Society for the Encouragement of the Arts Sponsors Art for Gloucester Schooner Festival

Seven performance and visual artists create work specifically for Festival

Gloucester, MA –August 30, 2005 – The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (seARTS) is sponsoring contemporary works from local artists for this year’s Schooner Festival on Harbor Loop.

At 1:00 PM on Saturday, September 3rd starting at Solomon Jacob's Landing, dancers Andrea Cheatham and Sarah Slifer and musicians Kathleen Adams, David Coffin, and Michael O'Leary will perform together. The public will be asked follow the performers as they move to different sites on Harbor Loop during the half-hour performance. Songs will be in the Maritime tradition, and dance will chart a path from sea to land, danger to safety, and toil to vision, the same journey performed by workers and creators throughout time.

Artists have flocked to seafaring towns for centuries, finding inspiration in the beauty of schooners, the land and seascapes, and the majesty and mystery of the sea. They also saw the treacherous work of seafaring men, the bravery and strength of the women whose family members went to sea, and the unique communities that evolved. The artists involved in this festival have taken different approaches to incorporating Maritime materials, lore, and sentiment into their work.

Artist Greg Cook will exhibit a public art project titled “Wonders of the Known World”. Cook’s project consists of six painted flags that explore the roots of our culture in the history and tall tales of the early European settlement of New England, and of Gloucester in particular. Here flags, often symbols of national identity, are used to examine the source of our local identity as it comes down to us through historical research, folklore, popular culture, literature and traditions like Thanksgiving. Three of the flags will be on display on land for the duration of the Schooner Festival and three will be flown on the Thomas E. Lannon, the Essex-built schooner that will lead the parade of sails on Sunday.

Artist Stevens Brosnihan’s work encompasses abstract painting and art & technology. An MFA recipient from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Brosnihan has partnered with Gloucester custom sail maker Joshua Bevins to create a painted sail based on the reflections of its host boat in the water. The boat, “Dark Horse,” is provided by Graham Tutill and Hallie Baker. The sail is donated by Josh Bevins. “Dark House” will be docked at the public landing on Harbor Loop from approximately noon to 2:00 PM on Saturday the 3rd. Brosnihan’s and Bevin’s collaboration has been documented on DVD and will be on view Saturday at Harbor Loop, as well.

In addition to the SEArts events, The Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center will be hosting and the Gloucester Fund will host special activities and a traditional fish fry on Saturday on Harbor Loop.

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For more information call: Susan Erony, Executive Director, 978-282-1992 or erony@searts.org.
This program is funded by a Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Adams Arts Fund for Cultural Economic Development. The City of Gloucester has generously provided space and support for the project.