Today I have been thinking about family and friends who served or are active, and took a drive by Cape Ann Veterans Services. The staff and volunteers for the center upgrade the facility and grounds with a light touch and public art. Raymond Fisher fabricated the large silhouettes adorning the exterior.
On this Veterans Day 2020 I thought I’d ask Raymond Fisher some questions about his service with the military: When did he serve? Where was he stationed? What were his jobs and some of his duties? I’ll ask carving questions later :).
photos – January 2020 (snow) and Veterans Day 2020
Gold Star families space
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charming little dresses including Boston sports team
Red, White &BlueSip ‘n’ Shop and benefit
Local vendors showcased a variety of wares –including patriotic items, fine art, original designs, artisan crafts, and services– and for a good cause: raising awareness for Cape Ann Veterans Services Welcome Home Initiative. This award winning model program helps local veterans adjust to life back home. The event was hosted by the Elks, The Bridge and Pauline’s Gifts. Partipating vendors included
Haley Allision, Bare Cheek Beauty
Ariana Barron, Lampshades & stickers
Kate Bresnahan, graphic illustrations
Pauline Bresnahan, Pauline’s Gifts
Joie Busby, Joie Art
Johanne Cassia – Olde Ipswich Shop & Gallery
Vionette Vee Chipperini, Victory by Design, flowers, bags, t-shirts
Nicole Dahlmer, Nicole M. Dahlmer Photography
Kathy Guardino Fernandes, photography
Dave Fernandes, photography
Meghan Frontiero, Style Street Boutique
Lisa Bella-harvey, Bella & Harvey sweets
Nicole Johnson, custom handbags
Lara Snackzilla Jardullo, hair pieces and headbands
Bethany Hurst, Bethany Hurst Photography and whale drawings for t-shirts
Brooke MacComisky Sanidas, Avon Rising Stars
Jodie Malatzky – Tupperware US & Canada
Jayne Morse, Gloucester Mass. Elks Lodge #892
Phil Peterson, License Plate & American Flag art
Karen Pischke, GloucesterTEASE
Fran Simon, Simply Simon Soap & Skin Care
Melissa Tarr, Design of Mine
Kathryn Roberts Wall, BankGloucester
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Reminder about the USAF “Airmen of Note” Jazz Band free concert at Gloucester High School 7-9PM tonight. What a great name and special event for any high school, especially Gloucester, home of the Docksiders, great high school and middle school bands, and such rich music talent throughout the community! On this gorgeous spring day, enjoy a past video of the USAF band playing It Might As Well Be Spring (Rodgers and Hammerstein). Read more about the band below. Hope someone takes a picture like that one on the steps here in Gloucester by the Man at the Wheel and on the High School steps 🙂
Mark your calendars. Kathy O’Neil shares Cape Ann Forum‘s press release for their next (local) lectures on international issues.
May 6 Sarah Chayes at City Hall
WHY CORRUPTION THREATENS GLOBAL SECURITY: A Cape Ann Forum with Sarah Chayes
In dozens of countries, corruption can no longer be understood as merely the bad deeds of individuals. Rather, it is the operating system of sophisticated networks that cross national boundaries in their drive to maximize returns, and it has gotten to a level that it threatens global security, according to Sarah Chayes, who is speaking at the next Cape Ann Forum at Gloucester City Hall on Sunday, May 6 at 7 pm.
Chayes, author, a former reporter for National Public Radio in Afghanistan and a senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is not only exposing the extent of this problem—she’s advising policymakers on how to combat it. One of her recent studies focused on Honduras, the source of many of the refugees now seeking asylum in the United States.
“The strands of the Honduran kleptocratic network overlap, and personnel is shared among public, private, and criminal network elements. But the three sectors do retain some autonomy, interacting via exchanges of revenues and services,” writes Chayes.
“Revenues are captured at the expense of the environment as well as the people of Honduras, and some of the most resilient opponents of the network’s business model are community groups defending the land. These groups are largely ignored by international donor institutions, the bulk of whose assistance benefits the network.”
Sarah Chayes’s work explores how severe corruption can help prompt such crises as terrorism, revolutions and their violent aftermaths, and environmental degradation. She recently left her position at Carnegie to work on her next book, which will apply this framing to the United States.
Before joining the Carnegie Endowment, Chayes served as special assistant to the top-ranked American military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. She focused on governance issues, participating in cabinet-level decision-making on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Arab Spring, building on the years she reported on the region for NPR.
Chayes says it was “a sense of historic opportunity” that prompted her to end her journalism career in early 2002 and to remain in Afghanistan to help rebuild the country. She chose to settle in the former Taliban heartland, Kandahar where she founded Arghand, a start-up manufacturing cooperative, where men and women working together produce fine skin-care products.
Her first book, The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban, was published in 2006. Her most recent book is Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security (2014), Winner of the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest. “I can’t imagine a more important book for our time.” ―Sebastian Junger
This is the Cape Ann Forum’s last major event of the 2017/2018 season, as the organization closes in its 100th presentation since it was formed in 2001, which will be commemorated next September. The May 6 forum will also feature the announcement of the organization’s annual international awareness award to a graduating Gloucester High School senior, which comes with a $500 scholarship.
Sarah Chayes portrait by photographer Kaveh Sardari
May 20th Andrew Bacevich at Gloucester Stage
The Cape Ann Forum is also co-sponsoring a presentation by Andrew Bacevich, a West Point graduate and Vietnam War veteran, at the Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main Street, on Sunday, May 20, at 6 p.m. The talk is part of a month-long program on Combat Art—“In War and Afterwards”—curated by Gloucester artist Ken Hruby and organized by the Rocky Neck Cultural Center, which will exhibit the work of combat veterans.
Bacevich is a two-time Forum speaker and a nationally known commentator on international affairs, a professor emeritus at Boston University, and the author of nine books, including The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism and America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History.
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The creative response to military service is vast.
Several Gloucester and Cape Ann artists and writers were veterans officially engaged as combat documentarians and/or military artists, like Larry O’Toole (1908-1951), marine artist, official USCG artist and WWII Veteran.
Author and historian Ron Gilson viewing Larry O’Toole murals at O’Maley Innovation School, originally commissioned by Ben Pine ca.1945; after fire and demolition, temporarily relocated to Essex Shipbuilding Museum ; rescued and returned to Gloucester by Raye Norris. When he was a teenager, Gilson helped O’Toole with general art handling-studio assistance such as readying and moving these murals.
Addison Center’s 1866 portrait of Ulysses S. Grant is to the left upon entry in City Hall. (On the right is a 1946 memorial commission by Marguerite Pearson to 5 WWII marines: Sherman B Ruth, Ralph Greely, Wilfred Ringer, John M. Sweet, and Robert M. Maguire.)
Others created art in response to their service experience like fine artist, Robert Stephenson (1935-2013).
Artists-veterans throughout Cape Ann. Bradley Smith, poet, veteran
NEXT MONTH, Rocky Neck Cultural Center will present a visual arts group exhibition featuring artists who are currently active or served in the military curated by fine artist and veteran Ken Hruby:
IN WAR AND AFTER: The Art of Combat Veterans, Curated by Ken Hruby May 17 – June 24, 2018
Courtesy photos credit info and press release below from Rocky Neck.
Mourning the Loss of a Comrade, GySgt Michael Fay, USMCR- Served in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan
Walking in Two Worlds, US Army Signals Linguist Cara Myhre, Served in Iraq, Afghanistan
Haunting Memories, Lt. Col. Deveon Sudduth, US Army, Served in Iraq
Ready for Ga Noi, Sgt. Robert Louis Williams, USMC, Combat Artist, Served in Vietnam
Woman Marine, GySgt Michael Fay, USMCR, Served in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan
Through The Elephant Grass, Sgt. Robert Louis Williams, USMC, Combat Artist, Served in Vietnam
PRESS RELEASE – “The Rocky Neck Art Colony (RNAC) proudly presents “IN WAR AND AFTER: The Art of Combat Veterans”, a multi-media, juried exhibition of over sixty works by more than thirty combat artists from the military services and by veterans making art from their experiences in zones of combat…Congressman Seth Moulton of the 6th congressional district of Massachusetts, himself a Marine Corps veteran of four tours in Iraq, states of this exhibition, “The ‘incommunicable experience of war,’ as Oliver Wendel Holmes once described it, indeed often defies explanation by words alone. That veterans can share some of their experience through art can help us all better understand what they went through. And as a veteran myself, who returned to war with a camera after I left the Marines, I know how cathartic art can be for those of us who were there. The work of combat artists is important for civilians as well, to deepen their understanding of the lives of our service men and women, and their families. “In War and After” is an a very important exhibition for both communities.”
Few people are aware that when US military forces go to war, some of them carry, in addition to their weapons, their sketch pads, graphite pencils, watercolor brushes and cameras. These are combat artists, tasked to not only serve the combat mission but to record that mission in ways only an artist can.
hosted by the Elks, The Bridge and Pauline’s Gifts
Save the Date- just about a month away! Friday May 11, 4:30-8pm at Gloucester MA Elks Lodge #892
🇺🇸”Join us as we raise awareness for Cape Ann Veterans Services’ “Welcome Home Initiative”- a program that helps local veterans adjust to life back home. Local vendors with patriotic items and crafts. it will be as American as mom & apple pie, Stay tuned for more details and features!” 🇺🇸
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What do you do when your home repair goes very wrong? Upon evaluation, sometimes you just have to hire a new contractor to remedy mistakes. In the fall of 2014 memorial honor roll plaques in City Hall received some cleaning. The monuments were due some attention. Over time the names were no longer legible and the surfaces were grimy defeating their noble purpose. Gloucester’s outstanding City Archives and the Cape Ann Office of Veterans Services were and are able to help with research for those who can’t come in person or see them clearly.
photo caption: BEFORE photograph of one of four WW1 honor rolls in the rotunda City Hall, ca.2014
The 2014 project was not handled by the city nor administered through its committee for the arts, of which I am a member. Funds were raised privately to work on the plaques. Though well intentioned, those restoration efforts were botched (and costly at the time, so I’m told.) The names were made more visible, but the plaques were damaged and results are scratched, streaked and blotchy.
A small annual budget (FY2018 $4000) that’s set aside for care of City arts and culture and monuments as part of its mission must now be redirected to fix the fix.Yes, “Sometimes you have to hire a new contractor to remedy mistakes,” frustrating, but necessary.
Throughout 2018, you may see specialists from Skylight Studios repairing plaques within City Hall through the Committee for the Arts on behalf of the City. (Gloucester residents may recall that Skylight Studios was hired by the Commonwealth to restore the bronze doors of the Abram Piat Andrew Bridge; the doors were temporarily displayed at Cape Ann Museum before being reinstalled.)
The detailed work on the City Hall plaques will be completed in brief, focused intervals. One plaque in the rotunda will be restored last, because it’s a great opportunity to show before and after examples of contemporary restoration projects- the good, the bad and the quality. As the plaques are repaired, the detail of the raised carving and borders and most importantly the names of so many veterans will become easier and easier to read and remember.
Gloucester Ma Veterans Honor Rolls and Monuments
*author note- this post is listing interior Honor Rolls within City Hall; it’s not a complete list for all tributes in Gloucester
GROUND FLOOR, CITY HALL
Spanish American War- “Men of Gloucester who served in the War with Spain volunteers all 1898-1902. Gloucester ‘s men, serving on land and sea won for their city the honor of giving to her country the largest per capita of men in this war. Erected by the City of Gloucester 1930.”
2014 wonky cleaning needs repair (Honor Roll to be repaired sometime 2018)
World War I Honor Rolls (rotunda and upstairs)
World Ward II Honor Roll (outside clerk’s office)
Korean Honor Roll (outside clerk’s office)
Vietnam Honor Roll (outside clerk’s office; Brian Hamilton 1980 painting of fisherman)
Vietnam War Honor Roll
Korean War Honor Roll
World War II Honor Roll center panel
Veterans Honor Rollsbefore poor cleaning work of 2014 Winter mural between
just outside Kyrouz Auditorium, FIRST FLOOR, CITY HALL
“Civil War (1861 1865)This tablet records the service of Company G 8th Regiment MVM in the Civil War; and War with Spain (1898 1899) occupation of Cuba; and World War 1917 1919″ Corrective repairs are underway on this trio Honor Roll. Waxy build up added in 2014 is being removed all over, and names in a small lower right corner have been attended.
lower right corner in process
2018 repair work underway
Poor cleaning ca.2014 requires remediation (which is underway as of 2018–all damage may not be able to be repaired)
The multi story memorial to Gloucester fishermen lost at sea was a major public art project led, designed and hand painted by Norma Cuneo, with Irma Wheeler and Ellen Ferrin in 1978, a beautiful shrine lighted by day by two tall windows. Mark Newton, then city clerk-historian, and Jerry Cook were lead researchers; the team eventually compiled a card index that could be accessed by the public along with checking this massive lost at sea mural. Research incorporated historic materials like The Fishermen’s Memorial and Record Book, by George H. Procter, published by Procter Bros. in 1873, printed matter, family archives, and newspapers. Volunteers and historians amend the sources and statistics over time. The sense of the power of a name and life is inspiring. The response and need to a tangible, accessible record was tremendous. Their work was the basis for the cenotaph installed in 2000 by the Fisherman at the Wheel memorial on Stacy Boulevard, a sacred place and pilgrimage site accessible day and night.
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Archival documentation of a federal grant awarded to Gloucester and nationally recognized for its innovation at the time: reclaiming the City dump for an atheletic field at the High School. Photographs of the project included a sweeping vista from atop Hovey Street.
Ten years earlier, the same vantage was favored by artist, Edward Hopper, for House on ‘Squam River, 1926. The Hopper drawing was gifted to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1948.
Shared projects and working together are a focus for a new 2018 NEH grant opportunity.
Contact Mayor Romeo Theken’s arts & culture hotline sefatia4arts@gloucester-ma.gov by Febraury 28 to add to a list of potential projects for Gloucester for this NEH Deadline, March 15, or to consider as other funding opportunities arise.
Mayor Romeo Theken shares the 2018 press release from the Commonwealth:
Activities supported by National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant funds include: capital expenditures such as the design, purchase, construction, restoration or renovation of facilities and historic landscapes; the purchase of equipment and software; the documentation of cultural heritage materials that are lost or imperiled: the sustaining of digital scholarly infrastructure; the preservation and conservation of collections; and the sharing of collections.
The grant below is a new grant from NEH and could be a great opportunity to enhance your local cultural or historical organizations. Please share it far and wide. And let us know if we can provide a letter of support for an application from your community. Regards, Rick Jakious
Good afternoon, The National Endowment for the Humanities has just announced a new grant program to support humanities infrastructures. Cultural institutions, such as libraries, museums, archives, colleges and universities, and historic sites, are eligible to apply for grants of up to $750,000. These challenge grants, which require a match of nonfederal funds, may be used toward capital expenditures such as construction and renovation projects, purchase of equipment and software, sharing of humanities collections between institutions, documentation of lost or imperiled cultural heritage, sustaining digital scholarly infrastructure, and preservation and conservation of humanities collections. The application deadline for the first NEH Infrastructure and Capacity-Building Challenge Grants is March 15, 2018. Interested applicants should direct questions about grant proposals to challenge@neh.govor 202-606-8309. Please consider sharing this exciting new funding opportunity with cultural institutions in your district. Thank you,Timothy H. Robison Director of Congressional Affairs National Endowment for the Humanities 400 7th Street, SW 4th Floor Washington, D.C. 20506 (202) 606-8273
Innovative and worthy contemporary Gloucester possibilities abound: shared Archives (NSAA, Rocky Neck, Sargent House, City Archives, CAM, Legion, Libraries, Wards historical societies, etc); Digitize City Archives; Digitize Gloucester Daily Times archives; building and historic landscape projects city owned (City Archives, City Hall, Legion, Fitz Henry Lane, Fire Station, Stage Fort, beaches, etc) or in partnership; DPW work; on and on.
Gloucester Elks Lodge #892 was recognized for the community work they do for Cape Ann’s returning veterans, receiving the Edward Spry trophy for being the #1 Lodge in the Commonwealth for veterans activities. Jayne Morse won the Elk’s Volunteer of the Year Award. The Cape Ann Veterans Service office gives guidance and helps with information for the returning veterans. ‘Welcome Home to Cape Ann- We Left the Light on For You’ outreach for Returning Veterans is such an inspiring national model. It couldn’t happen without leadership, support and volunteers. Lots of good eggs here!
all photos are from Elks Lodge #892 and Adam Curcuru
photos from last years Welcome Home To Cape Ann – welcome home family event hosted by elks, free for all returning veterans and their families, lots of nice donors and We Left the Light on for You local & generously filled swag bag
To purchase the recently published The Inner Voice and the Outer World, mail a check to the Gloucester Writers Center at 126 East Main Street, Gloucester MA 01930. Please make the check to the Gloucester Writers Center and at the bottom of the envelope write: re: Veterans Book. The book costs $15.00. plus mailing.
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Book launch for THE INNER VOICE AND THE OUTER WORLD: writings by veterans and their families from the Cape Ann Veterans Writers Workshop, a Gloucester Writers Center project, supported by Cape Ann Veterans Services (also stunning outreach and programming)
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Reminder just a few days left to see amazing Rockbound exhibition! Upcoming collaboration among the museum, GPS, and teachers at the Cape Ann Museum:
“The Cape Ann Museum is pleased to present the November 2017 Student Art Gallery exhibit. Projects by Beeman Memorial Elementary School (Gloucester) students will be on view in the CAM Activity Center throughout the month. The show is curated by Art Specialist Anne Pieterse BFA/MAT and student teacher Lindsay Smith who is earning her BFA in Art Education at Montserrat.
PROJECTS
Grade 5: Drawings inspired by their sail on the Schooner Thomas E. Lannon
Grades 3-5: Pastel pumpkins
Grades 3-4: Positive and negative designs
Grade 3: Paper tree sculptures
Grade 2: Totem poles
Grade 1: Walk with a Line painting
Kindergarten: Line Explosions sculptures
The second Saturday of every month is free for families with school-age children and special youth programs take place from 10:00AM to 12:00PM. Join us Saturday November 11th to view a new exhibit of WWII Veterans portraits by photographer Jason Grow. In the CAM Activity Center create a self-portrait and make a kind craft for a veteran. Drop into the Activity Center anytime for hands on play and art activities, updated monthly.
The Museum is located at 27 Pleasant Street in Gloucester.”
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Commander Mark Nestor welcomed the city’s Tourism Commission to the Capt. Lester S Wass American Legion Post 3, Gloucester, MA. Gloucester Congressman A. Piatt Andrew (1873-1936) founded the American Field Service and was instrumental in forming the National American Legion at this post. It’s the third oldest in the country, and its 100th anniversary in 2019 is fast approaching.
The building and legion accommodate thousands of visitors annually. The building itself was constructed ca.1844 and is one of the greatest examples of residents crowd sourcing together to purchase a municipal building. The architecture serves an enduring patriotic role: first as a Town Hall, then school, and since WW1 the Legion Post 3.
Nestor expressed gratitude for the city. This past summer they restored the wood floors, which brightened the space from the everyday black/brown grime of the past 20 years. They’ve greatly improved the space and display. A museum mount for the handwritten contemporaneous Official City Clerk copy of the WW1 army and navy register is a high light. A writer has already relied on it for original research.
The Legion is open to the community and rented for private events. There is a private recreation room for veterans which is under renovation. Upkeep and care of the building is ongoing.
CAN YOU HELP SOLVE THE WW II SHIP’s BELL MYSTERY?
Can you help identify the WWII naval vessel? The bell belonged to Reverend John J. Sheehan who was a Navy Chaplain. “It’s believed the bell was from the vessel he served on, but the ship remains unknown.” Sheehan’s cousin donated the ship bell to the Post. From the Legion’s plaque:
“After World War I, Reverend Sheehan served as Director at Camp Stella Maris for more than 40 years. It was a summer camp for youth located in West Gloucester. Its name is inscribed on the bell. Reverend Sheehan was also the National Chaplain for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He also served as Pastor in a number of Catholic parishes on the north shore. The bell was dedicated to a Stephen Chamberlin. Stephen Chamberlin was a Ret. Lieutenant General who served in the army during WWII and was the Asst. Chief of Staff,G-3 in General Douglas Macarthur’s General Headquarters in the southwest Pacific area. His relationship to Reverend Sheehan is unknown.”
Thanksgiving deliveries Nov 2015
Mark Nestor Thanksgiving Nov 2015
The commemorative coin celebrating the Capt Lester S Wass Post No. 3 100th anniversary and the Cape Ann Veterans Services coin are for sale.
Adam Curcuru, Director Cape Ann Veterans Services, attended the meeting and remarked how great it was “to see our Veterans organizations being utilized to support our great communities.”
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After yesterday taking a group of 70 veterans and their invited guests on a fishing trip aboard Captain Tom Orrell’s Yankee Freedom, Captain Dave and Nancy went fishing today with a ship full of local fishermen and fans.
No greater fan than Michael, who was waiting far ahead of the scheduled departure for an autograph from Captain Dave. Autograph in hand, just look at that ear to ear grin!
I did not want to post about wreaths in every window today without mentioning Wreaths Across America and the initiative to bring that tradition home here and all the generous local support that was given straight away.
In case you missed the wonderful story about the effort in Gloucester, here’s a link to the Gloucester Daily Times coverage from December 16th and some photos today of the volunteers’ work in west Gloucester Beechbrook Cemetery.
Excerpt from the GDT article:
“Kesterson said the volunteers will begin laying the wreaths Saturday at noon after a brief ceremony at Beech Brook Cemetery, off Essex Avenue. They then will move on to Beech Grove. She also confirmed that the project will go on as scheduled — rain, snow, shine or any other other wintry curveball.”
Congratulations, Pauline! She is one of the inspiring women to be honored today at the State House in the 13th Annual Unsung Heroines Award from the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women. Gloucester can watch it live on app Periscope at 1pm! This will be the first time the Unsung Heroines event is livestreaming, and the first time Pauline has been inside the State House.
Open the Periscope app in your phone or tablet. Search for “MassCSW” 1pm live feed.
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The Book Store 61 Main Street in Gloucester is readying for an upcoming Sebastian Junger author event that they’re hosting, and Fiesta!
They have filled one of their windows and the walls behind the check out counter with Alice Gardener’s art. Super-star selling author of War and The Perfect Storm, Sebastian Junger, will be in town with his new book The Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging on June 21, 2016, 7pm. Note the venue for the book reading as it will be held in the Amvets on Prospect Street rather than the Book Store in order to accommodate more guests.
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In the spirit of just do it and one person CAN make a difference: the parent that called attention to the Civil War coat is…Kim Minnaugh! She saw the display label and coat when she was at the High School and looked so closely she saw the damage. Then she did something about it. She reached out for help. Maybe it’s the photographer in her that had her looking closely. Her actions have inspired us and kids, too.
The Committee for the Arts will use the money to pay for the necessary textile conservation, display form and case. James’ Cape Ann Giclee poster really helps. Look for it at City Hall and a few more spots coming soon!
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Shared projects and working together are a focus for a new 2018 NEH grant opportunity.
