Impressive feat for a worthy cause. Congratulations to Michael Klonsky and the reporters for a great story!
He has trained in Cape Ann waters, too.
My View of Life on the Dock
Impressive feat for a worthy cause. Congratulations to Michael Klonsky and the reporters for a great story!
He has trained in Cape Ann waters, too.
Heidi Dallin shares the handy flyer with all the scoop!
Rehearsals Fridays and Saturdays October 29-December 11, 2021
Performance December 12
Contact Heidi for more information phone (978) 729-1094 | dallinh@northshoreymca.org
Print out and share!
Harbor Village, Gloucester, Massachusetts, first public art mural going up now! Can you guess the artist?
| After (still to come!)
For Day 2 update, see here
For more BEFORE pictures, see my prior post here
Voting is on for the mural space on Elm Street. See Joey’s post here to VOTE for the 2nd exterior mural (Elm Street)
Here is a selection of some of the exterior public art murals in Gloucester. Depending upon your device, double click or pinch and zoom to enlarge and/or right click to see the credit details. On mine there is an option to select “view full size”. Indoor murals include masterworks from Gloucester’s public art collection (for example see its major WPA-era New Deal murals).
image: © Catherine Ryan. Concord, Mass. Points of Interest: Concord Museum. Home of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Lousia May Alcott home of Little Women Orchard House. Thoreau Walden Pond. Gropius House. Marcel Breuer House 1. Moon Hill Road. Decordova. Drumlin Farm.
Heading from Gloucester & Cape Ann to Concord makes for easy nature hikes and must see visits year round. Winter walks on mild days offer unobstructed views. It’s remarkable how many points of interest and preservation are within walking distance — or brief drives– from each other in Concord and that share connections with Gloucester.
The Concord Museum’s expansion, the impact of Little Women film release, and Carol Thistle are featured in the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism Industry Update from January 2020 (MOTT). Read the full January 2020 news and stats here for inspiration. Nice to see North Shore highlighted.
Plan ahead because there’s so much in close proximity you’d be sorry to miss any. It’s easy to park at these Concord sites and walk to the others. A few require a drive.
Concord, Mass. Emerson’s home of 50 years is situated across from the Concord Museum and a two minute walk from Alcott’s family home. The house belonged to his wife, Ellen Tucker who died of TB at twenty in 1831, just two years into their young marriage. Emerson supported Thoreau, Alcott’s father (Bronson Alcott) and Hawthorne because of spousal inheritance. He married Lydian in 1835 in Plymouth, Mass. They raised a family in the Concord home.
“Emerson itemized “Gloucester” in his pocket journal entries because he came here for work and pleasure: as a Gloucester Lyceum invited speaker; with friends, most notably a famous walk here with Thoreau; visited Rockport in August 1855 and Pigeon Cove with family in 1856 (where he is remembered as the Inn in Rockport Mass most famous guest). Art fans aside: his ancestor, Thomas Emerson, built Arthur Wesley Dow’s house in Ipswich.”
Catherine Ryan
Founded in 1912 (!), the museum is the long time family home where Alcott wrote and set Little Women website Ralph Waldo Emerson backed her father’s work. Thoreau was her schoolteacher.
“When she was about seven her father enrolled her in a school taught by Thoreau, then 23. Thoreau often took his students out of the classroom into the woods. He taught them about birds and flowers, gathering lichens, showing them a fox den and deer tracks, feeding a chipmunk from his hand.
Sometimes he took the children on his boat, the Musketaquid, and gave them lessons as they floated down the Sudbury and Assabet rivers. As they passed the battlefield where the American Revolution started, he explained how the farmers had defended themselves against the redcoats. Louisa recorded her vivid memories of those field trips in Moods.”
excerpt New England Historical Society
Gloucester – Concord connections: Alcott stayed in a few neighborhoods when she visited Gloucester whether traveling alone, with family, or friends including Rocky Neck, Magnolia and West Gloucester. Extended stays at Braewood, 531 Essex Avenue, the home of Maria H. Bray in West Gloucester, were effectively a writer’s retreat and inspired Jack and Jill (published in 1880) set in “Harmony Village” which looks like Gloucester in the book’s illustrations. Louisa May Alcott was one of the notable repeat summer guests at Braewood (and perhaps at the ones Bray managed before in Magnolia including Willow Cottage).
Concord, Mass. Don’t forget that Walden Pond is right here, too! Hike to the site of the Henry David Thoreau cabin which he built on Emerson’s land and stayed 2-2-2 (as in two years, two months, two days) over 1845-47.
“When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden Pond, published 1854.
Combining this stop with downtown Concord underscores the scalability of his solitude and deep nature study, and how it was made possible with support from cherished family and friends. (Since it’s pretty much his back yard, no wonder he could walk home!)
Thoreau lived at 255 Main Street in downtown Concord from 1850 until his death in 1862. His former student, Louisa May Alcott, bought the historic house for her sister. She and her father lived there, too.
Gloucester – Concord connections: Walden Pond NPS Visitor Center designed by architect MaryAnn Thompson, same firm that built Temple Ahavat Achim in Gloucester, Mass. Thoreau came to Gloucester at least twice that we know of- in 1848 as an invited speaker by Gloucester Lyceum hosted in the town hall; and in 1854 as the penultimate stop of his north shore trek. Dogtown.
Lincoln, Mass. (Walden Pond/Concord line). A Historic New England property, Gropius House is a landmark Bauhaus residence now museum built in 1938, the same year as MoMa’s legendary Bauhaus exhibition. Marcel Breuer’s house 1 is down the hill.
Gloucester – Concord connections: Mass Modern trail and great buildings. Don Monell and other modern inspiration can be found on Cape Ann. The Graduate school at Harvard designed by Gropius was a TAC (The Architects Collaborative) build in 1950. TAC was founded in 1945 with the clout addition of Gropius who continued with the firm until his death in 1969. Original 7 founders were Norman Fletcher, Louis McMillen, Robert McMillan, Benjamin C. Thompson*, Jean Fletcher, Sarah Harkness and John Harkness. Twenty years later, Monell’s Plum Cove elementary school design in 1967 in Glocuester Mass was leveraged by partnering with The Architects Collaborative. Gloucester’s Plum Cove school is a TAC build. (Wikipedia lists several commissions. The school could be added.) This early 20th century history in Concord and Gloucester could inspire other movies.
*Jane (Fiske McCullough) Thompson and Deb Allen were co-founding editors of Industrial Design; Thomson had worked at MoMa for Philip Johnson. She married Ben Thompson in 1969. To my knowledge, there is no relation to architect MaryAnn Thompson who designed the Walden Pond visitor center.
The Marcel Breuer House 1 (1939) at 5 Woods End Road is essentially nestled into the Gropius hill property. Floor plans and interior photo published here are from the Marcel Breuer papers in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution collection. It was added to the National Historic Register in 1988. Minutes away conservation land was set aside thanks to 20th Century modernist architect, Quincy Adams. He served on the town’s conservation committee and donated hundreds of acres of his family’s land for green space.
Marcel Breur papers Smithsonian
Lexington, Mass. One could drive to Six Moon Hill after stops mentioned above, on the way back to Gloucester. It’s about 15 minutes from the Gropius House. Six Moon Hill is the nick name for an enclave of neighborhood homes in Lexington, Massachusetts, designed by the modernist architects of The Architects’ Collaborative (TAC) between 1948 and 1950.
The Gropius home was already optimally sited within the Walden Pond/Thoreau orbit. I’d wager intentionally so, a poetic and multidimensional nod to the natural and built environment and how to live. This dialogue among masters across centuries is another reason I believe Maryann Thompson’s visitor center is ideal.
Art historian Simon Schama resided on Moon Hill between 1981 and 1993.
“Six Moon Hill is a community of twenty-nine Mid-Century Modern houses designed by members of The Architects Collaborative (TAC), beginning in 1948… The property was purchased by the TAC architects in 1947 so they could build inexpensive homes for themselves, their growing families and their friends, and express Modernist socially progressive ideals. A corporation was formed, creating by-laws affecting future development, maintenance and communal responsibilities. The parcel was originally part of a farm, and while the land was initially used for grazing, the steeper areas had reverted to forest at the time of the purchase. Most of Moon Hill is on a ridge with rocky outcrops, wooded with oak and conifers. The impact of construction has been minimized, leaving the site as natural and undisturbed as possible” read more from the historical survey here
Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm is a five minute or so drive from the Gropius house. Moon Hill Road is more like 15-20 minutes. Minute Man National Park and Decordova are here, too. There are ample and varied scenic treks to mix it up for repeat visits
“On behalf of the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism, Happy New Year to our tourism colleagues around the world, as we embark on an exciting new year and a new decade here in Massachusetts. We are looking forward to a busy and productive year.
In-state initiatives on our horizon include Plymouth 400, the Restaurant Promotion Commission, a new Historic Women Trailblazers of Massachusetts initiative in honor of the 100th anniversary of the right to vote for women, and a major exhibit on King Tut coming to Boston in June. On MOTT’s international front, we have trade opportunities in Germany, Japan and South Korea in the coming months, as well as two of our most important tourism conferences, DNE and IPW. In this month’s MA Spotlight, we profile Concord Museum’s Marketing & PR Director Carol Thistle, who shares details about exciting new exhibits coming up in 2020 here.”
“…we are so excited about the Little Women film and we have already seen an increase in visitation to Concord because of it. Louisa May Alcott’s copper tea kettle that she used as a nurse during the Civil War is showcased in the Museum. Louisa almost died during the endeavor and was inspired to write her first published work, Hospital Sketches, which helped launch her remarkable and prolific career as one of America’s favorite writers.” – excerpt from Carol Thistle interview for MOTT spotlight Jan 2020
On exhibit at the Concord Museum through June 7, 2020 Beyond Midnight: Paul Revere
Special events featured here– save the dates!
“The $13 million capital campaign supported construction of the new Anna and Neil Rasmussen Education Center, which opened in fall 2018. What are some of the educational features? With this state-of-the-art Center, we host Forums on women’s suffrage, the abolition movement, revolutionary history, decorative arts and other topics connected to our collection. Since the opening of the Rasmussen Education Center, the Museum has served 14,000+ students through a variety of curriculum-based educational programs. Kids can explore the world of Henry David Thoreau, cook over an open hearth, and learn about Native culture through archaeology and so much more. In 2019, the Paul Revere’s Fund provided free bus transportation to the Museum and underwrote all program fees for nearly 4,000 students from Lowell, Lawrence, and Everett.”
“One of the greatest joys in my marketing and public relations career has been promoting so many incredible destinations in our state. Massachusetts has so much to offer local, national and international visitors with its natural beauty, seacoast and of course its history. In the past 25 years, through branding campaigns and strategic marketing, I have promoted some of Boston’s key icons, including Faneuil Hall Marketplace, the Boston Harbor Islands and the Museum of Science – as well as the cities of Gloucester and Salem. For the past 3 ½ years, I have been the Marketing Director for the Concord Museum as it has undergone an exciting $13 million dollar capital campaign, expansion and renovation. I’m also currently serving on the Board of the Concord’s Chamber of Commerce as well as the Advisory Board for both Discover Concord and the Town of Concord’s new Tourism initiative.”
– excerpt from Carol Thistle interview for MOTT spotlight Jan 2020
Experience the Best of Coastal New England!
Annotated illustration: Note gardens on properties abutting City Hall. William Haskell’s lots spread between Dale and Pleasant (#44 now) streets and beyond where Carroll Steele is located now, numbered 32 Pleasant Street, rear when he lived there. On the 1884 Hopkins and 1899 Stadly maps the lot is identified where the new post office is now.
Another Haskell (Cpt. John Haskell) was associated with 34 Pleasant (former Moose Home*), and Melvin Haskell with 136 Main Street. *The house history trail for 34 Pleasant (THEN 26 Pleasant): Pearce-J. Haskell-Calef-Moose Lodge (razed 2011)-Cape Ann Museum parking lot. This area could be an African American history stop spotlighting both abolitionist and antiabolitionist connections.
Street numbers were shifted. Behind #44 Pleasant Street now (below)
Dates: b.January 23, 1810 – d.August 26, 1902
Parents: Eli (b. 1776 Gloucester, MA) and Lydia (Woodbury Bray) Haskell
Brother: Epes
Grandfather: Elias Haskell
First Wife and two daughters: Sarah Ann Bray (1811-1836) “died September 12, 1836 leaving two daughters* now deceased, one of whom (Sarah*) married a Mr. (Thomas*) Symonds of Reading and the other (Judith*) married Edwin Bradley of Rockport and was the mother of Mr. Edwin Archer Bradley* of Gloucester, Mass.” E Archer Bradley was Captain Sylvanus Smith son-in-law. E Archer Bradley is listed in the 1913 Polk directory as Vice President of the Gloucester Mutual Fishing Insurance Co and Director Rocky Neck Marine Railway Company.
Second Wife and six children: Mary S. Smith (died August 15, 1889) Married July 19, 1838. They had six children: “William G. Haskell of Washington, DC, Col. Edward H. Haskell and Charles A Haskell of Newton, Frank A. Haskell of California and Mrs. Saddie, wife of Samuel W. Brown of this city. One son, Asaph S. Haskell, laid his life on the altar of his country at Morehead City, N.C., September 28, 1863, of yellow fever while a member of Co. C, Twenty-third Regiment, where he had gone awaiting transportation home, his death occurring on the date of the expiration of his term of enlistment.”
Raised: West Gloucester, learned the trade of shoemaker according to obituary
Gloucester 250th Anniversary: served as Vice President of 250th celebration committee
Residences: 44 Pleasant Street (was between Dale and Pleasant streets and beyond where Carroll Steele is located now) formerly address 32 Pleasant Street, rear– either may have evidence Undergound Railroad. Haskell’s lots spread between Dale and Pleasant.* Another Haskell (Cpt. John Haskell) was associated with 34 Pleasant (former Moose Home) and Melvin Haskell with 136 Main Street.
Biographical information I dug up and researched then confirmed at Gloucester Archives August 29th with a special thanks to Sandy and Sarah with Gloucester Achives. I wanted to confirm Haskell’s address and home, because streets and numbers change on maps over time, and because I knew Sandy could help best with tracking down cemetery information about Haskell’s first wife and the daughters’ names missing from records and I wanted to spotlight her dedicated efforts.
Haskell’s first wife is buried in West Gloucester- historic Sumner St. Cemetery. Haskell and his first wife had two daughters. Sarah Ann Frances, born September 28, 1832 in Gloucester, died young, in December 1853. She married Thomas S. Symonds July 1851. (Haskell and his second wife named one of their daughters, Sarah “Seddie” Symonds Haskell, after his first child.) The second daughter, Judith Goldsmith, born February 20, 1836, married Edwin Archer Bradley on November 8, 1854.
“OLDEST MALE RESIDENT DEAD: William H. Haskell Closes Life at Age of 92 years- An Original Abolitionist and Life-long Republican
Fun poster (note sponsor Lyon-Waugh) for the 2018 Healey Seaside Summit which has just one more day in our area. I look forward to seeing photographs of these beautiful cars zipping around our scenic shores; send some in to GMG!
Pauline Bresnahan shares this photo and writes: “Ladies from the Austin-Healey summit travelled along our Woman Owned Business on the Essex Coastal Scenic Byway. They are now headed to Beautiful Gloucester Ma to enjoy a sail on Schooner Lannon and the Schooner Ardelle. Thanks Ladies for stopping in.”
A photo journal after the storm documenting and comparing a few iconic and sweeping Gloucester vistas on January 7, 2018, when all was white ice frozen, and again after the Great Thaw on January 13 2018.
Gloucester Motif- the house boat in view just before the turn off at Nichols
The Little House boat in the great frozen salt marsh reminded me of a mash up of two of Virginia Lee Burton’s children’s picture books inspired by Gloucester — Little House and Katy and the Big Snow. Here’s the little floating houseboat after the thaw at low tide January 13, 2018.
At high tide earlier in the day, January 13
Good Harbor Beach drive by three days after the storm
Good Harbor Beach salt marsh drive by one week after the storm and great thaw
Below the read more break: additional winter comparison photos (icebergs on the marsh by Lobster Land, Good Harbor Beach parking lot, Good Harbor Beach salt marsh, Stoney Cove pier at Little River & Annisquam River)
Continue reading “Little houseboat in the great frozen salt marsh #Gloucester MA”
Slated to run in conjunction with National Women’s History Month, Women of Essex Stories to Share, will be on display most weekends from March 18-April 29. The show is hosted by Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum. Lee adds:
“The motivation for this exhibit was the recognition that, while our emphasis at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum has been on shipbuilding and the men involved with it, there were many significant roles of women in the community. Hence the exhibit Women of Essex – Stories to Share. This exhibit features about a dozen women that we are featuring individually in this first phase of the project. To help scope this effort, we are focusing this phase on women who are no longer with us. These include the women that were instrumental in building the first meeting house, one of the first woman auctioneers in the country, a female professional baseball player, a woman who was a motivator behind several town projects, several individuals active in the arts, and even an enslaved woman. There will be collections of several other groups of women, namely teachers and restaurateurs, an Essex mainstay.”
Meg Montagnino Jarrett introduced the movie, Manchester by the Sea, from the Cabot stage in Beverly, MA, this past Thursday evening, the first public screening in Massachusetts. Members of the audience worked on the film, and dignitaries such as Senator Bruce Tarr and Mayor Romeo Theken were invited. Montagnino Jarrett is a local film producer who worked on behalf of the MA Film office to bring these kinds of projects to the area and is the official liaison for Rockport and Gloucester. Manchester by the Sea is directed by Kenneth Lonergan who appears in a biting scene.
I didn’t recognize this as being such a typical Massachusetts or even an American story. I registered quality and pathos– a modern day Greek tragedy so thoughtfully sculpted it will be understood across the globe, whether you’ve set one foot in this state or not.
You can however walk right home: the sense of place is rendered as carefully as an artist can, as much– or more –than the characters and script. Impressions of the gray and brown landscape long shots were so right. I thought about winter scenes by local artists, like Stoddard’s murals at Sawyer Free Public Library. Residents can tally scenes, wardrobe, and dialogue filled with local references to Cape Ann communities: the harbor, Ten Pound Island, Rose Marine, Seatronics, local New England homes, the ‘Edward Hopper’ Herrick Court staircase, Richdale mart, property alongside East Gloucester elementary, signs along Highway 128, Manchester Essex school, Willow Rest, hockey scenes and Viking posters. Don’t worry, unless you are the talented location scouts celebrating at this premiere– which they were, Cabot has a bar and snacks–audiences won’t find each and every recognition flicker with just one screening. There were far too many, and oft times veiled. Besides, if you possess a beating heart you will be squeezing your friend, looking away, or grabbing Kleenex at least a couple of times.
Manchester by the Sea is a beautiful and searing movie.
The film is a meditation on grief, love, and life. You’ll find flaws. That’s subjective and feels real, too. It’s meticulously crafted and directed. Casey Affleck, Kyle Chandler and Michelle Williams are vivid; all of the cast and crew will be impacted by having been a part of the movie. The movie will fuel your eyes and perspective while you watch, and hover around your thoughts and conversations days later. Walking away from the theater, I said American cinema verite. My mind wandered to more mood and art: crisp short stories; poetry; two films, House of Sand and Fog and In the Bedroom, not direct comparisons but as other powerful clutch ups. On the drive home we shared family stories and discussed edges of tragedy. Life and art can be devastating.
I made a mental list of movies that made me crumple beyond the pale. This one wasn’t exactly that for me, thankfully, as the lights came up quickly! But it was memorable as all get out, and as art. Are there movies that have made you cry, yet you’d watch them again; or sad movies you haven’t forgotten? I think this might be one for many viewers.
Part II: more on the making of the film, locally
Long Beach.
The North of Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau (NBCVB) and Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce co-hosted a special visit featuring Lisa Strout, the Director of the Massachusetts State Film Office.
Woodman’s Essex Room served a lovely luncheon– great chef and venue for events. (I wish I had a second raspberry tart.)
Lisa talked about film and media production in the state and how her department works with cities and towns. The crowd was mostly North Shore but I did speak with people who drove from Lowell, the Cape and western Massachusetts.
Speaking of vendors: Woodmans called out a list of vendors they work with who have generously contributed to their scholarship fund. You can see that on the back of their anniversary clam sign.
Rockport to Gloucester and back again, speeding along for a shore close-up at the very end. We couldn’t resist filming the speedy little guy. Did the dog know? Hoping this Monday minute whisks you away to a fabulous shore.
Any soundtrack can work. I was tempted to write ‘Ryan’s dog’… The west coast of Ireland vistas in the movie Ryan’s Daughter flicked in my mind. The 1970 movie was directed by David Lean, cinematography by Freddie Young, and score by Maurice Jarre.
Joey forwarded the following information and links from an editorial that was recently posted on “North Shore Nature News.” We’ll post the first several paragraphs from the editorial, and the comment from Jim Schmidt that Joey found particularly interesting. In fairness to the author, the See More, directs the reader back to the original editorial.
“In Nancy Gurney’s classic children’s book, “The King, the Mice and the Cheese,” a king brings in cats to get rid of the mice eating his cheese. He then brings in dogs to get rid of the cats. Lions to get rid of the dogs. Elephants to get rid of the lions. And, finally, mice to get rid of the elephants.We find ourselves in similar straights with the eastern coyote.
Wolves once occupied the top of the area’s food chain. But we hunted them into near extinction. So, with no wolves in the area, coyotes began to enter the commonwealth in the 1950s as the food chain’s top dog. DNA evidence shows the coyotes mated with what was left of the wolves and with dogs. The cross breeding created the eastern coyote, a larger version of what wildlife experts now call the western coyote.
The coyote is bolder and more adaptable than the shier, more reclusive wolf. So, instead of confining itself to rural areas, as the wolf once did, the coyotes occupy rural, suburban and urban habitats. Add the fact that Massachusetts loses an estimated 40 acres a day of rural land to development and it’s inevitable the human and the coyote worlds will collide.” – See more at: Ipswich Wicked Local
Comment from Jim Schmidt:
“I have 54 years of first hand and face to face experience with coyotes. I retired as a fulltime USDA government coyote specialist recently. I have dealt with coyotes in New York, South Carolina, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Many remarks in this editorial are very incorrect. Coyote are dangerous wild predators. They are smart, problem solving, professional killers. They kill and eat everything too.
They DO NOT have to be rabid to be dangerous. Look up the “Biting Coyote of Green Valley, Arizona” as an example. This unprovoked coyote attacked and bit 8 adult people. The media and local medical professionals claimed it “must be Rabid” and it was not. How do I know? I was the one that removed him. Coyotes have a very low history of rabies too. I know first hand that coyotes will attack any size animal if it wishes. Three coyotes attacked and killed a large Rottweiler dog while the owner was walking it and another large dog. They killed and ate it-I was there again.
How do they kill a horse you ask? They will run it until it over heats and stops and often lies down and they take them. I have seen it again. They stand at the rear of a cow or horse giving birth and attack and kill the newborn when it hits the ground. Goats, sheep, chickens, cats, apples, water melons, garden hoses, and much more are at risk all the time…basically nothing is safe from the clever coyote. This dangerous animal will never be on welfare as it can take care of itself better than anything I know of or experienced.
I encourage you to learn the truth about coyotes not fantasies. They are a marvel of nature and they are in your state and community now. This is a professional dangerous killer for sure.” Jim Schmidt – See more at: Ipswich Wicked Local
Clouds over the Essex River at high tide
It being Sunday and all, I thought I’d remind you of a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon during the summer. Polo.
I know as much as anyone that it is hard to tear yourself away from the beach, boat, deck, or backyard BBQ on a sunny afternoon during the precious and all too fleeting summer months, but, if you’re up for something a tiny bit different, taking in a Polo match is really quite fun!
I’d like to add, however, that better than simply doing it….is doing it right!
The best way to do it is to gather a bunch of your friends, grab a chunk of tailgate space on the sidelines, pack the picnic of all picnics, stuff a cooler to capacity and have a lovely afternoon. Despite popular belief, holding your pinky up while drinking is actually optional. The polo crowd is quite mixed and quite lovely. Ummm….and to any single ladies who happen to be reading….you could probably find a less attractive bunch of athletes elsewhere. Just saying. I should add that there are some pretty rad female players too. I, for one, would LOVE to learn the game.
My boys enjoy walking around and meeting the players and ponies before the match begins. I’ve yet to meet a player who wasn’t friendly and more than happy to let the boys ask questions and meet the horses. They also get a kick out of replacing the divots in-between chukkers….often times barefoot. (Insert mild shutter….horse poop and all).
Located at 11 Central Street in Manchester, the Central Street Gallery is an artists cooperative. Gallery Director Alison Rowell says that they have about 14 members who each rent wall space in the gallery which starts off at a width of approximately 73″. The artists can hang as many paintings as are practical.
The focus of the gallery is a traditional Plein Aire style with the paintings set in gold frames. There are some deviations on the theme providing some different styles though the general style for paintings is still life and landscapes.
Each member of the Gallery agrees to rent space and also to paint 5-6 new paintings every two months which they deliver framed and ready for hanging. The Gallery presents six shows each year so the collection of paintings is changing every two months. To give each artist equal opportunity to the better display areas on the walls, every two months each artist rotates their space three wall spaces, guaranteeing each artist equal time in the front window.
Central Street Gallery is celebrating their fifth year at 11 Central Street and will be starting their next show with an opening night reception on December 7th. This show will focus on smaller works from the artists.
In addition to the Gallery there is a website (www.central street gallery.com) where more of each artist’s works are shown.
The artists are generally local with a number living in Manchester and Gloucester. Central Street Gallery is a great place to support local artists and is clearly a place to check out.