Community Program: Documentary Screening, A Sense of Place

In celebration of beloved author and illustrator Virginia Lee Burton—and in honor of the upcoming anniversary of her August 31st birthday—the Cape Ann Museum is pleased to partner with the Sawyer Free Library and 1623 Studios on a special screening of the award‑winning documentary Virginia Lee Burton: A Sense of Place, produced by Christine Lundberg. The screening will take place on August 28th at 3:00 p.m. in the Community Room of the Sawyer Free Library. Martha Oaks, CAM’s Chief Curator, will offer introductory remarks, reflecting on Burton’s enduring legacy and her deep connections to Cape Ann’s artistic and cultural landscape.

Sawyer Free Library

Pastel Workshop: The Nature of Color with Kimberly Jermain

Discover the power of color in the natural world during this two-hour outdoor workshop led by artist and author Kimberly Collins Jermain. Set on the CAM Green, this hands-on session introduces participants to working with pastel through an exercise from Jermain’s newly published book The Nature of Color, which presents her innovative, nature-based approach to understanding and using color in art. Note: Materials included. Class time is primarily outdoors; please dress appropriately for the weather.&nbsp; Kimberly Collins Jermain is a landscape painter, teacher, and architectural color designer whose work uses the power of color to change how we experience the world. Since 1989, Kimberly has collaborated with over 800 clients, including homeowners, architects, interior designers, developers, and commercial property owners on color design projects.

Carlson Education Center, CAM Green

CAM Talk: Cape Ann Museum – Then, Now, and Tomorrow

Join the Bayliss Society at the Cape Ann Museum on September 13 for the closing program of this year’s Jonathan Bayliss Society annual conference, “Gloucester’s Acropolis: Defining the City Then and Now.” This final session features a series of short talks exploring the role and influence of Cape Ann Museum in the community life of Gloucester throughout its existence, with a glimpse toward an exciting future as well.&nbsp;&nbsp; Speakers are CAM’s Director Oliver Barker, Chief Curator Martha Oaks, and former Museum volunteer Deanie Hancock French. Deanie’s father, the major American sculptor Walker Hancock, was involved for many years in the development of what was then called the Cape Ann Historical Association. About the Conference Novelist Jonathan Bayliss (1926–2009) coined the term Acropolis to describe the cluster of civic institutions rising above Gloucester Harbor—City Hall, Sawyer Free Library, the Museum, and neighboring landmarks. This year’s conference brings that idea to life through talks, walks, and readings from September 11–13, exploring how this hillside cultural district has shaped Gloucester from the 19th century to today. The conference is organized by the Jonathan Bayliss Society in collaboration with Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester Writers Center, and Sawyer Free Library, with support from the Gloucester Cultural Council, Mass Cultural Council, and the Bruce Cove Foundation. More information is available at <a href="https://www.jonathanbayliss.org/acropolis">www.jonathanbayliss.org/acropolis</a>.

Cape Ann Museum Auditorium

Artful Conversations: Sierra ‘Autumn’ Henries with her Father, Hawk Henries, 2024, by Matika Wilbur

Join Us Mid-Day for Artful Conversations&nbsp; Take a midday pause and experience one work of art in depth.&nbsp; Artful Conversations are informal, docent-led gallery experiences that invite visitors to slow down, look closely, and engage in thoughtful conversation. Each session features a work of art or object that is new to view—whether a recent acquisition or a work newly installed in the galleries.&nbsp; The program begins in the Education Room at our Downtown Campus with a brief introduction and visual context before moving into the galleries for an extended exploration of the featured work. Guided by observation, curiosity, and conversation, participants are encouraged to share ideas, consider different perspectives, and discover new connections together.&nbsp; This week for Artful Conversations&nbsp; In 2025, CAM acquired two 2023 photographs by Matika Wilbur as part of the Museum’s Native Initiatives, a project that culminated in a landmark exhibition of Wilbur’s work at the CAM Green. Wilbur’s work reshapes how Indigenous Peoples are represented across the United States, centering contemporary Native identity and celebrating the vibrancy of Indigenous culture today.&nbsp; Please join CAM docent Maggie Rosa for an engaging conversation as she reflects on what these photographs reveal—about the photographer, about the individuals portrayed, and about the evolving stories they invite us to understand more deeply.&nbsp; Born and raised in England, Maggie Rosa moved to the Chicago in 1968 to work as a research technician at the University of Chicago. During her eight years in Chicago, she married Joe and obtained her PhD. The two of them did post-doctoral research at Yale and then moved to Cambridge to join the nascent biotech world. They eventually built a weekend home in Gloucester. In 2001 they “saw the light” and moved here permanently to participate in this great community. Maggie is an active volunteer in local organizations, most recently the City Hall Restoration Commission, Gloucester Education Foundation, Cape Ann Museum, and Generous Gardeners. As a Cape Ann Museum docent, she serves as an ambassador for Gloucester by introducing visitors, especially cruise ship visitors, to Cape Ann’s history and culture. CAM’s Fresnel lighthouse lens is her favorite piece in the Museum because it exemplifies how science, technology and art were combined to address an urgent need in maritime safety.

Cape Ann Museum

CAM Studio Art: Design and Print the Folly Cove Way

Step into the spirit of the legendary Folly Cove Designers and learn the art of block printing with artist Mary Rhinelander in this four-week course. This class blends design fundamentals, creative play, and the rich history of Cape Ann’s iconic design collective. Referencing her unpublished book, Design and How, you’ll explore the principles of design that Virginia Lee Demetrios taught her students—selecting a theme and exploring it deeply through clarity of line, rhythm, repetition, and pattern—and you will discover how her timeless ideas can elevate your own artistic voice. Each week builds your confidence as you sketch, carve, and print your way towards an original finished artwork.&nbsp;&nbsp; Please note: This class has four sessions.&nbsp; Mary Rhinelander is a professional artist with an MFA in printmaking. Gloucester is in her DNA, starting with great-grandparents who spent summers on Eastern Point. She lives in East Gloucester, in a yellow clapboard house once known as “The Summer Art House” where painter Theresa Bernstein and her painter/printmaker husband, William Meyerowitz, spent many decades (starting in 1924). Having purchased her home directly from their estate, William’s etching press is still happily living in the sun-filled basement studio. Mary has had many solo and group shows and her work is in both public and private collections. She has painted murals, designed logos and book covers, illustrated for a variety of publications, and taught students of all ages. In 2004 she founded Mermade Press, a fine art card business. With a deep affinity for the Folly Cove Designers and Virginia Lee Demetrios in particular, it has been Mary’s great pleasure to bring block printing workshops into Cape Ann’s public schools with the support of CAM and the Gloucester Education Foundation.&nbsp;

Gloucester’s Countdown to Kindergarten

Calling All Incoming Gloucester Kindergartners and Their Families! Celebrate the start of your school journey with a free, family-friendly day at Cape Ann Museum filled with art, exploration, and hands-on fun. Families can:<ul><li>Explore the museum galleries with a Cassie Scavenger Hunt</li><li>Create artwork in a hands-on art activity</li><li>Check out the brand-new Education Studio, where kids can make their own art to take home</li><li>Discover the 2026 Second Grade Student Exhibition alongside the work of renowned children’s book author and artist Virginia Lee Burton and her fellow Folly Cove Designers</li><li>Join one of our 15-minute Family Tours of Avery, Gottlieb, Rothko: By the Sea</li><li>Meet community partners Backyard Growers and The Open Door in the CAM courtyard</li><li>Climb aboard a real school bus and get excited for the first day of school</li></ul>The Cape Ann Museum is proud to join the celebration alongside the Sawyer Free Library and Pathways for Children, which organizes this community tradition in partnership with the Gloucester Education Foundation and Gloucester Public Schools. Come explore, create, play, and connect as we welcome Gloucester’s newest students and their families!

Cape Ann Museum Courtyard, Downtown Campus

Family Pride Picnic

Celebrate <a href="https://www.capeannpride.org/">Cape Ann Pride Weekend</a> with the whole family through books, art, and music! Bring your own picnic blanket and spread out on CAM Green while enjoying Rainbow Story Time and music from Jammin’ with You. Get your face painted and enjoy free art activities with CAM Education Staff.

Janet & William Ellery James Center, CAM Green

CAM Talk: Honoring 36 Years of “The Writer’s Block” with John Ronan

Since its debut in 1990,&nbsp;The Writer’s Block&nbsp;has welcomed more than 500 guests, including poets, novelists, journalists, and writers of all genres and generations with ties to greater Cape Ann. Widely recognized as one of the longest-running and most successful public access programs in the country, the series has played a vital role in documenting and celebrating the region’s literary voices. In 2025, John Ronan, producer and host of&nbsp;The Writer’s Block, gifted the program’s archives to the Cape Ann Museum. This significant donation ensures the preservation and public accessibility of the series, furthering and advancing the Museum’s commitment to collecting and sharing stories of contemporary Cape Ann. The program will feature a panel of five past guests of&nbsp;The Writer’s Block, who will join John Ronan in reflecting on the show’s legacy and its enduring connection to the Cape Ann literary community. Celebrating the launch of the 36th season of&nbsp;The Writer’s Block&nbsp;and the gift of the program’s archives to the Cape Ann Museum, this program will feature a panel of five past guests of&nbsp;The Writer’s Block, who will join John Ronan in reflecting on the show’s legacy and its enduring connection to the Cape Ann literary community. John Ronan, producer and host of&nbsp;The Writer’s Block, is also a poet, writer, filmmaker, teacher, and journalist. Ronan has been a central figure in Cape Ann’s literary life for decades. He is Professor Emeritus at North Shore Community College and served as the City of Gloucester’s Poet Laureate from 2008 to 2010. His work has been recognized with honors including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Ucross Fellowship, and a Bread Loaf Scholarship. He continues to write and publish poetry, most recently with the release of his latest collection,&nbsp;The Idea of Light, underscoring his ongoing commitment to the literary arts.

Janet & William Ellery James Center, CAM Green

14th Annual Charles Olson Lecture

In the 2026 Charles Olson Lecture, James Cook will explore the ways that Gloucester has been a site of celebration, interrogation, explication, negation, and extension of Charles Olson’s work in the period from the near the end of the twentieth century (beginning with the Charles Olson Festival in August of 1995) through the first quarter of the twenty-first century.  The talk will highlight Gloucester as a nexus of activity where local and visiting writers, artists, and educators have engaged with Olson not to memorialize the man and the work but to find and question what “is of essential use.” In the talk, Peter Anastas and Gerrit Lansing will figure prominently as guides, beacons, and exemplars who helped to create the conditions for a complex, multi-faceted, living engagement with Olson’s work. As part of the program Amanda Cook, author of Ironstone Whirlygig, will read selections from her ongoing poem-by-poem response to The Maximus Poems, much of which has appeared in the literary magazine SpoKe. David Rich, author of Charles Olson: Letters Home (1949-1969), will provide context for Olson’s legacy in Gloucester and will participate in a Question &amp; Answer session after the talk.   James Cook is an English teacher at Gloucester High School. He was a founding editor of the literary magazine Polis. His poems and essays have appeared in SpoKe, Jacket2, Let the Bucket Down, Process, and other small magazines. He has lectured on Olson previously, most recently in a talk entitled “Harborside Civics Lessons: Gloucester Harbor in the Political Imagination of Gloucester Writers” delivered at the Jonathan Bayliss Society Conference in September of 2025. David Rich edited Charles Olson: Letters Home, 1949-1969, published by the Cape Ann Museum in 2010 in support of the Olson centenary. He has also lectured at the Cape Ann Museum on Olson, Vincent Ferrini, and Gloucester’s fishing history. Amanda Cook is sometimes in the water and sometimes underwater in Gloucester, MA. She has been in a long conversation with Charles Olson for some time now. Her 2018 book Ironstone Whirlygig was published by Bootstrap Press. The 14th annual Charles Olson Lecture is presented as a collaboration between the Cape Ann Museum and the Gloucester Writers’ Center.

Folly Cove Designer-Inspired Valentine’s Day Card-Making

Drop into the Teen Room at the Sawyer Free Library for a Valentine’s Day card-making activity inspired by the Folly Cove Designers. Members of the Cape Ann Museum’s CAM Teen Council will be there to guide you in this hands‑on activity, where you can learn about the Designers’ beautiful artwork inspired by life on Cape Ann and try your own block‑printing using foam shapes and a pencil. Create unique, handmade cards just in time for Valentine’s Day! For more information, please email:&nbsp;<a href="mailto:education@capeannmuseum.org">education@capeannmuseum.org</a>. &nbsp; This program is being&nbsp;offered in partnership with the Gloucester Lyceum &amp; Sawyer Free Library.

Sawyer Free Library, Teen Room

Discover Saturdays

Janet &amp; William Ellery James Center, CAM Green Free and open to the public Registration is required Enjoy a FREE guided activity (ages 4+) in the gallery. Learn about Cape Ann’s Granite Industry, try a fun art making activity, and join in gallery tour designed for kids and their caregivers, led by a CAM Educator. Afterwards grab a scavenger hunt to explore the property and enjoy the lawn. Image Credit: CAM Teen Council members leading hands-on games and activities for kids of all ages, CAM Staff Photo.

CAM Talk: 100 years in 20 Minutes—The Story of Granite Quarrying on Cape Ann, by Monica Lawton

Saturday, January 10, 2026 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Janet &amp; William Ellery James Center, CAM Green 13 Poplar Street, Gloucester, MA 01930 Free for CAM members, $10 for Non-Members. Registration is required as space is limited. Learn about Cape Ann’s Granite Industry with photographs and stories about the people, places and events that helped shape the communities over a one-hundred-year period. After four decades in non-profit and association management, primarily in the legal and construction realm, Monica Lawton now volunteers for several organizations and Rockport town committees, and manages her husband’s maritime art business. She shares her love of the outdoors as a leader of Sunday morning hikes through the woods and quarry lands of Cape Ann; and her love of history as a docent and tour guide at the Cape Ann Museum. A North Shore native, she has lived in Rockport for over 25 years.&nbsp; Image Credit: Jones R.E., November 03 1921. Rockport Granite Co., flat ledge or upper pit. Photograph. Collection of the Cape Ann Museum. Gift of Barbara Erkkila, 1999. [Accession #1999.24.]&nbsp;

S22: conversations

Wondering what to do in Boston? Places to eat? Free activities? Good for a group? Date night spot? Girls night out? The best things to do? Ask Joyraft!

Best places to go in Boston? Things to do? Places to eat?

Questions & answers about things to do in Boston

Recs 💬

Community recs 💬

S4: top picks

The most fun, cool and unique things to do in Boston. Can’t miss events, shows and experiences. Concerts, restaurants, bars, free things in Boston and beyond.

The most fun and cool events happening around Boston

Hot and new things to do in Boston

Hot & new

Hot & new 🔥

S11: happening this weekend

What to do in Boston this weekend? From festivals, concerts, performances, free events, screenings and more, Joyraft has the best things to do in Boston.

25+ things to do in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville this weekend

Things to do in Boston this weekend

This wknd

This weekend for you

S21: roundups

Our top picks: outdoor dining, free events, spring festivals, best bars, upcoming concerts, museum parties - the latest in and around Boston.  Slug: joyraft-top-picks-best-things-to-do-boston-ma

Top picks of the best things to do in and around Boston

Joyraft picks: Boston’s best things to do

Roundups ⭐️

Curated by Joyraft ⭐️

S28: calendar experiences

This week in Boston

This week in Boston 📆

This week 📆

S20: c+d experiences

Discover new, unique events and experiences happening in and around Boston. Perfect for date night, good for a group or with a friend. Be the first to know.

The newest events happening in and around Boston

The newest events on Joyraft

Just added

Just added to Joyraft

S16: editor picks

The most unique and can’t miss things coming up in Boston / Cambridge / Somerville and beyond. Festivals, food, drinks, fairs, concerts, art and free activities.

Unique and Can’t Miss Things to Do in Boston

Can’t-miss things to do in Boston 🚨

Can't-miss things to do 🚨

S2 (A): top experiences

The most popular things to do on Joyraft. Concerts, restaurants, bars, events, parties, openings, kid friendly, date ideas, free things in Boston and beyond.

Top 20 things to do in Boston

Top 20: Joyraft’s most popular

Top 20

Top 20 on Joyraft

S3 (A): trending experiences

Discover can’t miss events and things to do in Boston. The most fun, unique and cool events coming to the Boston area this spring and summer.

The hottest events happening in Boston

Trending events on Joyraft

Trending 📈

S19: interest based

Kid-friendly events in Boston

S18: interest based

Where to eat and drink in Boston? Joyraft has Boston’s newest bars, restaurants and specials. Drinks and pre fixe dinner menus. Cambridge & Somerville too.

capeannmuseum

Experiences

Community Program: Documentary Screening, A Sense of Place

Pastel Workshop: The Nature of Color with Kimberly Jermain

CAM Talk: Cape Ann Museum – Then, Now, and Tomorrow

Artful Conversations: Sierra ‘Autumn’ Henries with her Father, Hawk Henries, 2024, by Matika Wilbur

CAM Studio Art: Design and Print the Folly Cove Way

Gloucester’s Countdown to Kindergarten

Family Pride Picnic

CAM Talk: Honoring 36 Years of “The Writer’s Block” with John Ronan

14th Annual Charles Olson Lecture

Folly Cove Designer-Inspired Valentine’s Day Card-Making

Discover Saturdays

CAM Talk: 100 years in 20 Minutes—The Story of Granite Quarrying on Cape Ann, by Monica Lawton

Discover Saturdays

Discover Saturdays

Discover Saturdays