Art inspired by a bygone industry

Untitled  photo by Tsar Fedorsky, from "The Quarry Project" series (archival inkjet printed on washi paper) in the Cape Ann Museum’s group show “QuarryArt,’’ through July 30

— Courtesy of the artist.

The museum explains:

{The} “exhibition … brings together the work of nine artists in collaboration with freelance photographer and Boston Globe reporter David Arnold. The nine artists, Tsar Fedorsky, Albert Glazier, Paul Cary Goldberg, Skip Montello, Olivia Parker, Martin Ray, Katherine Richmond, Steve Rosenthal and Constance Vallis photographed area {granite} quarries to ‘highlight economic importance of quarries centuries ago."‘

Panorama of the former quarry at Halibut Point State Park in Gloucester

— Photo by Ymblanter

Making art from environmental crises

Work by painter/experimental artist Sinikka Nogelo, who has created art based on abstractions of such environmental challenges as the atmosphere’s ozone hole, oil spills and melting polar ice. The discovery of gyres of plastic in the oceans spurred her to three-dimensional action with her series of wall pieces made out of plastic. This piece can be seen at the Cape Ann Museum’s White-Ellery House, in Gloucester, Mass.

Boating formal wear

Advertisement mock-up for “This is Boatwear,” in the MIGHTY-MAC Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library and Archives, Gloucester, Mass.

The Eastern Yacht Club, in Gloucester.

— Photo by Oceanhistory

Not for tourism promotion

“Tally’s Corner” (oil on canvas), by Gloucester, Mass.-based artist Jeff Weaver, in his show “This Unique Place,’’ at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, starting March 18. His work focuses on the built and natural landscape of Cape Ann. Tally’s Corner is in downtown Gloucester.

May 2008 view of Cape Ann. Gloucester and its harbor are visible to the upper right, Manchester-by-the-Sea is at center, just west of Singing Beach.

— Photo by Doc Searls

But not for exterior use

“Gloucester Linens” (acrylic on marine canvas), by Barbara Aparo, at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass.

The noted Shingle Style Essex Town Hall and Public Library, in Essex, Mass. (1894), designed by Frank W. Weston.

Trying to keep kosher on Cape Ann many years ago

Photos at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass.

(Left) Belmont Hotel, c. 1890s. Photograph by Walter Gardner. (Right) Belmont Clothing House, 1881. Photograph by Corliss and Ryan. Both were Jewish-owned.

The museum relates:

“As early as the 1860s, Jews have been a part of Cape Ann’s diverse economy. One of the first Jewish residents of Gloucester, Samuel H. Emanuel, started the S.H. Emanuel & Co Millinery Shop in 1868 after he and his wife, Delia, immigrated from Germany. Another early resident, Solomon Hochberger, opened a dry-goods shop in Lanesville in 1875. Hochberger later started a junk business with fellow Jewish resident David Heineman in 1887. Jews from the waves of Jewish immigration … made their living as peddlers, tailors and cobblers as well as owners of dry-goods shops, junk businesses, bakeries, grocery stores, clothing stores, hotels and summer camps. Many of these businesses, such as Harry Goldman’s clothing store (est. 1896), Joseph Bloomberg’s clothing store (est. around 1900), Louis and Leah Pett’s grocery store (est. mid 1920s), Bennie Schred’s Star Remnant Store (est. 1909), Samuel Feldman’s grocery store (est. late 1920s), and Bob Kramer’s haberdashery (est. 1948) became fixtures of the Jewish community. Jewish-owned bakeries, grocery stores, and restaurants were especially important when it came to Jews trying to keep kosher on Cape Ann. Unlike larger Jewish communities on the North Shore that were closer to Boston, access to kosher meat was difficult. Feldman’s grocery store was one of the few places on Cape Ann where Jews could find kosher meat”.

Good ferries

“Model of the Steam Ferry Little Giant (wood, metal), by John Gardner Weld (1879-1969), at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass.

The museum says:

“Steam-powered ferries were an important means of transportation throughout the 19th Century and into the early 20th, linking Cape Ann to seaports up and down the Eastern Seaboard and to the rest of the world. In Gloucester, ferry service was also available around the Inner Harbor, helping get residents to work and visitors to scenic sites around the city.

“The Little Giant provided passenger ferry service around Gloucester’s Inner Harbor for nearly 40 years. Built in 1878 at the John Bishop Shipyard in Gloucester, the jaunty vessel was 46 feet long and 16 feet in breadth. Her cabins were finished in black walnut and oak, and she had long wooden benches on her upper deck sheltered by a striped awning.’’

The idea of a quarry

“Halibut Point Variation #9” (acrylic/ash on cotton duck), by Vincent Castagnacci, in his show “Vincent Castagnacci: Notes from a Quarry,’’ at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass., through Oct. 9.

The museum says:

“This exhibit displays his work from the mid-2000s onward. Castagnacci's (who has New England routes) work is striking while being utterly minimal, expertly utilizing line to draw the eye across the canvas. His use of muted, almost industrial, colors and drafting marks are reminiscent of architectural mock-ups elevated into art.’’

Halibut Point State Park and Halibut Point Reservation are adjacent parcels of conserved oceanside land on Cape Ann in the town of Rockport. Once the Babson Farm granite quarry, the properties are managed by the Massachusetts Trustees of Reservations and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. The adjacent Sea Rocks area is owned by Rockport and is also open to the public.

Quilted homecoming

Going Home II (quilt), by Doris Prouty (1947-2020) (Collection of the Prouty Family), in her posthumous show in “Her Mind’s Eye.’’ at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, through July 31.

The museum says:

“Working in vibrant colors and incorporating an array of shapes and patterns, Prouty’s quilts are founded in the traditions of African quilt makers and vividly capture scenes and stories about her life and community on Cape Ann. Beginning in the 1980s with traditional block patterns, Prouty moved on to appliqued quilts with pictures.’’

There’s never enough

Detail of “Give Your Blood, They are Giving Theirs (Sketch for Blood Donation Poster)” (watercolor on cardboard; 1944), by Virginia Lee Burton Demetrios (1909-1968). Collection of the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass.

The mornings are sometimes nice, too

“Cape Ann Evening” (c. 1979) (watercolor and pastel on paper), by Nell Blaine (1922-1996), at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass.

Magical wetland

“Sunset on the Marshes” (on the Massachusetts North Shore) (1867) (oil on canvas), by Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904), at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass.

— Photography by Bob Packert

Busy, busy, busy

 “Gloucester Humoresque” (1923, oil on canvas), by William Meyerowitz (1896-1981) at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass.

Frozen food indeed

“Ready for work on the Trawler Saturn” (January 1928). Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives, Gloucester, Mass.

Stoned on Cape Ann

“Cheves Quarry, Lanesville, MA.’’ Barbara Erkkila Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives, Gloucester, MA. Gift of Barbara Erkkila, 1994.

The Lanesville section of Gloucester had a thriving granite quarry business in the 19th Century. But it was dangerous work.

Even in moderation?

“Man’s Greatest Enemy” (c. 1915, oil on canvas), by Charles Allan Winter (1869-1942), at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass.

Paintings from two revered coastal art centers

“Under Dark Sky” (oil on canvas), by Eric Hudson (1864-1932), owned by the Monhegan Museum of Art & History, Monhegan Island, Maine.

The Cape Ann Museum, in Gloucester, Mass., is hosting a special exhibition, “Cape Ann & Monhegan Island Vistas: Contrasted New England Art Colonies,’’ through Feb. 13. It’s in collaboration with the Monhegan Museum of Art & History. The exhibition shows the growth of two of New England’s oldest and most revered summer art colonies. It features works by artists who visited and were inspired by both places, including Theresa Bernstein, Walter Farndon, Eric Hudson, Margaret Patterson, and Charles Movalli.

The village of Monhegan on Monhegan Island, with uninhabited Manana Island in the background. Monhegan has fewer than 100 year-round residents.

The Monhegan Island Light complex is now run as the Monhegan Museum, with exhibits of the island's natural, social, industrial, cultural and artistic history. The lighthouse tower's light mechanism is still operated by the Coast Guard, but the Monhegan Museum owns the tower and opens it to the public on occasion each summer season.

Frightening farming

“The Giant Ghostly Sheep at Clark’s Farm, October, 12, 1914,’’ photo by Eben Parsons, at the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives, Gloucester, Mass.

Gorgeous Gloucester makes hay

“The Babson Meadows {in Gloucester, Mass.} at River” (1863, oil on canvas), by Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865), at the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester.
(Gift of Roger W. Babson, 1937)

Fried in Rockport

“Sunbather Rocks at Halibut Point’’ (Rockport, Mass.) (mixed media on wood), by Marja Lianko, in the Collection of the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester.