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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but not for long! Danny Diamond is completing the monumental Cape Ann Brewery mural wrap on the Rogers Street side today.
Cape Ann Brewery is located at 11 Rogers Street on the water by St. Peter’s park. If you’re in town it’s a gorgeous day for a harbor walk to check the painting out LIVE! I’ll post more info and photographs of the mural in progress.
If you miss seeing him in action today, you’ll have another chance as he’s signed on to paint LIVE again at the Harvest Festival. You can follow Danny on Instagram @pyse117 and http://www.skribblefish.com
before…
during…
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There’s a monumental outdoor mural behind Prince Insurance at 3 Washington Street, Gloucester, Massachusetts, that changes every year. It’s sited on private property.
Thanks to the Greeke family who own Prince Insurance and let him have at it, artist and writer Danny Diamond has expressed his ideas and showcased his can command on this same outside wall annually since 2011.
My favorite sight line is from Middle Street heading to the Captain Lester S. Wass American Legion Post 3 and the Joan of Arc sculpture by Anna Hyatt Huntington. It’s in a tight spot, and so is the kid with the green, green eyes staring back from the latest mural.
Diamond is using his talents to bring awareness to homelessness and the economy. Here’s an excerpt from his statement about 21st Century Orphans: “The windfall of green-backs that flies from my letters gives way to dingy news-print and beggars’ placards–this orphaned child’s currency. It’s rarely discussed, in our scenic little fishing town, that the homeless population has increased in Massachusetts by 40% since 2007, even as the national average was in decline. This in part due to the fact that the cost of living here in Mass is among the highest in the country; the cost of housing continues to increase now that the market has come back, and there is no relief in sight… Fifteen percent (over half a million) of our children here in the Bay state live in poverty; of the over seventeen-thousand homeless people here, thirty-eight percent are children.” – Danny Diamond, 2016
A Gloucester native, Diamond is busy with commercial art and commissions on both coasts. I had a chance to ask him more about his art and writing after I did a post about the sea monster fence he painted. He brushed off the street artist description: “I consider myself a graffiti-writer and sometimes a mural-artist, but not a “street-artist” (semantic distinction).” I asked him about Gloucester connections and if he went to the high school. Did any teachers influence him? He wrote back swiftly:
“I studied art under Jackie Underwood, who was “Jackie Kapp” at the time, as well as theatre and set-design with Krista Cowan and Kim Trigilio. I went on to earn a cum laude BA in English Lit and Creative Writing at UMass Boston, class of ’06… I spent a lot of time at Artspace on Center St. as a kid, and so Gloucester’s sub-cultural grandmaster Shep Abbott had a big effect on me by bringing punk rock and mural art into downtown. I was mentored in the world of graffiti art by the late Jed Richardson of Manhattan who was a major figure in the NYC subway-train art movement of the 1980’s; he moved to Gloucester in 2001 or so and remained here until his passing in September of ’09… ”
Diamond created a tribute chalk mural to his mentor at Minglewood Tavern. I worked in New York and saw first hand the 1980 era kings (and not so kings) of subway and club graffiti. I didn’t know Jed Richardson’s work and wondered if Diamond had an image to share for this post.
artist Jed Richardson c.2008 (photo from artist Danny Diamond)
I also thought about the owners who turned over their wall for Diamond’s art. I learned that the building is owned by Peter Greeke who founded Prince Insurance. Aha! A creative family that understood and allows Danny Diamond the use of a large wall to practice and express his art. The Prince Insurance company is on Washington Street between Middle and Main and directly across from the Legion. It is a second generation family business that has specialized in personal insurance for more than 35 years. It’s now co-owned by sisters, Melissa Moseley and Wendy Prendergast. A third sister, fashion designer Jennifer Greeke, operates Harpy Fashion out of the back office. The Prince Insurance storefront stands out with such original picture window displays.These windows are an entire family affair. Melissa doesn’t remember a time before the windows. Their mother creates them; Jen has made clothing, sculpted papier-mâché creatures and mermaids. “Of course because of the community we live in, over time artistic customers and friends joined in…like Richard Harding and the built boat. They’re just a lot of fun.” Prince Insurance has a beautiful new website.
I hoped Danny Diamond had a record of his devoted wall mural project, which he obliterates and repaints every year. He did. Photographs below are from Diamond or his website, www.skribblefish.com. His Instagram is @pyse117. I added one showing a work in progress he is completing for a new restaurant opening in Salem in February and other local commissions.
Worcester, the host city for the Ma Smart Growth Conference, is Massachusetts’ second largest city and pretty pumped with a 500 million investment in their ‘city square’ area. The city invested 8 million dollars into their ‘streetscapes’, including a skating rink. “10,000 came out for themed skate nights!” I’ve heard skating rink wishes mentioned once or twice in Gloucester: discussions pro I4C2 or somewhere on Middle Street (“a scene nearly Currier and Ives!”) and why isn’t the O’Maley skating rink used by the students? “We used to use it for gym? It’s an amenity right there.”
Other conference talks focused on investment in public space and public health. Worcester aims to earn the distinction Healthiest Community in MA by 2020. They have the first and only accredited public health department so they’re investing in a core culture. The conference speakers spoke about housing, planning, walk-ability, return of multi-generational family households, and diversity. Millennials say: “Where do I want to live?” and then go. Their parents’ said “Where is the job?” and relocated. We were told many times that millennials are different than boomers: they don’t like traditional offices and buildings for work. They would rather walk, bike or commute by train. Ideally their life radius would fall within one mile, a neighborhood scale. How does that affect consolidating schools vs neighborhood schools and other debates ensued.
From a planning perspective: “Does the investment action help to encourage sprawl or does it invest in your community?”
The session “Is Housing a Municipal Budget Buster” was led by Mayor Donna Holaday of Newburyport and panelists included former Gov. Glendening and Umass Dartmouth Director of Public Policy, Michael Goodman. Most questions went to Mike Hogan, who gave a talk about Oceanspray’s residential venture in Plymouth, Redbrook Village. Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce brought him here to speak to our communities a couple of years ago. He said to say hi to Peter Webber :).
The second session I attended focused on arts and planning and was led by artist (ceramicist) and planner, Jennifer Erickson with Kenneth Bailey, Design Studio for Social Intervention (D24SI) and others. A projected slide loop featuring model national art projects scrolled continuously. I was so caught up in the briefs that I nearly missed one picture from Gloucester: the monumental Parsons Street mural by James Owen Calderwood. Congratulations James!
Cruz Ferreras took the photograph during a block party; there’s a Cape Ann Art Haven painting in progress and kids leaping. Since that photo, street lighting and more art was added, a second monumental mural, painted by children, under the direction of Cape Ann Art Haven. The Gloucester Fish Net mural was a temporary commission that is lasting because the road is primarily used for walking. (Also, the artist painted it over a second time, and widened it.) With funding, Cape Ann Art Haven art center or an individual artist like Jason Burroughs (who assisted James Owen Calderwood) could re-paint the mural. With funding and fresh sealcoating, we could issue a Call for a new work of art. There are several more walls along Parsons Street that could be a wonderful matrix for murals, or the streetscape for a dance or theater production.
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Good Morning Gloucester 