The history of art on greater Cape Ann is a foundational chapter in the story of American modernism, impressionism, and realism. For nearly two centuries, this region has nurtured and inspired artists. Cape Ann is a place where art happens—where art is inevitable. Standing on the region’s shores, you’re beholding a landscape, you’re catching the Cape Ann light. It’s an intangible, shifting brilliance that transforms simple fishing shacks and lighthouses into monuments. This light was the first great arts patron of the region; one could call the landscape the second patron.
To understand the art on Cape Ann is to understand a lineage of artists who were obsessed with the light and the landscape, from the coastline to the interior quarries to villages abandoned by history. It began in the mid-19th century with Gloucester native Fitz Henry Lane, whose quiet, glowing harbor scenes sparked luminism. Lane’s legacy provided the foundation upon which the region’s future art colonies would be built, establishing the Cape Ann School, defined by respecting the interaction between water and light. The summer artists followed in the late 1870s, seeking relief from the city heat in Boston and New York, and finding Cape Ann a safe haven for artistic experimentation.
Cape Ann tutored the masters. Winslow Homer began painting in watercolor on Cape Ann’s Ten Pound Island; Edward Hopper found his muse in Gloucester’s Victorian architecture as his style crept toward realism. The late 19th century saw Childe Hassam and Frank Duveneck introducing impressionism. Marsden Hartley found refuge in Dogtown, the abandoned inland settlement of Gloucester, where he painted the whale-jaw boulders. His heavy-handed strokes capturing the darker side of the landscape.
By the late 1800s, Cape Ann had become mecca for artists. From this collective of creative energy sprang associations that would support the evolving needs of working artists. Three of the most prominent remain strong today: North Shore Arts Association, Rocky Neck Art Colony, and Rockport Art Association & Museum. More than galleries—they are shared spaces where artists find community and support through memberships, workshops, exhibitions and events. And while their role has evolved over the years, the art association remains the artist’s rock. An arts community within the greater arts community that is Cape Ann.
These associations are as foundational to art on greater Cape Ann as the light and the landscape. They are the third patron. While times have changed over the course of a century and technology provides alternative methods of promoting art, time has not altered the need for gathering and teaching. One could argue the need has only intensified. Older artists require no convincing of this. While social media may well be integrated into their marketing toolkit, they remain advocates for the art association. They are mentors, workshop educators and lecturers soliciting a rising interest from the next generation.
North Shore Arts Association (NSAA) opened its doors in 1923, unveiling the largest art collection to date in Gloucester, featuring the work of more than 140 artists across its 6,000 square feet. This former maritime warehouse looks out over Gloucester’s inner harbor. When the doors are open, the salt air reminds visitors of the inseparability between the ocean and the artistic spirit.
In conversation with Sarah Milton, NSAA’s executive director, and Ansa Stamper, an NSAA member artist, the Chamber learned what intuitive steps and programming the association is taking to meet artists where they are.
“Nowadays, it’s easy to be self-sufficient, create your own website, sell your own work and promote yourself,” says Milton. “We’re now in our 104th year. Back then you handed it over to someone else to promote, exhibit and sell your work, and that’s what we are. But it’s not necessarily needed as much anymore. One of the things that we’re starting to do is bridge that gap and invite younger artists in and become a place where artists have an opportunity to be involved as little or as much as they want. It’s about helping them realize their vision for themselves. There’s the vision of the organization, but we’re in place for the artists.”
“It’s really been about convincing my peers that there’s a lot of value in joining arts associations and getting involved in these long-standing, historic organizations,” adds Stamper. “There’s the advice I’ve gotten from later career artists who have been on working on Cape Ann for decades, the critiques I’ve received.… You need in-person mentorship to grow as an artist.”
Is it resonating? “I think that people my age [29] are slower to come to that realization because everything on social media is so immediate, but since I’ve been here, several of my own artist friends have joined and have started exhibiting regularly, which is amazing.” Addressing the inherent anti-social aspects of social media, Stamper adds, “One thing that is lost in translation if you’re trying to sell work online, on social media, is it really does change when you see the work in person….Online galleries, at least for us, don’t tend to do as well as somebody just walking in, not really knowing that they’re looking for a piece, and then they walk out with this beautiful work of art [saying], ‘I feel like this should have been in my home years ago.’”
This year NSAA debuts programs and workshops designed to offer increased accessibility and affordability, allowing artists to attend shorter workshops, pop-ins, or make a longer commitment. The model spans more than just learning or sharpening a skill; it casts a wider call to artists and makers outside the region to participate as educators. It offers new programming on how to view and discuss art while in the galleries, addressing the misconception that we don’t know enough about art to discuss it, let alone purchase it. “We’ve shifted from just being art on the walls to being an experience,” says Milton. “When we create an exhibit, we try to make sure that it’s not just art on a wall. It excites you, it inspires you. One piece leads to another. Each exhibit is a piece of art in itself. It’s almost like an installation. We have this practice where we’ll install something, turn around, close our eyes, and then pretend to look at it for the first time. If we don’t get that ‘Wow’ factor or the flutter, something’s not right; you go back to the drawing board. I can’t tell you how often people walk in and just stop and say, ‘Wow.’ And you know that whatever’s outside in the world disappears, it’s gone. It’s about creating a powerful, emotional experience.”
“We expanded our emerging artist show,” Milton continues. “Reaching out to people, thinking about different audiences or who would like to get involved, and sending invitations out, not waiting for artists to find us. Saying, ‘Hey, we see you. We would love for you to check us out and participate.’ We’re expanding our exhibits, thinking about them differently, so that maybe it’s not just about the North Shore, it’s about working with local artisans, even if they’re not affiliated with us, and giving them a space to exhibit alongside us.” NSAA’s Holiday Market is an excellent example of this.
Stamper, wiser than her years, captures the importance of gathering. “As a young person, you want to be involved, and you want to make a stand on things,” she shares. “I underestimated the power of just providing a space for people to come and put politics, their own ideologies, aside and focus on something else together. Some have come to us and said, ‘I really appreciate that you provide this environment for us to come here and be.’…We want to uphold kindness and empathy and sharing. Sarah has done an incredible job of creating such a welcoming environment.”
While the work is ongoing, Milton acknowledges the work accomplished thus far. “I’ve seen a transformation, and how we’ve grown. We feel like we’ve blown the doors and the roof off this place…”
Gloucester’s Rocky Neck Art Colony (RNAC), established in the mid-19th century, is one of the oldest continuously operating art colonies in the U.S. Artists were drawn to the fish flakes along the coastline (wooden racks for sun-drying salt cod), the sheer working-class earthiness of the waterfront and a bohemian spirit; freeing artists to experiment with color and styles.
Still carrying an earthy vibe, Rocky Neck remains one of the coolest spots on Cape Ann. Executive director Elizabeth Carey adds her perspective to the role of the Colony today, highlighting the core mission of maintaining accessibility, the necessity of responding to the times, and the importance of outreach, collaboration and embracing all aspects of art.
“I think we get used to art as wall space. We do exhibits, and we love exhibits, but our mission is to provide art for all, and it could encompass poetry, reading, dance, music and everything under the sun.” In response, Carey and her team created March Music Month at the Rocky Neck Cultural Center in collaboration with Cape Ann Guitar Society. It was a hit. Young guitarists playing jazz, blues, classical. “And when I introduced everybody and welcomed them, I said, ‘How many people have not been in the building before?’ Two-thirds raised their hand. So it’s doing exactly what we want to have happen. And they were young. They’re in their thirties and forties.… We’re trying to open up space, finding emerging young artists.” “I think it was interesting that it was a combination of all sorts of interest that drew new audiences to the building and the neighborhood. There were people waiting outside saying, ‘We’re not going home yet. We live in Brookline, what else can we do?’…I think what Rocky Neck has, that has never changed in all of its history, is that we’re charming and we’re unique. There’s no neighborhood like Rocky Neck, and we want to keep that story going.’
The key is Carey’s pattern of listening, observing and responding. As a result, RNAC is also re-tooling its approach to workshops. Its life drawing workshops, led by artistic director Amy Sudarsky, are likely expanding due to popularity. “We don’t have enough room, we don’t have enough easels to take care of everybody,” adds Carey. “We’re also noticing that ceramics are a big deal, mixed media is big, and people bringing in stuff from their garage and creating something funky and sharing. We did something [recently], we were making Cornell boxes [a mixed media collage practice originated by Joseph Cornell].” The workshop sold out. “Workshops seem to be where people want to spend their time and their money,” Carey continues. “And we’ve seen when an artist does a presentation or a talk, art sales are stronger.”
To encourage younger talent, Carey and her team reached out to Gloucester High School. “We’re now hosting the National Art Honor Society high school kids, who are juniors and seniors, at Cove Gallery this spring. We’re doing it as a team with Cape Ann Art Haven. They’re putting on a show to the public. We’re teaching them how to hang a show, sell a show, how to write a press release, host a reception….” On this theme, this summer, RNAC presents Emerging Perspectives, “a juried exhibition illuminating the vital and evolving voices of the region’s next generation of artists” featuring artists between eighteen and thirty. One can almost hear the ghosts of Cape Ann’s masters marking their spiritual calendars, to eavesdrop on the conversations between the region’s emerging artists and the most established.
Summer also marks the return of the Thursday night Culture Splash tradition in July and August. “We’ve had five years of celebrating Culture Splash, and it’s a lot about live music. The notion of that was to connect to cultural districts. We’re fortunate that you can see six or seven events in one night on Rocky Neck.” Combining art, food and free live music and dance on a warm summer evening captures the free-spiritedness that the summer artists sought more than a century ago.
“This is a beautiful space, there’s no judgment,” says Carey. “We’re here to provide a community of love and warmth and kindness and spirit and all those things that are so remarkable. I get to see it from a distance or by listening to people. And the joy that comes from everybody, that gives me joy for what I do.”
If you’ve ever seen a red fishing shack and felt a sense of reverence, you’re in Rockport gazing at the Motif No. 1. In the early 1920s, Aldro Hibbard and his contemporaries taught us to see the beauty and strength in the life of a simple fishing village. The Cape Ann School wasn’t about ego or pretense, it was about the work. These artists painted en plein air, all year long despite the weather, knowing the light was too honest, too pure, to be captured from indoors. In 1921, they founded the Rockport Art Association, where artists could critique, laugh, and grow together. Stewarding the collection and programming of the now Rockport Art Association & Museum (RAAM) is writer/educator Kristin Czarnecki.
“We welcome about twelve to 13,000 visitors a year from all over the world,” says Czarnecki. “Even lifelong Rockport residents walk in and say, ‘This is my first time. I take things for granted when they’re right next door’… Or they go back into the beautiful galleries and say, ‘I never knew this was back here.’”
“We have six galleries with rotating exhibitions all year long. We do anywhere between thirty-five and forty exhibitions each year. There’s always something fresh for people to see,” says Czarnecki, acknowledging RAAM’s three hundred juried artist members. “We’re an art association, meaning we have artist members whose work we exhibit and offer for sale. And then we’re also a museum with a collection of historic Cape Ann art that lives with us. We bring those pieces out in rotation so people can see the historic work and the new.”
Like its sister associations, RAAM is committed to collaborations and particularly devoted to its youth and teen programs. Czarnecki highlighted RAAM’s Teens Art Collaborative and its latest project, a series of free workshops called Creative Curiosity. “It’s an intergenerational arts program whereby we’re trying to encourage people of all ages to learn non-traditional, perhaps funky art activities. It’s a collaboration between RAAM, Cape Ann Art Haven and Rockport Public Library.”
Anchoring the association, though, is the Cape Ann Summer School of Art, where it all comes full circle. Artists this year will experience an expanded curriculum incorporating studio and plein air options consists of four contiguous artist workshops with instructors teaching the century-old techniques of the original Cape Ann School founders, imparting the skill set along with the “spirit and intention behind them.”
Czarnecki is honored to provide an art oasis encompassing this range of work, from the original masters of the Cape Ann School to contemporary photography. “We want to bring people in, not to be an escape from the world or an escape from reality, necessarily, but to provide solace, relief, a moment of calm. Even on a busy, bustling day, people will say ‘It’s so peaceful in here.’ I feel it’s imperative to continue getting the word out that this is a safe, beautiful, enriching space for people, whether they’re a student, scholar or day tripper.”
What sets greater Cape Ann apart is that it doesn’t treat art as mere history, it treats it as a living neighbor. Artists are still out there with their easels, still chasing the light, and looking after one another. Cape Ann will always be a place where the veil between the natural world and the artist’s canvas is thin, and where the proud and ever-present spirits of the masters inspire new generations.
