Gloucester artist, Emily Grace, has delivered a bold delight downtown. Magnolia Sunshine, her vivid new mural for the exterior wall of Bravo by the Sea , is complete and its immediacy lures you in.
I asked Emily about her inspiration and design:
“I was so glad when Beth (Beth Gibeley Panagos, Bravo owner) asked me to do my own style for the mural. All of the shapes and bright colors are the way I love to work and it’s just awesome when you get someone to commission you for something and they really want YOU. When thinking about the art for the space, we knew it needed to be Gloucester themed, and then we thought it would be great if it could be Magnolia themed since Beth and I both live in Magnolia.
I’m so honored to be able to bring my work right to Main St, it’s one of my favorite places on Earth, being a Gloucester girl!”
Emily Grace, November 2022
Emily Grace finished “Magnolia Sunshine” on Nov. 27, 2022. Did you spot the cherished landmarks? The completed mural features local scenes: a sunny surrealist horizon and lush floral border, Magnolia pier, harbor, and Kettle Island.
Emily Grace resides in Gloucester and is a Junior Painting Major at Salem State. You can see more Emily Grace art here: Instagram: @e.grace.art and Etsy ArtbyEmilyGStudio
Artist | Emily Grace
Commission | Bravo by the Sea, Main St. Gloucester, MA.
Bravo for Emily Grace Mural for Bravo by the Sea! photos: C. Ryan Nov. 30, 2022.
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Looping back from Dunfudgin and the high school to Emerson Avenue, I was delighted to encounter the soft and striking mural on the Pathways building, across the street from Open Door and the Veteran’s center.
August 2021 – Splash! Enjoy photographs of Grimdrops jazzy hometown portrait off the Elm Street side of Action, Inc. **new** Harbor Village apartment building in downtown Gloucester, Massachusetts. The large scale commission heralds Gloucester’s upcoming 400th celebration in 2023. The artist was born and raised in East Gloucester.
Hopefully NSCDSC will consider commissioning an extra add on for Grimdrops so the artist can extend his characterful water motif ideas straight to the top (and maybe add a gal for history! His vibrant notes brought Virginia Lee Burton Mike Mulligan Mary Ann and folly cove pattern references readily to mind). Come winter the mural might be visible from Chestnut Street. Bonus: if it’s topped off it will be visible year round from that vantage.
Gloucester Mural Map | Public Art
Grimdrops mural is on the map! Gloucester murals | Public art Gloucester, Massachusetts.
photo caption: future site (43′ x 63′) for new temporary mural commission Elm St., Gloucester
About the art call.
Calling all Gloucester, Cape Ann, North Shore and New England area artists! One monumental exterior wall and two interior sites are available for commission submission in downtown Gloucester on the new apartment building, Harbor Village. The exterior mural $5500 (fee & materials. Lift will be supplied.) Two mural opportunities (10 x 10; 10 x 15) inside are $2000 each (fee & materials).
“North Shore Community Development Coalition (NSCDC) and Action Inc. have partnered together to bring new art into downtown Gloucester through the Punto Urban Art Museum (PUAM)…The goal for this call is to provide opportunities for local/regional artists to bring life and color into downtown of Gloucester. Selected Artists/teams will be a part of efforts in celebrating the 400th anniversary of Gloucester!”
BEFORE VIEW- One future mural commission will go here!
Not here
Exterior mural could be visible from the next blocks: oblique angle view back to mural wall on Elm Street from Pleasant Street (between Cape Ann Museum and Jane Deering Gallery)
and strip at top visible from Chestnut
Action, Inc.’s support of the arts
Action, Inc. continues a tradition of supporting the arts with these new commissions. The organization has a history of collaboration with community arts partners, commissioning original public art for its buildings, and preserving any historic assets (buildings and art).
Gloucester Murals
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).
Artist experience runs the gamut: outsider and novice artists; community collaborations (with established artists helping youth); and solo endeavors (from trained professionals whether emerging or midcareer, established and revered).
corner diner
Nowadays Supreme Roast Beef
1930s | 2012 | 2021
photo credit: Catherine Ryan
Potential walls in Gloucester abound. At the back of Cape Ann Museum on Elm Street across from the new Harbor Village. One day O’Maley (see prior post here)
Cape Ann Art Haven most recent tape art, the St. Peter’s Fiesta VIVA mural, can be found at the corner of Pleasant and Main Streets. The engaging subject is built into more with each passing day which rewards repeat visits. Here’s where the unfolding scene stands today:
St. Peter’s Fiesta spirit underway despite Covid cancellation – Cape Ann Art Haven tape art mural in progress, Gloucester, Mass.
Cape Ann Art Haven current programs, free art kits, coloring book, and these new ephemeral public art projects were featured as part of Gail McCarthy’s wonderful Covid-19 series for the Gloucester Daily Times. Find the Art Haven article here: Creativity Amid Crisis
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The Rockport Public Library maintains a wonderful art collection. When visiting the temporary Once Upon a Contest: Selections from Cape Ann Reads in the children’s room and the special Betty Allenbrook Wiberg installation, don’t miss the genius Mother Goose 1938 bronze by Richard H. Recchia, and the Sam Hershey WPA-era mural, Rockport Goes to War, 1939.
The new Josh Falk mural (2019) is behind the Rockport Public Library.
Genius design bronze by Richard H. Recchia, Mother Goose, 1938
at the Rockport Public Library
This impression is annotated by the artist as a “sketch model sculpture by R. H. Recchia” (1888-1983). The sculpture rotates to illustrate the rhymes and beautifully expresses how children are captivated by stories. The sculpture is a tribute to his wife, Kitty Parsons (1889-1976), artist & writer, and one of the original founders of Rockport Art Assoc. It was originally situated within the library’s former smaller digs: the Rockport’s Carnegie Library established in 1906, a Beaux-Arts beauty around the corner, now a private home. It was one of 43 Carnegie libraries built in Massachusetts. In 1993 the library moved to its current site in an 1880s mill building, the Tarr School, thanks to the Denghausen bequest.
Parsons & Recchia resided and worked at their home “Hardscrabble” at 6 Summer Street in Rockport. (Rockport was their permanent address from 1928 till his death.) Recchia was born in Quincy. His dad was a stone carver from Verona who worked for Bela Pratt and Daniel Chester French. Later, Recchia was Pratt’s assistant.
For more bas relief examples by Recchia, see his Bela Pratt in the Yale collection, digitized entry here ) Recchia public sculptures are on permanent display at the Rockport Art Association & Museum. More photos below.
snippet video of Recchia Mother Goose sculpture rotating
click/double click on photos to enlarge photos to actual size (or pinch and zoom) | hover to read caption
Sam Hershey WPA mural, 1939
Sam Hershey Rockport Goes to War featured Rockport Public Library; W. Lester Stevens WPA mural Preparing Rockport for Granite dating from the same year is across the street in the Post Office
W. Lester Stevens 1939 mural in Rockport Post Office
is displayed on the same floor as Recchia and Hershey works February 3 – February 29, 2020.
Once Upon a Contest exhibit of children’s picture books is presented by the four libraries of Cape Ann with support from Bruce J Anderson Foundation | The Boston Fund . In this photograph, carved box by Lars and Betty Wiberg. Illustration by John Plunkett for Prince of Winter on left and illustration of dog by Mary Rhinelander on right.
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Gray and sunny day views of the beautiful street art mural by Josh Falk on Stone Barn Lane behind Rockport Public Library, Rockport, Mass., with support from Awesome Rockport. Falk’s work on display at Blume coffee shop in Whistlestop Mall is striking. How exciting to see his vision on a monumental scale!
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photos: 2019 AFTER above; and BEFORE 2017 and 2015 below. Jason Burroughs repurposed the Action Inc mural incorporating Cole Herbst’s original commission that had faded. This sunny location is hard on paint.
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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 (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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The Parsons Street wall murals were created by a lot of people including fine artists, teachers, and kids: Jason Burroughs, Laura Donworth, Kyra Moyer, Aiden Symes, Avery Mcniff, Teen Artist Guild, and Cape Ann Art Haven summer kids. One request from the building owner was that they include a reference to Gloucester’s Man at the Wheel as part of the overall composition. The long mural features iconic Gloucester architecture, history and themes (see the great whale!) . The Man at the Wheel depiction was pulled out and featured on its own; locals aware of the former owner’s affiliation with Sam Adams enjoyed the extra nod. Photos above are from 2015.
North Shore Magazinephotographs of Gloucester including wall mural (from the whale end) April 2018
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
Juni VanDyke is busy working on a figurative mural series that will be installed along the Rogers side of Rose Baker Senior Center in Gloucester, Massachusetts. VanDyke resides in Cape Ann and has been the stellar Director of the arts program at Rose Baker Senior Center since 1993. Her classes are Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, “elbow to elbow on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings, and in the afternoons.” All are welcome.
In addition to teaching art classes, she rotates exhibitions of art created by participants in the various art programs. Fine artist Mary McCarl and Helen Burgess will have their work on exhibit in the lobby of the senior center beginning April 4th though July 5th.
VanDyke is also curating the show “Closely Related” for Flatrocks gallery opening May 27 – June 24, 2018. The exhibit “attempts to identify and examine artistic elements that appear congruently in works by artists related by friendship or marriage, or by filial kinship, or by the duality of artist and place, or…other. Is our art influenced by our environment; our politics; the company we keep and/or by our generic connections? And is what we create truly unique? Or was Picasso right when he said: Every painting already has a mother and a father?” Exhibiting artists: Kathleen Archer, Shelly Champion, Loren Doucette, Paige Farrell, Jay McLaughlin, Barbara Moody, Hans Pundt, Lynne Sauselle, Patti Sullivan, Juni VanDyke
between the top floor windows on Rogers side
Phase II Rose Baker Senior Center site for a second new Juni Van Dyke mural –after the lively figurative series is completed.
Juni’s geraniums at home and work- top floor windows at Rose Baker
Nice letter from Patti Amaral in today’s Gloucester Daily Times writing on behalf of the city’s Clean City Initiative. She thanked the city, donors and supporters while providing some background about the Carry In Carry Out art. In case you missed it: Nov 9 2017 Letter to the Editor
The murals were refurbished by Jason Burroughs in October 2017. They were designed and painted by Bob Viau from StudioVo 15 years ago. Here are a few photos documenting the refurbishing. The Wingaersheek wall needed more attention.
Carry In Carry Out mural at Good Harbor Beach BEFORE
Carry In Carry Out mural at Good Harbor Beach AFTER
Carry In Carry Out mural at Wingaersheek BEFORE
Carry In Carry Out mural at Wingaersheek AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
Anyone interested in sponsoring a possible update to these beach displays, please let her know!
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On November 2 2017 David Brooks and Jason Burroughs re-installed the Action Inc public art mural, Harbor and Home, which was newly repainted by Burroughs.
Cole Herbst was the original artist of the Home and Harbor mural, installed in 2010. Herbst used spray paint, acrylics and markers. Fellow artists Jake Stafford and Giacomo Vorhees helped Herbst with the project, and Jason Burroughs was involved a bit, too. Burroughs and Herbst were students together in the Compass youth program, Action Inc. Burroughs and Herbst have been in contact about the condition of Harbor and Home and settled on the current solution. Herbst is living overseas and is pleased Burroughs revived the mural and its new iteration.
Toodeloos! and Island Art and Hobby at 142 Main Street is year round fun. They’ve consolidated two long standing creative and well curated independent local stores together into one space: both a fabulous local toy store and a professional art supply shop.
Toodeloos! is between the Birdseye and Winslow Homer HarborWalk story moment markers, and a short jaunt to the summer cinema at I4C2.
gentleman reading the Winslow Homer plaque on the HarborWalk trail today, Gloucester MA
James Owen Calderwood and Cape Ann Art Haven murals are such a great pass through on Parsons between Main and Rogers (across the street from Toodeloos!)
And from the HarborWalk marker at St. Peter’s park, it’s easy to check out the new murals by Danny Diamond at Cape Ann Brewery 11 Rogers Street!
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Good Morning Gloucester 