There is much exciting work in progress along Stacy Boulevard including welcome tributes to women. Incremental aesthetic improvements, public access, ease of movement, and celebration of culture require many hands and deliver a huge impact. Here is a brief description of the special current projects and some people involved.
Two revitalized and enhanced gardens beyond the tennis courts will emphasize generations of care
“Remarkable support comes from volunteer expertise like award winning designer Ann Geraldi Johnson and Susan Kelly and the Generous Gardeners who have stepped up as the city’s groundskeepers on the boulevard.” Mike Hale, Director of Public Works
The Elizabeth Gordon Smith (Betty Smith) garden was cleared and the small Picture garden past the boulevard tennis courts was unearthed. Because Gloucester garden groups pre-date 1900, it’s especially moving to see the work in progess shoring up inspiring legacy connections. Incredible volunteers past and present serve the city’s Department of Public Works (DPW). Stacy Boulevard & Stage Fort Park advocates like Betty Smith, Louise Loud & the Gloucester Civic & Garden Council tended and protected Gloucester’s natural beauty — the very same grounds that are so lovingly served now by dynamos like Ann Gilardi Johnson and Susan Kelly & the Generous Gardeners. Plaques for Lucy Brown Davis, tribute by her sister Catalina Davis, and for Lucy P. Rogers ” president of the Gloucester’s Woman’s Club 1927-29″ are nearby.
photos: Betty Smith garden IN PROGRESS February (overgrowth and clearing underway–poison ivy was found) vs. March and can’t wait to experience the AFTER!
February 2019March 24, 2019 more progress two gardens revitalized- Paul Manship Triton fantastic enhanced boulder base clearingGloucester, Mass., March 2019. Pubic art – Walker Hancock Triton
March 2019 work continuing across Stacy Boulevard – read details HERE about these projects– Hancock Sculpture, Betty Smith Gardens & Tennis Courts to the East, and Blynman Bridge & railings to the West- additional stunning work and investment thanks to Gloucester MA Department of Public Works, Ann Gilardi Johnson, Generous Gardeners, CPA, Department of Transportation (DOT), and more. Stacy Boulevard Part 8
March 24, 2019 photos of Walker Hancock Triton and grounds prep before/in process.
Gloucester, Mass., March 2019. Pubic art – Walker Hancock Triton
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
Gloucester, MA, and NH artist, Liz Fletcher shares save the date:
“On Saturday, April 28, 2018 the world will join in celebration of sculpture during the 4th annual International Sculpture Day. Artists, organizations and institutions worldwide will celebrate the day with open studios, unveiling public sculptures, sculpture scavenger hunts, pop up exhibitions, demonstrations, iron pours, plus much more.” Bedrock Gardens, “an oasis of art, horticulture, and inspiration”, International Sculpture Day Group Show, Lee, NH
Saturday April 28 – May 8, 2018
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
from a studio visit with Stephanie Benenson Nov 2017
You can join in Stephanie Benenson’s fascinating big vision, Harbor Voices, a public art and cultural piece that’s made from light, sound and community participation. Part of the project is a large-scale and temporary LIVE light & sound installation which will happen on ten minute loops from 4-8pm on Friday December 8th, and Saturday December 9th, one of many featured events for the 2017 Middle Street Walk. Harbor Voices will be held inside the Kyrouz Auditorium in City Hall , 9 Dale Avenue, Gloucester, MA.
Come experience a sweeping ocean of sound, stories and light, drawn by the voices and acts of generosity of neighbors and friends.
Benenson, a Rockport native and North Shore based fine artist, received a prestigious and competitive RISD grant to create Harbor Voices. Benenson collected over 100 stories in eight languages of recent and ancestral immigration to Cape Ann. For the past year she led (and continues to lead) practical and creative storytelling sessions and workshops at area schools like Veteran’s Memorial and Gloucester High School, as well as community organizations and centers such as Sandy Bay Historical Society. Students talked with Benenson about “their ancestors* and families bringing cultural heritage to Cape Ann.” She said that kids mentioned “family members that started businesses here (like Jalapenos, Sclafanis, and other cultural destinations on Cape Ann)…and how meangingful that was to them…and people that they had deep respect and admiration for…” They discussed “family recipes, music, food and how immigration historically has made American art and culture come alive.” Mayor Romeo Theken was the first story collected. Other Cape Ann storytellers outside of the schools and non profit partners include: Jean Testaverde (Portuguese fishing ancestry), Ingrid Swan (Swedith quarrying ancestry), Heather Lovett (descendent of Roger Babson), Sal Zerilli (Awesome Gloucester and Rockport), Jan Bell, Buddy Woods, Susannah Natti (Finnish and descendent of Folly Cove designer), Rich Francis (GHS teacher), and Celestino Basille (GHS teacher).
Depending upon age and preference, stories were written, recorded, or drawn. All were mixed into materials and audio that will choreograph connections directly into the light installation, and an enlarging community. At first, Benenson thought the light might guide any audio. Instead voices continue to guide the light.
Every story and act of generosity is linked to the installation and transformed into light.
Blurring the lines between public art and social sculpture, LIVE happening and virtual action, Harbor Voices emblematically presents stories, shared connections and actions. Participants of all ages are encouraged to interact with the project www.harborvoices.com and its installation– to bathe so to speak in a community of vibrancy and waves of interconnectedness and support. Benenson adds that from 4-6PM during the two days of this installation iteration, “children will be offered a small flashlight to engage with this artwork, allowing them a tangible moment to consider their part in this interconnected network of community and local history by creating their own beam of light.” Also, before the installation opens to the public, one hundred Gloucester High School students –including some who have already added into the piece– will come to City Hall to experience Harbor Voices.
Benenson’s promotion for Harbor Voices launched in September. Leveraging attention for this remarkably ambitious project is an essential component as more involvement means more impact. Straight away it fostered community and brought opportunities. For example, Benenson spoke about the project and shared audio of the stories with Rose Baker seniors, Gloucester Rotary and the Cape Ann Museum’s Red Cottage Society. Someone from Beverly has already underwrittten support for a class at Veteran’s Memorial Elementary School. She spoke about the project with Joey as part of GMG podcast #253
As a third generation Cape Ann artist, Benenson is especially excited to “create art and conversations around our cultural heritage and our contributions to the vibrant mix of people that live on Cape Ann.”
Today all systems were go: 33°F, daylight, dry pavement, and a craving to walk some distance without my cane. Janet took the cane at the front door and we walked at a medium pace to my favorite animal sculpture park. After stopping to take a few photos, we walked back home. Total distance: One half mile using no cane or other walking aid.
As the journey started thirteen months ago, I couldn’t roll onto my side in a hospital bed. I graduated to a wheelchair, then a walker, followed by a cane, and now two legs. I’m currently scouting around for a longer full–milestone trail. (Photo by Janet).
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
This bear family is traveling to its new home at Simon Properties in their Premium Outlets in Quebec, Canada.
Fred Bodin gives the Kodiak Bear Family sculpture a “bear hug” during a special preview on the grounds of the Chris Williams sculpture studio in Essex, MA. I am 6’1″ tall, and males of this species of bear grow to over 10′ tall when standing on their hind legs. The tree the bear family is climbing is 17′ high. The Kodiak bear is to scale! Kodiak, or brown bears, are named after an island of the same name in Alaska.
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
Janet and I occasionally walk up Phillips Avenue, and have enjoyed a little park along the way. We’d sit on the ledge or a bench to enjoy the view. There were no sculptures or signs then, so we thought it was public. Now we know it’s private, but clearly not connected to a nearby house. Your thoughts?There are all sorts of wild African animals in this little park, including some monkeys and people. Perhaps Marty and Barbara Luster can help us identify them.These are more of the amazing granite sculptures. Does anyone know the story behind them? Let us know.
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
Save the Date! This Saturday and Sunday from 12-6 we will be hosting open studios in the Blackburn building, 2 Main Street, Gloucester. Stop on by, say hi, browse our work and have some snacks!
Come through the parking lot to the entrance at the back/side of the building and take the elevator up toe the third floor.
I will have my vintage shop, Madcap Style, open so come and visit me on the 3rd floor! I will be adding lots of new summer clothes and accessories too.
Don’t miss a special exhibit beginning with a lecture on Tuesday, November 15th at 7 p.m. in honor of National Recycling Day. The art show will feature the work of Nina Cassel Samoiloff (read more about her work HERE on Good Morning Gloucester) and the pieces she creates using elements she finds washed up on the beaches of Rockport.
From the NOAA: NOAA Fisheries Service Sponsors Marine Debris Lecture and Art Show
NOAA Fisheries Service is sponsoring two local artists who have focused recent efforts on the impacts of marine debris in our oceans. Gloucester’s Karen Ristuben will present her recent sailing expedition from Honolulu to Vancouver, British Columbia to document marine debris in the Pacific Ocean. Nina Cassel Samoiloff will present art work crafted from marine debris collected from Rockport beaches. Her work will be on display in the NOAA Fisheries lobby weekdays from 8:00am – 4:30pm from November 15th until December 15th. This event will take place at NOAA Fisheries Service, 55 Great Republic Avenue in Gloucester at 7:00 pm on November 15th. For more information, please contact Eric Hutchins, NOAA Fisheries, at 978-281-9313.
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
Catch, a show at the Tusinski Gallery on Main Street in Rockport, opens today, Earth Day, and runs through May 22nd.
Catch features the work of artist Nina Samoiloff, as she collects and collates the pieces she finds on the beaches of Rockport (documented on her blog, also called Catch) before creating sculptures and photographs of her finds. But the artist’s beach finds aren’t the usual gallery suspects, the carefully edited and crafted work involving natural driftwood, shells, or even beach glass. Catch features items of a different sort, all of them man-made — the artist even uses cut lumber, washed up on the beach, instead of naturally-occurring driftwood in her pieces. The show is a sobering and impressive collaboration between man and nature, truly an expression of the time we live in, for better or for worse. A time in which we make permanent stuff to use for a very temporary moment — like water bottles, for instance — before throwing this same stuff away, much of which ends up in the eternal ocean before rolling back onto the shore — and back into our lives.
My sculpture and my obsessive morning ritual of picking up of plastic on the beach (which I document and post on my blog Catch) are symbiotic, without the one the other would not exist. Both are discarded products of a consumer society, and both are a challenge to me as to how to present these items artfully to the viewer. The beach lumber sculptures are a combination of my industrial design education and my desire to recycle. Each piece of lumber speaks to me, it’s shape, texture, color or the nails protruding from it have the potential to become part of a bigger finished sculpture.
– Nina Samoiloff
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
Good Morning Gloucester 