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The artistic life on Cape Ann was first centered in Gloucester where native Fitz Hugh Lane, who in the mid 1800’s was building his reputation as an artist painting luminescent harbor scenes. Francis A. Silva, William Trost Richards, Winslow Homer, and many other noted artist of the 1860’s and 1870’s were attracted to Annisquam, Magnolia and Rockport after seeing Lane’s work in Boston and New York exhibitions. Bridging the last quarter of the 19th into the 20th Century were Frank Duveneck and his fellow artists and students, John Twachtman, Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, Theodore Wendel and Edward Potthast. They were drawn to this ‘cradle-like serenity’ (as Theresa Bernstein described it) of East Gloucester with it’s gem-like subject matter. The first local art exhibitions were held in the lobbies of the summer hotels until William and Emiline Atwood built and opened the Gallery-On-The-Moors, located on Ledge Road in East Gloucester. After seven years the Gallery proved to be too small for displaying the art of hundreds of new artists coming to the art colony. The artists discussed the situation in the home of Mr. And Mrs. William Weiss on August 5, 1922. Among those attending were William Atwood, Paul Cornoyer, Cecelia Beaux, Hugh Breckenridge, Frederick J. Mulhaupt, George L. Noyes, Walter L. Palmer, L. Edmond Klotz, and other prominent artists and residents of Cape Ann. The North Shore Arts Association was formed. The new North Shore Arts Association held an open meeting on September 21st to consider a proposition made by Thomas E. Reed to sell his property and building off East Main Street to the association, an offer that was so generous that the members unanimously voted to accept it at once. The property overlooked Gloucester’s inner harbor and the art colony of Rocky Neck. The
artists immediately planned a large exhibition to be held in the summer
of 1923, the year of Gloucester’s tercentenary celebration. The
artists on Cape Ann readily welcomed the new and larger Association in
East Gloucester, Particularly since the purpose and aim of the Association
was to bring together each year a comprehensive and representative exhibition
of painting and sculpture, and to persuade other artists to come to the
North Shore and help in the effort to further American art. |
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Throughout the eighty years of the North Shore Arts Association’s existence, each summer brought in large annual exhibitions of paintings and sculpture. These exhibitions have attracted a great many visitors, have won the praise of critits and museum authorities, and by purchases from these visitors, have enriched many private collections. Today
the North Shore Arts Association has over six hundred members and looks
forward to a still more active future. |
 Painting Gloucester Harbor from the NSAA parking lot. |
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2008-09 North Shore Arts Association • All rights reserved North
Shore Arts Association Web Site design by Valentine Design |
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