Gloucester’s many artists and advocates put their work and missions on display in an inaugural downtown arts party.
The Harbortown Cultural District’s “From the Deep: A Downtown Gloucester Arts Party” on Saturday featured a wide variety of arts and activities throughout downtown. Participating artist Susan Alvery had her weaving studio on Main Street open for people to come in and learn about the different scarves and towels she weaves together.
“I really love the art scene in Gloucester and I love talking to tourists and people that have come up here today. And I thought it was a great kind of festival,” Alvery said.
Inside her studio is the loom she uses to craft her creations. She showed event participants who found themselves in her studio how she gets different patterns in her work.
“The pattern you get is a combination of how each thread is threaded to which harness and how the paddles are tied up to those harnesses, so it’s painstakingly manual and takes a lot of other equipment,” Alvery said.
The 20-year weaving veteran had several scarves and hand towels on display made of various material, including Tencel, a fiber made from wood.
“It’s lovely because it has this nice drape, it’s really durable and it takes the color well,” she said.
Just down Main Street inside The Cut, Gloucester High school senior Velia Wrinn had her work on display but it wasn’t artwork, it was clothing.
Wrinn began collecting clothing donations in the fall as part of a school project to give away second-hand clothing for free. The effort came to fruition during the festival with the help of her fellow high school classmates.
“Fast fashion has a huge impact on our environment and I want to destigmatize thrifting, not as something you do when you don’t have enough money to buy the most trending clothing but what you do to be more conscious of the environment,” Wrinn said.
Throughout the school year Wrinn, president of the Youth Advisory Council, ran clothing drives at the high school and collected donations via social media.
Other Gloucester student work on display included artwork from all four elementary schools at Sawyer Free Library. The show is on display in the library’s Matz Gallery through May 15, when its will be replaced by artwork by middle and high school students. A public reception will be held 5-7 p.m. Thursday, May 14.
Mary-Ellen Feener and Charlotte Feener took in the show, saying they wanted to support the library.
“We love the new library, it’s beautiful, and we thought it would be a fun thing to do,” Mary-Ellen Feener said. “We’re trying to participate in all the activities the library has been hosting since their reopening.”
She said the elementary school students were “super talented.”
“I don’t think I could draw a circle in kindergarten, so it’s fantastic,” she said.
Erhan Altinoglu brought his daughter and son to the event from Hamilton to expose them to the larger North Shore community.
“It’s important for (them) to experience what our community has to offer and the arts gives (them) exposure outside of our day-to-day lives,” Altinoglu said.
While most participants in the event could be found on Main Street, members of the city’s Community Development Department, Schooner Adventure, and Three Sheets to the Wind, a community of musicians who perform sea chanties, were down at the I-4, C-2 parcel at 65 Rogers St.
As the musicians performed and city Economic Development Coordinator Emily Sloane talked to people about potential uses for the 2.5-acre parcel, Schooner Adventure Executive Director Emily Pearce discussed the latest happenings with the vessel just hours after pulling its cover off for this first time this year.
“I think we feel great, the beginning part of the season is always the most elbow grease but it’s encouraging, and it’s a joyful part of our time to see that we’re going to be out sailing again soon,” Pearce said.
Pearce said the first public sail will be June 12 but once the sail goes up, Adventure will be in the water to train new crew members and run some educational programs.
During the event Pearce she hopes to celebrate not only Gloucester’s maritime past but its present as well.
“We’re hoping we can point to some of our great lobstermen and talk about how trawling during Adventure’s day looked a little bit different but has developed into this continuation of the fishing industry,” she said.
The event ran until 5 p.m. But more is happening in the Harbortown Cultural District; a full list of upcoming activities be found at www.harbortownculturaldistrict.org.