Mike Hale, Director of DPW, and Jeff Destino, VP at O’Maley, reviewed top to-do list items at O’Maley back in January 2020, before Covid-19 hit. They also consulted with the principal and teachers, mentioning Ms. Crosby as one point of contact. The third floor (7th grade wing) was deemed “the most tired”. DPW slated work for February and April vacations with more lined up for the summer. When the pandemic closures ensued, many of these projects were ready to roll. Essential improvements and remodel efforts inside O’Maley include a wide assortment of interventions and upgrades by the DPW team: floor cleaning/refinishing/buffing (perpetual! a la Golden Gate Bridge painting); fresh coat of paint in various classrooms (in consultation with the teachers); wall repairs; 8 bathroom renovations; custom murals with hand painting by Jason Burroughs; built-in benches and high top counter; remodel of the resource officer’s room; renovation of one of the teacher lounges; and new classroom clocks.
About those classroom clocks. Ralph B. O’Maley (O’Maley) school was built ca.1972 and first class welcomed in ’74. The original classroom clocks were synced (hardwired and controlled from the main office) and no longer operational and hadn’t been for some time. They were kept up until they couldn’t be; after so much time the manufacturer was long gone. Bids for repairing the classroom clock system were astronomical. Instead, DPW replaced them with new clocks, automatically synced and operated via a wireless station in the Commons.
(update: *phase one is 50 replacement clocks- 30 more to be added if these do all they should)
The hodgepodge assortment of abandoned seats and folding tables in the teachers’ break room were replaced with quality and safe amenities.
Two large bathrooms on the ground floor and six small bathrooms on the third floor were renovated. The bathrooms looked rough and dated. Swapping out elements with smart design choices have made a huge difference. New non-porous epoxy flooring in stock colors, fixtures, ceiling tiles, and brushed aluminum wall squares (to clean up and conceal fifty years of mismatched accessory drill holes) work wonders.
Similarly, spot design choices in long halls appeared to complete punch items lingering from the original build. For instance, random walls of cinder blocks– where banks of lockers were planned for and never needed–are now sheet rocked and finished. Others were repaired and painted. The odd, old wood base runners and lifts (again related to locker banks) were removed. Built in custom benches in one hall and a counter for another clean up long corridors and are functional for these spaces in ways they hadn’t been before. Paint color, good quality “brag” boards, and painted quotes were selected by teachers and students. Jason Burroughs hand painted the custom selected phrases.
Custom built-ins
Wall murals hand lettering by Jason Burroughs
Classrooms – Cleaned up walls and fresh coats of paint (colors selected by teachers)
Teacher’s desk rather than folding table (bonus- match case goods already there)
Acquisition of case-goods in some classrooms was necessary. For instance, this teacher’s desk is no longer a folding table.
Mike Hale describes the recent DPW O’Maley interior projects as small yet necessary and beneficial to staff and students alike. He added,
“Coming in at roughly $100,000/ $10,000**, all in all they’re worthy, and relatively short money on the return.”
-Mike Hale
Note from author- typo- $100,000 for this work (includes less than $10,000 for clocks).
Monumental new street art adorns the Cabot’s historic theater walls above and beside exterior murals painted in the 1990s by owner + staff from Le Grand David Own Spectacular Magic Company. Then and now the exterior murals offered opportunities for Montserrat students to assist in some capacity.
After a competitive mural call with some 70 submissions, Alex Senna, a muralist based in Sao Paulo Brazil was selected to paint the wall at Cabot and Dane streets (here). Helen Bur of London was chosen for the side wall along Judson at Cabot Street (this post), with Abington artist Felipe Ortiz assisting.
A portion of the cost for these 2019 public art works included about $40,000 raised by the Cabot and a grant award ($16,500) from the Essex Creative Community Foundation. The dedication is Tuesday, August 6, 2019 from 5:30-8:30PM at the Cabot (286 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA). Food trucks and brew will be part of the celebration event.
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Monumental new street art adorns the Cabot’s historic theater walls above and beside exterior murals painted in the 1990s by owner + staff from Le Grand David Own Spectacular Magic Company. Then and now the exterior murals offered opportunities for Montserrat students to assist in some capacity.
After a competitive mural call with some 70 submissions, Alex Senna, a muralist based in Sao Paulo Brazil was selected to paint the wall at Cabot and Dane streets (this post). Helen Bur of London was chosen for the side wall along Judson at Cabot Street (here), with Abington artist Felipe Ortiz assisting.
A portion of the cost for these 2019 public art works included about $40,000 raised by the Cabot and a grant award ($16,500) from the Essex Creative Community Foundation. The dedication is Tuesday, August 6, 2019 from 5:30-8:30PM at the Cabot (286 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA). Food trucks and brew will be part of the celebration event.
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Whether as sculptor, painter, muralist, mixed media or assemblage fine artist, Gloucester-born Jason Burroughs works across media with a signature touch. Can’t wait to see what happens from this residency. Follow him on Instagram- he’s been doing a weekly sketch on his instagram page @jazzyjburroughs
What would Jason do here?
Ever since I saw his inventive stepped paintings pre 2017, I wonder what would Jason do here-
2017 – inventive sculpture paintings stepped away from flat and vertical surfaces
or just about anywhere! I’ve written about the monumental walls at O’Maley ideal for professionally trained artists that are former Gloucester O’Maley grads–like Jason– at the start of their careers. Murals are common public art attractions. To date I have not seen one mural initiative with that focus. Clandenstine street art and graffiti art can break through. (Some practitioners are diametrically opposed to that commercial conceit.) Elite global street artists and muralists command hundreds of thousands of dollars through private and corporate sponsorships. Commissions this scale for young artists with degrees begin at $16,000. That’s a great our town endeavor/grant investment.
ABOUT GOETEMANN GLOUCESTER INVITATIONAL ARTIST RESIDENCY –
Established in 2015, this one month residency is offered by committee invitation to an inspiring and highly deserving Gloucester artist. It is understood that artistic inspiration can be difficult to attain when work and family take precedence. The artist is provided with a live-work studio for one month.Read more here about Goetemann juried and invitational artist residencies
The Cultural Center at Rocky Neck is open Thursday-Sunday. Seasonal Hours are: June through August 12-6pm, September through May 12-4pm.
Gallery 53 at Rocky Neck, 53 Rocky Neck Avenue is open seasonally May – October, seven days a week, 11am-6pm, Thurs-Sat until 8pm.
Spectacular City Hall, Gloucester’s cultural landmark and active municipal building, has nearly reached its 150th milestone at 9 Dale Avenue. Rising from the ashes, construction began in 1870 after the Gloucester fire of 1869 consumed its short-lived precursor. Gridley J.F. Bryant & Louis P. Rogers, leading architects at this time, were awarded the commission. Massive disaster response came two years later: the Great Boston Fire wiped out scores of Bryant designed buildings and the firm was awarded a significant percentage of its own rebuilds.
City Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973… which means the research and preparations leading up to that designation timed with its centennial birthday.Recently the expansive floors in Kyrouz Auditorium were buffed and polished and not for the first time. 150 years! Imagine all the footsteps and the generations of staff and volunteers that have cared for this building and community.
Credit DPW for their professionalism and kindness, and steadfast support for the city’s culture. Note their extra caution for protecting heritage from airborne material: mural and portraits were covered.
Before / After
City Hall looks stunning always- BEFORE shots
during (these two photos shared with me)
after
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The O’Maley Innovation Middle School campus setting is rather bucolic. There’s a line of apple trees that still bear fruit and suggest the original farm, playing fields are stepped down surrounded by marsh and pond, Dogtown stretches along one edge, and Pole Hill rises up across the way. Community volunteers and students have created lovely decorative gardens. Yes, the track needs work and the playing field could be upgraded to turf like Gloucester High School’s New Balance field at Newell Stadium. But it’s a beautiful spot to walk or catch a game. Ed Tedesco designed O’Maley in 1971. Although I believe the architect was quite sensitive to the setting, I understand how people criticize the exterior as harsh, or worse. “It feels like a prison!” exclaim some (and others joke. It is a middle school afterall.) You know what I see on the exterior when I come to O’Maley? Beautiful walls. Interesting shapes. Expansive public space ready for art and ideas.
O’Maley walls, photos from 2015
You can’t judge a book by its cover. OR can you? O’Maley has the potential for its shell to match the creative arts and legacy at its core. There are stunning historic murals from the 1930s and 40s in the Commons. The arts curriculum is valued and celebrated. The arts teachers are amazing. If there is any school in Massachusetts that sings out arts and legacy, let it be here. Monumental public art and street art abound in Gloucester.
Parsons Street before, after, and after
public art in Gloucester, MA and context collages
Py$eMoNeY117 21st Century Orphans, Gloucester, MA, Skribble Fish – graffiti art – not street art
And not just for flat surfaces. Artists have suggested creative responses to Americord’s striated surface like a piano keys mural along the wall (a motif you may have seen elsewhere); others proposed a changing light installation when the cultural district designation was underway.
Stephanie Benenson’s temporary installation Harbor Voices at City Hall
Street art has become big business. Cities and towns around the world vie for renowned muralists in a competitive commercialized market with varying degrees of success.
I vote Former Alumni
O’Maley Innovation Middle School has the perfect walls for showcasing creative voices of former alumni who are art school grads (or currently enrolled)– professionally trained and inspired to leave a mark. Ever since the dynamite 18UP and Under 30 exhibition, supporters hoped to catalyze possibilities for these emerging artists. Murals taken to this scale warrant investments of $15,000 per artist per wall.
Before I saw walls of possibility. I still see that, but now I imagine specific artists and I hope you do, too. There are plenty of walls to go around at O’Maley.
a few more international street art mural examples
Colleen creates beautiful children’s murals. Here’s one she did for my beannie. Best part is when she listens to what the child would like and they interact so the children take ownership of what is being created.
Thanks so much Colleen. (She also teaches children art classes at Island Art and Hobby)
The Gloucester Committee for the Arts announces $13,200 in new private donation!
This jumbo gift enables the current conservation work on six of the Charles Allen Winter New Deal murals in City Hall to be completed without interruption. We would have still pressed on but there may have been an interruption (scaffolding down and then set back up again months later) as we continued to raise funds. While the donors of the $13,200 contribution wish to remain anonymous, the funds were provided to the Committee through the Belinda Foundation at the Boston Foundation.
Committee member Roger Armstrong, the owner of the State of the Art Gallery on Rocky Neck and the State of the Art Gallery II located downtown on Pleasant Street , secured this immediate funding gift. Armstrong stated, “We are so very fortunate to be the beneficiaries of generous Gloucester citizens who share our appreciation for these art treasures in City Hall.”
And it’s also thanks in no small measure to the recent local media coverage –from GMG, Cape Ann Beacon and the GDT –of the current restoration of City Hall murals! The Committee is extremely grateful for this support of the conservation work and the recognition of the significance of the City’s collection of WPA-era murals.
If you would like to join the effort to care for the irreplaceable City art including these historic murals and the work of the CFTA, contributions in support of our City Art can be mailed to:
The Gloucester Fund
45 Middle Street
Gloucester, MA 01930
Be sure to put “Committee for the Arts” on the memo line of the check.
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Continuing my series of posts of murals from the stairwells of St. Ann’s Church, here’s one of two fishing boats. The names (updated thanks to a reader’s comment) are “Carole & Gary” and “Sunlight”. Anybody know to whom these vessels belonged?
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This is one of a series of murals that remain in the stairwells to the parish hall under St. Ann’s Church (Holy Family Parish). I am told that there used to be more murals, but some have been removed (and maybe some painted over, I don’t know). The ones that remain are in lamentably poor condition, but they are still fascinating, as they portray historical events, people, and boats of Gloucester. I’ll post a few more photos of these murals over the next few days. If anyone can identify themselves or family members (or their boats) in these paintings, please speak out!
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Good Morning Gloucester 