Take a walk down memory lane with Cape Ann Museum’s current special exhibition, “Above the Fold: The Photographers of the Gloucester Daily Times, 1973-2005,” which documents both the joy and tragedy — and everything in between — from that era.
Tours of the exhibition are offered every Thursday at 2 p.m. until the show closes March 17. This show grew out of a donation of an estimated 1 million Gloucester Daily Times negatives to the museum in 2021.
James “Jim” Mahoney, a Gloucester Daily Times photographer in the early 1980s, summed up what visitors to the exhibition will find when he said: “Gloucester is a visual paradise.”
The gallery overflows with images that not only showcase the breaking news and stories of the day but also daily life, community celebrations such as St. Peter’s Fiesta, the vitality of local sports, a summer’s day at the beach, and fishermen at work on sea and shore. The dates of the exhibition correlate to the dates of the donated physical media, primarily negatives, but some CDs as the newspaper switched over to digital around 2000. The time frame also focuses on the era starting from Gloucester’s 350th anniversary to 2005.
The next event in the CAMTalk: Exhibition Series is titled “Charlie Lowe and the Gloucester Daily Times” on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 2 p.m. featuring John Christie, a former Times reporter and city editor from 1971-1978. He went on to have a long career in investigative journalism. In 2014, the New England Academy of Journalists awarded Christie the Yankee Quill for his lifetime contribution to journalism.
Lowe was the first staff photographer at the Times, from 1957 to 1981, when he died unexpectedly of lung cancer at age 49. Lowe was a 17-time winner in United Press International New England photo contests. In 1971 he won awards in five separate categories. Christie, who worked with Lowe on many assignments, will discuss how Lowe professionalized the Times photography, “moving away from static shots to coverage of breaking news and candid shots documenting the life of his beloved city,” according to a program statement.
The next CAMTalk: Exhibition Series is titled “The Changing Times: The 21st century GDT Newsroom” on Saturday, Feb. 10, at 11 a.m.
On Thursday, Feb. 15, at 6 p.m., CAMTalks features a program, “Life Magazine and the Power of Photography,” with Kristen Gresh, Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh, Senior Curator of Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
On Saturday, March 2 at 2, p.m., CAMTalks features a program, “Curating One Million Photographs for Above the Fold,” with Trenton Carls, CAM Head Librarian & Archivist and Maegan Squibb, CAM Photo Archivist.
And the final event features “Mug Up with the Photographers of the Gloucester Daily Times” on Saturday, March 16 at 3 p.m.
These events takes place in the museum’s auditorium, 27 Pleasant St., Gloucester.
For more details and registration information, visit capeannmuseum.org.
A new take on ‘Carmen’
Rockport Music presents its next Metropolitan Opera Live in HD broadcast with Bizet’s “Carmen” on Saturday, Jan. 27, at 12:55 p.m. in a new production with English director Carrie Cracknell, who makes her Met debut, “reinvigorating the classic story of deadly passion with a staging that moves the action to the present day, amid a band of human traffickers,” according to the program statement.
Mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina leads a powerhouse quartet in the title role, along with tenor Piotr Beczała as Don José, soprano Angel Blue as Micaëla, and bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen as the swaggering Escamillo. Daniele Rustioni is the conductor.
There is a pre-opera talk by Andrew Shryock at noon. For details and tickets, $27 and $30, visit rockportmusic.org.
Final celebration of Gloucester 400+
The final Gloucester 400+ event takes place Wednesday, Jan. 31, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., at Beauport Hotel, 55 Commercial St. in Gloucester. The evening, hostedwith Sawyer Free Library, will feature community storytellers, an interactive Gloucester trivia game, and a demonstration of the newly launched “Gloucester Timeline.” The event is free to all.
The gathering will feature the Gloucester 400+ Stories Project and the launch of the library’s “Gloucester Timeline: An Interactive History,” an effort that has been under way for the past five years. Spearheaded by the library, the timeline project involved Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester City Archives and countless volunteers. The comprehensive digital Gloucester timeline features an array of information, including primary sources, images, videos, newspaper clippings, audio recordings, written descriptions, and links to outside sites, all which serve as a resource to explore Gloucester’s rich history.
For details, visit sawyerfreelibrary.org or gloucesterma400.org.
Public invited to symphony meeting
The annual meeting of the Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra, Inc. will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at the Christopher Columbus Room at Minglewood Harborside, at 25 Rogers St., Gloucester. All patrons are welcome to attend. Dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m. followed by the annual meeting at 7 p.m. Dinner will be served restaurant-style and each person will pay directly to the server. For more information or to attend, contact the symphony at 978-281-0543 or at: info@capeannsymphony.org.
Italian genealogy
Sawyer Free Library’s Gloucester Genealogy Group kicks off 2024 with its first lecture, “Getting Started in Italian Research,” on Saturday, Jan. 27, at 10 a.m. at 21 Main St., Gloucester. The featured speaker, presented virtually, will be nationally recognized genealogist, author and lecturer Rhonda McClure. The lecture looks at how to start researching Italian ancestors by examining records generated in the United States and Italy, and what is most important in such a search.
Each month, the Gloucester Genealogy Group will present genealogy-related programming, including lectures from guest speakers with expertise in numerous related topics. All events are free to the public. Registration is required.
McClure returns in another virtual event on Saturday, Feb. 17, from 10 to 11 a.m., to talk about details of “Organizing Your Family Papers.”
The next meeting will be presented in partnership with the Rockport Public Library on March 9 at 2 p.m. featuring Michael Brophy, a nationally known genealogical researcher, heir search specialist, and lecturer from the Boston area. This event will be at the Rockport library.
Registration is open for all three events at sawyerfreelibrary.org or by calling 978-325-5500.
Celebrating arts and culture
The 102nd annual celebration of the Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce will have a public element for those interested in a live performance of varied artists on Friday, Jan. 26, at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport with two ticket options. The annual celebration will showcase the talents of the five communities in the visual and performing arts, including music, painting, drama, poetry and dance. The live performance features the Cape Ann Big Band with featured vocalists, BrassFed Nation Youth Swing Orchestra with featured vocalists, a spoken word performance, a dance performance, live art demonstrations and more.
The program and cocktail reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m., and the performances starts at 7:30 p.m. Ticket options include: program, cocktail reception and performance, at $100; or the performance only is $45 for adults, and $20 for youth under 18. For tickets, visit bit.ly/AnnualCelebration2024, or call the chamber at 978-283-1601.
Around Cape Ann is a column devoted to events happening on Cape Ann and artists from Cape Ann performing elsewhere. If you would like to submit an item, contact reporter Gail McCarthy at 978-675-2706 or gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com at least two weeks in advance.