Cape Ann Museum

05/23/2026

Could this be the biggest of all time?
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“Tucked away in a corner of downtown Gloucester, a delicate operation took place in which an 8-foot bronze cat, weighing 1,200 pounds, was lifted from a flatbed truck more than three stories and lowered into the back courtyard of Cape Ann Museum.… The bronze feline arrived in town around 9:30 a.m. Friday [May 15], and gave many motorists a surprise that morning as they passed by this unexpected sight on Route 128 before it turned onto Washington Street from the rotary.”
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As part of Cape Ann Museum's reopening on June 30 following nearly 20 months of closure and the success of a $23 million fundraising campaign, a new commission of “Seated Cat (Sphinx)” by Katharine Lane Weems (1899–1989) has been installed in the Museum’s renovated granite courtyard along Federal Street.
The new sculpture represents a significant enlargement of Weems’s original 1941 work: the resulting bronze cat stands 8 feet tall and was modeled directly from the original sculpture, which measures approximately 18 inches in height. The enlarged version was created by Robert Shure of Skylight Studios, Inc. in Woburn. Shure worked closely with Weems on many projects during the artist's lifetime. The Museum has invested more than $100,000 to enlarge the piece and fabricate it on a monumental scale, to honor Weems' legacy as one of Cape Ann's most significant sculptors of the 20th century.
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Read more about the meow-numental installation from the Gloucester Daily Times at https://www.gloucestertimes.com/news/local_news/meow-gargantuan-cat-installed-at-cape-ann-museum/article_9388a4c0-347f-45e5-83e1-9fe867d3bd9c.html. Find an excerpt of the article on our website at https://www.capeannmuseum.org/news/2026/05/18/gloucester-daily-times-meow-gargantuan-cat-installed-at-cape-ann-museum/.
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Photos by Callisto & Co. (Cory O'Leary)

05/22/2026

It’s ! The Cape Ann Museum's Fisheries & Maritime collection reflects Cape Ann's preeminence in seafaring pursuits. A historical museum as well as an art museum, we are committed to preserving the stories of Cape Ann's mariners for generations to come.
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Celebrate the occasion by watching a recording of the CAM Talk: Gloucester and Essex Shipbuilding Connections presented by KD Montgomery, Executive Director of the Essex Historical Society & Shipbuilding Museum!
This program about the history of schooners and shipbuilding was originally held on September 27, 2025, in conjunction with the exhibition “Down to the Sea, the Photographs of Ernest L. Blatchford” at the Janet and William Ellery James Center at CAM Green.
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View the full presentation at https://vimeo.com/1129323762.
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(1) Video clip of KD Montgomery’s CAM Talk: Gloucester and Essex Shipbuilding Connections.
(2) Harrison Cady (1877-1970), “Essex Shipyard,” c. mid-20th century. Oil on board. The James Collection. Promised gift of Janet and William Ellery James to the Cape Ann Museum.

05/21/2026

Save the date! 🗓️ On Saturday, June 13, at 4 pm ET, Cape Ann Museum Director Oliver Barker and guest curator Eliza Rathbone will lead an insightful virtual discussion for American Ancestors about the upcoming groundbreaking exhibition, “Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea.”
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Barker and Rathbone will illuminate the shared summers and creative exchanges that fostered lifelong friendships between artists Milton Avery, Adolph Gottlieb, and Mark Rothko. They will share behind-the-scenes details about the building blocks around creating the exhibit and highlight key works from the exhibition’s impressive roster of loans.
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A recording of the session will be made available to registrants following the live broadcast. Learn more and register through American Ancestors at https://www.americanancestors.org/events/avery-gottlieb-rothko-sea.
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Milton Avery (1885-1965), “Gorton’s Dock,” c. 1931-34, gouache on brown paper. Private collection. Photo credit: Jeremy Lawson Photography. © 2025 The Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

05/21/2026

05/20/2026

Something to brighten your day on . 🎨
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Erma Wheeler (1915–2005), "In Her Garden," c. 1980s. Watercolor on paper. Collection of the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA. Gift of Sheila and Charles Guttman Foundation, 2024.

05/19/2026

Mark your calendar for the Family Pride Picnic on Saturday, June 6, from 10:30 am–1:30 pm at CAM Green!
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Celebrate Cape Ann Pride Weekend 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.
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This program is free and open to the public. Parking is first come, first served. Learn more at https://www.capeannmuseum.org/event/family-pride-picnic-2026/.

05/18/2026

On , we celebrate the connecting tendrils of flowers and Fitz with our friends at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston!
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Around the time that the Cape Ann Museum installed a newly acquired, rare, floral still life by luminist marine painter Fitz Henry Lane (1804–1865), the North Shore Garden Club of MA installed their “Art in Bloom” piece at the Museum of Fine Arts inspired by Fitz Henry Lane’s painting, “View of Coffin's Beach, Ipswich Bay.”
The North Shore Garden Club shared the excitement of connection in their statement about their arrangement:
“Our first reaction to ‘View of Coffin’s Beach’ was pure delight. We rejoiced in seeing a colorful seascape painting and exclaimed that the location is within view of one of our homes. We looked at each other in glee, bobbed up and down, and voiced a simultaneous “Yay!”
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We hope many floral enthusiasts enjoyed seeing this pairing at the MFA, and we look forward to welcoming visitors to the reopened Cape Ann Museum Downtown Campus starting June 30, 2026, to see Lane’s restored floral still life among the world’s largest collection of works by Lane.
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Learn more CAM’s newly revived Fitz Henry Lane floral from the Gloucester Daily Times at https://www.capeannmuseum.org/news/2026/05/11/gloucester-daily-times-rare-lane-floral-revived/.
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(1) Assistant Curator Leon Doucette installs Lane’s “Untitled (still life)” (1849) in the Cape Ann Museum.
(2) Photo of “Art in Bloom” at the MFA, Boston, by Yuhan Zhang.

05/17/2026

In honor of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America this summer, the Haptic&Hue podcast has revisited the episode about Cape Ann’s Folly Cove Designers that was first published in October 2022! Jo Andrews interviewed Museum staff and Susanna Natti, daughter of a Folly Cove Designer, for her podcast that focuses on what textiles tell us about people’s lives and communities, and stories that go far beyond the written word.
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“This episode of Haptic & Hue is about one group of people who designed and made craft textiles at a particular moment in America’s history... They had no professional qualifications and they were taught around a kitchen table by one woman. For nearly thirty years in the mid-twentieth century, they formed a close creative and supportive network making work of the highest quality. Even today, over seventy years later, their story has a lot to tell us about how communities help individuals shine.”
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Learn more, listen to the episode, or read a transcript at
https://hapticandhue.com/podcast-episode-70-community-makes-a-nation-americas-folly-cove-designers/.
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Louise Kenyon (1906–1998), “Homeport,” 1949. Ink on cotton. Folly Cove Designers Collection of the Cape Ann Museum.

05/16/2026

It’s ! Here’s a blast from the past in celebration of today’s festival honoring Rockport’s heritage and the iconic fish shack said to be the “most often-painted building in America.” In addition to the performances, food trucks, and activities, you can also celebrate by watching a lecture about Motif No. 1 from the !
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L.M. Vincent, author of “In Search of Motif No.1,” discusses his personal journey exploring the artistic inspiration behind Rockport’s famous fish shack in a program held at the Cape Ann Museum in 2011. Motif No. 1, a red fish shack, sits at the end of a granite pier in Rockport, Massachusetts. How did a humble fish house painted by numerous artists, including Aldro Hibbard, Anthony Thieme, Emile Gruppé and Harrison Cady, become an icon? Author L.M. Vincent examines the shack’s colorful history from its origins to the present day to answer the question. View the program at https://vimeo.com/461538085.
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Learn more about Motif No. 1 Day at https://rockportusa.com/motif-no-1-day/.
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Motif No. 1 Day, 1985. Photographs by Jackie Bennett. Gloucester Daily Times Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives, Gloucester, MA. Gift of the North of Boston Media Group/Gloucester Daily Times, 2021 [2021.021].

05/15/2026

Considering if you should become a CAM Member? Join today for early access to tickets for “Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea”!
Cape Ann Museum Members will receive an access link via email on May 21, so don’t delay and get your first pick of timeslots to visit the highly anticipated exhibition. Tickets will be released to the general public on June 1.
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In addition to early ticket access, all CAM Members receive one year of:
🎟️ Free general admission plus 2 complimentary single-use guest admissions
💌 Invitations to the Museum’s world class exhibitions, programs and events
📧 Members-only emails with Museum news and special opportunities
📚 Access to the Museum Library & Archives
🛍️ 10% discount in the Museum Shop

Learn more and join at https://www.capeannmuseum.org/join-give/memberships/.
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Mark Rothko (1903–1970), “Untitled (bathers on the beach),” 1934. Watercolor and graphite on watercolor paper, 11 2/5 x 15 1/4 in. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.56.600.a. © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

05/14/2026

“Gloucester’s Cape Ann Museum has been closed for more than a year for a major renovation, but its reopening June 30 will be more than worth the wait. Its stately new building will welcome ‘Avery, Gottlieb, Rothko: By the Sea‚’ a big-time blockbuster worthy of the museum’s much larger peers.
CAM has been down this road before: In 2023, its exhibition about the last-chance inspiration that Cape Ann gave to American icon Edward Hopper was a triumph, and a model of how small-scale institutions can punch above their weight. Let us not forget, though, that Cape Ann is special; its rocky shores and unearthly northern-coastal light have been igniting the creative fire of seminal American arists for generations, from Luminist forefather Fitz Henry Lane in the 19th century through Winslow Homer, John Sloan, Marsden Hartley, Stuart Davis, and others.”
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Read more from Murray Whyte in The Boston Globe at https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/13/arts/cape-ann-museum-rothko-gottlieb-avery/?event=event12 or find an excerpt on our website at https://www.capeannmuseum.org/news/2026/05/13/boston-globe-unearthly-light-abstraction-expressionisms-gloucester-connection/.

The early work of Rothko and other seminal abstract expressionists will be on view at Gloucester’s Cape Ann Museum.