FORUMS
ART, INSIGHT, and COMMUNITY BUILDING
During the year 2020 the Gloucester Cultural Initiative began producing a series of Forums with local artists discussing how the arts can awaken, inform, and inspire our community to address existential societal concerns. These programs were originally envisioned for live audiences but have been carried out as webinars during times of limited public gatherings.
Artists have always been at the forefront of seeing the beauty, but also the underlying tensions and struggles, in nature and humanity. Once again the planet is facing profound threats and instability, this time from climate change and pollution, an economy that has generated vast inequalities, and with democratic institutions under siege. In coming years, Gloucester will be a frontline community for these great challenges. What role can the arts, including public art, play in informing and inspiring action, reaching hearts and minds, and building a shared commitment to enacting difficult change?
Arts and Climate Change
Susan Quateman and Leslie Bartlett
With our co-sponsor the Sawyer Free Library, GCI presented “Arts and Climate Change” on May 1 as the first in the series of forums. Meri Jenkins, who developed and supervised the Creative Economy Initiatives for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, served as the moderator. Her knowledge base extends beyond Massachusetts to national and global trends of community cultural development and planning. The two featured speakers were artists Susan Quateman and Leslie Bartlett, who have combined silk painting with photography in their working collaborations with environmental entities, that are focused on the climate crisis facing coastal New England. Approximately 80 people attended this online event and engaged in robust audience participation. The recording of the program has been distilled into a YouTube video by Lisa Smith of Cable TV 1623 Studios. Cape Ann Climate Coalition served as an important resource in the production.
Arts, Housing and Community
This program was recorded and held on March 30, 2021
Gloucester’s housing stock is increasingly unaffordable to residents, and our architectural landscapes, waterfronts, open spaces, and ocean vistas are being altered and may continue with potential over-development. What stories do these changes have to tell us, as individuals and as members of a historic community?
A dialogue with local artists who are helping us to understand the deeper meaning of these changes in our housing and landscapes. If many of us experience a measure of loss, what are these emotions telling us? And if some feel resistance to this new development, what is it we are trying to defend? Are there opportunities we can hope for? Can the arts bring to us a better understanding of this moment in our community and will that insight into our human experience of these changes help us find ways to move forward as a community that we love?
A robust audience participation with the speakers so that the voices of our community can be heard and strengthened going forward.
About the Moderator and Panelists
Greg Cook, the Moderator of this event, is the creator of the Wonderland arts blog and publicist for the Cambridge Arts Council. Greg and his wife, Kari Percival, were one-time residents of Gloucester and produced festivals and parades in Gloucester.
Yinette Guzman is a designer, artist, and advocate who is passionate about community engagement. Yinette leads the efforts of the Punto Urban Art Museum in Salem and is coordinating public art and murals at the new Harbor Village housing project on Main Street in Gloucester.
Linda McCarriston is a poet living in Bay View. Born in Lynn, she has won numerous prizes and awards and from 1994 to 2015 taught in the graduate writing program of the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Ann Molloy was born and raised in Gloucester and helps run her family business Neptune’s Harvest, a division of Ocean Crest. She has a wide knowledge of organic fertilizers and the fishing industry. She loves to paint, write, and see live music.
Ken Riaf, a playwright, served as a housing attorney for Action, Inc. and North Shore Community Action Programs in Peabody. He is a former Longshore worker and commercial fisherman currently teaching law at Endicott College and practicing law on Cape Ann.
The recording of the panel discussion and dialogue with the audience was recorded as a You Tube video by Lisa Smith.
This program was made possible with the generous support of the Gloucester Cultural Council, a program of the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC).
