Cape Ann Historical Association: Special Exhibits & Programs

On exhibit June 13 through October 11, 2009

View from the Terrace:
The Paintings of Charles Hopkinson

Charles Hopkinson, Seascape, watercolor, 1957. Collection of Cape Ann Museum.

Best known as the “dean” of American portrait painters, Charles Hopkinson also painted self-portraits, richly-hued portraits of family and friends, and innumerable watercolors, a medium he worked in throughout his career.

View from the Terrace features more than 40 paintings mostly inspired by a place that friend and fellow artist John Singer Sargent once called “paradise” – Sharksmouth, the Hopkinson family’s summer estate overlooking the ocean in Manchester. The exhibition continues through October 11, 2009.

Howard Curtis was a noted painter and a respected Gloucester teacher. In a 1980 interview with friend and fellow artist Charles Movalli, Curtis remarked that he “let the subconscious provide (his) images.” He went on to observe that while many painters try to make the viewer see what they see, feel what they feel, he was interested in engaging his audience, in soliciting their responses to his paintings.

Curtis began teaching in the art department at Gloucester High School in 1934 after completing a one-year course in photo-engraving at Wentworth Institute and a four-year program at the Massachusetts College of Art. That same year, Curtis landed a job as assistant to artist Frederick L. Stoddard who had been commissioned through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project to create murals for the interior of Gloucester’s Sawyer Free Library.

In 1976, Howard Curtis was commissioned to paint murals in what was then the art research room on the second floor of the Sawyer Free Library’s Saunders House. He also painted murals in the former Gloucester Police Station on Duncan Street, the Prospect Street Methodist Church and the Riverdale Methodist Church.

Curtis played an active and important role in Gloucester’s art community for over half a century. As a devoted caretaker of the many irreplaceable murals scattered throughout the City’s municipal buildings, Curtis completed important restoration work on Stoddard’s murals at the Sawyer Library in 1954. In 1982, well into his 70s, he oversaw installation of murals at the O’Maley Middle School in Riverdale. The murals, which still hang at O’Maley today, were done during the 1930s by Frederick Mulhaupt and originally hung in the Maplewood School.

Eleanor Curtis (1910-2008)
Curtis' wife, Eleanor, was a member of the noted textile design group, the Folly Cove Designers. Samples of her linoleum blocks and textile designs are also on display.

On exhibit through August 30

A small selection of photographs by Philip Reisman (1904-1993) is currently on view outside the Maritime Galleries. The photographs of St. Peter’s Fiesta are part of the Museum’s collection of approximately 450 color slides by Reisman from the 1950s. The photographs are on view through the end of August.

St. Peter’s Fiesta -- or, more properly, Fiesta di San Pietro -- honors the patron saint of fishermen and it is the largest, most colorful of the new celebrations which Sicilian immigrants brought to Gloucester. It began in the late 1920s as a neighborhood novena and expanded to a city-wide event in the 1930s.

Philip Reisman (1904-1993) was known as a Social Realist painter. He was also a printmaker, illustrator and amateur photographer. Born in Warsaw, Poland, his family fled to the United States to escape the pogroms when he was four years old. He lived in New York where he studied at the Art Students League and privately under Harry Wickey.

His early works were depictions of the ordinary working people of New York’s Lower East Side. During the depression he worked on WPA murals for Bellevue Hospital.

In the spring of 1944 he was persuaded by his friend Sol Wilson to escape the city and spend the summer in Rockport. Reisman, however, found the gritty working waterfront of Gloucester more to his artistic taste. He became fascinated with the fishing industry spending hours sketching, painting and later photographing the waterfront and the people who lived and worked there.

His artwork is in the permanent collections of many galleries and museums and has also been exhibited at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, Museum of Modern Art, National Print Exhibition and the National Academy of Design.

The Museum has a collection of 28 of his drawings, oil paintings and watercolors in addition to approximately 450 of his color slides from the early 1950s. The Museum presented an exhibition of his art work titled Men and Machine in the summer of 1985.

Exhibitions in the Library

July 8 through July 23
Music of the Sea
Sheet music, books and instruments from the shores of Cape Ann

Library hours: Wednesday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

upcoming PROGRAMS

Lectures

Thursday, July 9 at 7:00 p.m.
Lecture: Charles Hopkinson: His Life and His Art
Martha Oaks, Curator, Cape Ann Museum
This program is included with Museum admission. The galleries will be open until 8:30 p.m.
Reservations are required. Please call (978) 283-0455 x11.

Saturday, July 25 at 3:00 p.m.
Conversations with Contemporary Artists Series
Sigrid Olsen, Designer
This program is included with Museum admission.
Reservations are required. Please call (978) 283-0455 x11.

Friday, July 31 at 2:00 p.m. in the Library
Victorian Advertising Trade Cards of Gloucester
Kenneth Anderson, Author
This program is included with Museum admission.
Reservations are required. Please call (978) 283-0455 x11.

Sunday, August 23 at 3:00 p.m.
Rocky Neck Art Colony: Distinguished Artist/Artist in Residence Lecture
Karin Rosenthal, Photographer
Presented by the Museum in partnership with Rocky Neck Art Colony and seARTS.
This program is free and open to the public.

New Guided Tours!

Tuesday through Saturday at 11:00 a.m.
Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 p.m.

Guided tours, included with the price of admission to the Museum:

Highlights of the Collection

The Captain Elias Davis House, 1804

The Fitz Henry Lane Collection

Captain Elias Davis House Steve Rosenthal photo

Call (978) 283-0455, x16 for information.

17^th Century Saturdays: Tours of the White-Ellery House

Saturdays, July 11, August 1, September 5, and October 3
from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Join this celebration of the First Period in American Architecture throughout Essex County. Free and open to the public.

A series of one-day contemporary art installations will also be featured. Participating artists:

The house is located at 244 Washington Street at the corner of Poplar Street, Gloucester. Parking available behind the house.

View from the Terrace: The Paintings of Charles Hopkinson

This special exhibition is on view through October 11, 2009.

Join us for these related programs:

Saturday, June 27 at 10:30 a.m.
Gallery Talk: View from the Terrace: The Paintings of Charles Hopkinson
Led by Tom Halsted, grandson of Charles Hopkinson.
This program is included with Museum admission. Space is limited.
Reservations are required. Please call (978) 283-0455 x11.

Saturday, August 8 at 10:30 a.m.
Gallery Talk: View from the Terrace: The Paintings of Charles Hopkinson
Led by Charles Movalli, painter and teacher
This program is included with Museum admission. Space is limited.
Reservations are required. Please call (978) 283-0455 x11.

Saturday, September 12 at 10:30 a.m.
Gallery Talk: View from the Terrace: The Paintings of Charles Hopkinson
Led by Charles Shurcliff, grandson of Charles Hopkinson
This program is included with Museum admission. Space is limited.
Reservations are required. Please call (978) 283-0455 x11.

Free for families on the second Saturday of every month. Family gallery guides, art and history activities in the Education Room, and refreshments served all day.

Be sure to check the Education page for more Children's Programs and Events.

Saturday Showcase
Saturday, July 18 at 11:00 a.m.

David Coffin performs Life at Sea: A Voyage in Song

Sandra Kimball photo

Explore the lives of Yankee sailors, Nantucket whalemen, and Grand Banks fishermen and hear songs that illustrate the adventure of seafaring. This family program is free and open to the public.

Support for this program is generously provided by the Goldhirsh Foundation.

Virginia Lee Burton Birthday Party!
Saturday, August 29 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Join us in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Virginia Lee Burton, children's author/illustrator and Folly Cove Designer.

10:00 a.m. to 12 noon - Storytelling and art activities
Noon to 1:00 p.m. Birthday Cake
1:00 p.m. Film Screening: Virginia Lee Burton, A Sense of Place
A film by Christine Lundberg & Rawn Fulton

Summer Program!

Morning at the Museum

Drop-off program for children ages 6-10. 10:00 - 11:15 a.m.
Cost: $10.00/child and $5.00 for each additional sibling.
Reservations are required.

Learn about ships, treasures, gifts, and marine scenes with one thing in common: the SEA. Hear a maritime story, view items in our collection, and create unique artwork.

To celebrate the 100th birthday anniversary of Virginia Lee Burton, we'll take a closer look at some of her lesser known children’s books. Whether she was writing or illustrating these books, you’ll discover that the messages within ring true for all ages and eras. Explore relevant art and artifacts from the Museum's collection related to each story.

Support for Morning at the Museum is generously provided
by the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation.

These programs are supported, in part, through a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency that promotes excellence, access, education and diversity in the arts, humanities and interpretive sciences, in order to improve the quality of life for all Massachusetts residents and contribute to the economic vitality of our communities.