly Gloucester deserves this in spades. There is no where anywhere that is as culturally diverse, enriched and vibrant as our community.
All the people had to do was speak the truth. It wasn’t about selling Downtown Gloucester. Downtown Gloucester, it’s merchants, it’s artists, its community and artistic organizations sell itself.
You’d have to be deaf, dumb and blind to not see it and I can assure you the representatives of the Mass Cultural Council that visited, Anita Walker, Meri Jenkins, Kylie Sullivan and Maren Brown are anything but deaf dumb and blind.
Huge thanks to the Downtown GloucesterCultural District Steering Committee Catherine Ryan, Lise Breen, Judith Hoglander, Robert Whitmarsh, Anne Robinson, Ronda Faloon, Maggie Rosa and David Rhinelander for laying so much of the groundwork to make this meeting possible and also to Fred Bodin for hosting this momentous event at his Bodin Historic Photo Gallery.
Melissa I love my new scarf. You rock!
STEP AWAY FROM THE CANNOLI – PUT YOUR ARMS UP AND STEP AWAY FROM THE CANOLLI!
Posted on February 19, 2013 by Joey C
Help us Decorate by printing and posting Art Haven’s poster! (attached)
Please print out and share this wonderful poster, a unique and custom welcome for MCC, designed by Art Haven, a founding cultural partner. We’re hoping residents, businesses, and organizations throughout the district at street level or above will put it in their window or door for that day. Founding partner, the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce will disperse it to its members. GMG will post it to request that folks display it for us. Fred Bodin is also reaching out to his network to encourage printing/posting! We hope all the partners print/display and share with others.
PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU CAN HANDLE 8MB FILE OR PDF and thank you ART HAVEN!
Review the Itinerary
The MCC site visit will start at 10 AM with a check in at the Cape Ann Museum. This will only be a quick stop prior to the first meeting, but will give the committee a chance to greet the delegation, distribute literature and prepare information about the venues and businesses within the proposed CD, and offer them a place to stash any items that they might want later in the day.
· 10:00 AM Cape Ann Museum steering committee will welcome MCC/check in/home base
· 10:30 the MCC delegation will meet at City Hall with city officials, coffee and pastries courtesy Cape Ann Coffee
· 11:30 the walking tour begins and will include 7 stops (not more than 5 minutes each) with pointing and discussion along the way.
The proposed DGCD footprint very roughly spans from St.Peter’s/the Chamber side over to Gortons, and from City Hall to Maritime Gloucester. This means it includes the Civic jewels, all of Middle, all of Main, all of Harbor Loop, our waterfront, and Rogers until Rose Baker. It’s the same footprint used for decades and that we all know. We’ll be included in a select group that receive designation and will be marketed with 5 others on the North Shore. We will be the first town in the state with two cultural districts! It mirrors the HarborWalk’s, the Chamber of Commerce’s, Discover Gloucester, and Maritime Trail mapsl, etc–everyone’s efforts to maintain the integrity of downtown and historic harbor area. It will likely increase what is already great and working. Our downtown works hard to offer residents, visitors and employees fantastic experiences!
Good Morning Gloucester 