Author: Mystic Seaport Museum

Performers from Around the World Gather to Celebrate Music of the Sea

Mystic, Conn. (May 12, 2016) —Musicians from around the world will come to Mystic Seaport to celebrate the musical traditions of the Golden Age of Sail at the 37th annual Sea Music Festival, Thursday through Sunday, June 9-12, 2016. The Festival is the premier sea music event in North America.

This year’s roster includes music from Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Canada, along with singers from across the United States. The weekend’s festivities include daytime and evening concerts, special performances for children, instructional workshops, a scholars’ symposium, and a unique opportunity to witness sea music at work aboard the Museum’s historic vessels.

More than 20 individuals and groups will be featured at the Festival representing the gamut of traditional and contemporary sea music. Newfoundland’s Matthew Byrne will perform songs from solo offering, “Hearts & Heroes,” which won Traditional Album of the Year at the 2015 Canadian Folk Music Awards. The Isle of Man’s Barrule trio will bring their fresh approach to traditional Manx music, while Kim & Reggie Harris have a repertoire that combines traditional African-American spirituals and freedom songs with original folk. Returning this year is the popular Canadian acapella group Pressgang Mutiny, whose 2015 performance was a big hit with the audience.

Visitors may also take in performances from Bob Walser, Margaret McCandless, Heather Wood, Cliff Haslam, Boston’s Irish dance company Kieran Jordan Dance, and the Mystic Seaport Chantey Staff, including Geoff Kaufman, Craig Edwards, Denise Kegler, and Don Sineti.

All workshops and daytime concerts in the Festival are included in regular Mystic Seaport admission. Special tickets are required for evening concerts and can be purchased by calling 860.572.0711, or at the Museum’s main entrance. Weekend passes are also available. College students will be admitted into the Festival for the youth rate upon presentation of a current student ID.

For more information, including ticket packages, musicians’ bios, and a schedule of performances, visit mysticseaport.org/seamusicfestival

The annual Music of the Sea Symposium, hosted in partnership with the University of Connecticut at Avery Point, will be held Friday and Saturday, June 10-11. The Symposium, which features presentations of themed papers by some of the country’s leading maritime music scholars, explores the interaction between sea, music, and song. The first day of the Symposium will be held at the auditorium at the University of Connecticut at Avery Point.  Admission is free. The Symposium continues Saturday at Mystic Seaport in the Greenmanville Church. Museum admission is required. For further details and a list of Symposium presenters and topics, visit mysticseaport.org/smfsymposium

This event is made possible by the Friends of the Sea Music Festival, who raise funds each year to generously support sea music at Mystic Seaport.

About Mystic Seaport
Mystic Seaport is the nation’s leading maritime museum. Founded in 1929, the Museum is home to four National Historic Landmark vessels, including the Charles W. Morgan, America’s oldest commercial ship and the last wooden whaleship in the world. The Museum’s collection of more than two million artifacts includes more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography in the country. The state-of-the-art Collections Research Center at Mystic Seaport provides scholars and researchers from around the world access to the Museum’s renowned archives. Mystic Seaport is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. Admission is $26 for adults and $17 for children ages 6-17. Museum members and children 5 and under are admitted free. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/  and follow Mystic Seaport on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

The Coastal Art Collection of Charles and Irene Hamm

 Mystic, Conn. (May 5, 2016) – For the past several decades, Charles and Irene Hamm have dedicated their time and resources to developing a renowned art collection focused on American coastal art. This spring the Hamm’s labor of love will be displayed at Mystic Seaport in “Over Life’s Waters: The Coastal Art Collection of Charles and Irene Hamm,” an exhibition on loan from The New Britain Museum of American Art opening May 21, 2016.

The exhibition consists of 63 works of art in a variety of media, spanning two centuries of American coastal art and featuring such noted artists as William Partridge Burpee (1846-1940), Sears Gallagher (1869-1955), Rockwell Kent (1882-1971), and Paul Pollaro (b. 1921). Visitors may recognize some familiar scenes, as the exhibition highlights several of the most inspirational destinations for artists, notably Monhegan and Mount Desert Islands in Maine and Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Each work in the collection and exhibition has been handpicked by Charles and Irene Hamm. When forming their coastal art collection, the couple decided they would collect works by American painters, alive or dead, in any medium, of any time, which attracted their eyes and emotions. Unlike most collectors who decide to focus on specific periods or styles, the Hamms have embraced painters working from the early 19th century right through to the present day in an exceptionally wide variety of media and manners.

To state that the Hamms have been passionate about the sea would be both accurate and revelatory. Charles was born in Brooklyn Heights, a stone’s throw from New York’s East River. Irene’s life as a native Floridian was shaped by her proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. In his youth, Charles studied art, and one of his own paintings, Sunset at Home, 2006, appears in the exhibition. Together, the Hamms have sailed along several continents and enjoyed owning a series of both sail and power boats. Longtime supporters of Mystic Seaport, where Charles presently serves as a trustee, their Connecticut residence on Long Island Sound near Mystic was designed to display their coastal art collection and maximize their views and feeling of connection to the water.

“We are honored to feature this exhibit of the Charles and Irene Hamm collection, because not only is it a moving examination of coastal subjects, but the individual examples by some of the most accomplished artists of the 19th and 20th centuries are of exceptional quality,” said Mystic Seaport President Steve White. “We believe this exhibit captures the essence of the ocean and enables visitors to grasp the fundamental significance of coastal waters and how the Atlantic has shaped America.”

“Over Life’s Waters” will be on display through January 16, 2017, in the R.J. Schaefer Building.

About Mystic Seaport
Mystic Seaport is the nation’s leading maritime museum. Founded in 1929, the Museum is home to four National Historic Landmark vessels, including the Charles W. Morgan, America’s oldest commercial ship and the last wooden whaleship in the world. The Museum’s collection of more than two million artifacts includes more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography in the country. The state-of-the-art Collections Research Center at Mystic Seaport provides scholars and researchers from around the world access to the Museum’s renowned archives. Mystic Seaport is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. Admission is $26 for adults and $17 for children ages 6-17. Museum members and children 5 and under are admitted free. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/  and follow Mystic Seaport on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Exhibition and Sale to Highlight Form and Color

Mystic, Conn. (April 21, 2016) – The Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport is proud to open its 2016 season Saturday, April 30 with “New Horizons in Modern Maritime Art,” an exhibition and sale of original works of art by leading maritime artists.

This show will inject a new twist to the Gallery’s familiar theme by focusing on color and form in depictions of maritime objects. More than 50 invited contemporary masters, including John Tayson, Stephen Lush, and Robert Blazek, will capture the timeless beauty of the sea in paintings, drawings, and sculpture.

This is the first original show organized by the Gallery’s new director, Monique Foster.

“We asked our artists to approach this show with a new perspective, one that looks at the color and form in a maritime subject and let that guide their work. The result is a wonderful series of representations that reflect a different sentiment from what we usually feature,” said Foster.

The Gallery also welcomes three new artists in this show: Leith Macdonald, who creates small diorama-like works inspired by the coastline of Maine; Irma Cerese, a Boston-area artist who works in acrylics; and Annie Wildey of Stonington, CT, who paints photorealistic images of waves and water.

The public is invited to an opening reception from 5-7 p.m., Saturday, April 30. RSVPs are encouraged.

“New Horizons in Modern Maritime Art” will be open through July 17. The Maritime Gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

For more information, please call the Gallery at 860.572.5388 or email gallery@https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/

About the Maritime Gallery
The Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport is the nation’s foremost gallery specializing in contemporary marine art and ship models. For more than 35 years, the Gallery has been privileged to exhibit the works of leading international maritime artists. Located at historic Mystic Seaport, the Gallery overlooks the beautiful Mystic River attracting art lovers and collectors from around the world. For more information, please visit mysticseaport.org/gallery.

Mystic, Conn. (April 13, 2016) — Mystic Seaport will present its 2016 America and the Sea Award to Bob and Rod Johnstone – J/Boats. Given annually by the Museum, the prestigious award recognizes individuals or organizations whose contribution to the history, arts, business, or sciences of the sea best exemplify the American character.

The Johnstones will receive the award Saturday, October 22, at a gala dinner held in their honor at Mystic Seaport. The gala will be the first and only dinner held in the Collins Family Gallery of the new Thompson Exhibition Building prior to its ongoing use to display exhibits. The America and the Sea Award Gala is the single largest fundraising event for the Museum. Proceeds from the event benefit the mission of the Museum to inspire an enduring connection to America’s maritime heritage.

“Over the past 39 years, the Johnstone family and their company have influenced American yachting and sport of sailing in incomparable ways. They have established a record of accomplishment that few will ever challenge, and they have instilled in countless Americans a passion for enjoying time on the water with family and good friends aboard good boats,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport. “For these reasons and many more, Mystic Seaport is proud to bestow its America and the Sea Award to Bob and Rod Johnstone – J/Boats.”

The J/Boats story began in 1974 when Rod, then an ad salesman for Soundings Magazine, designed and started building the 24-foot sailboat Ragtime in his Stonington, CT garage. Launched in the Spring of 1976, it beat everything in sight.

Bob, then vice president of marketing at AMF Alcort, saw the potential in Rod’s design and a 50/50 partnership was formed in February 1977 to build and market the J/24. Today, some 14,000 “J’s” in 40 different designs are sailing in more than 35 countries. “J” owners have won silver in major sailing events worldwide including Fastnet, SORC, Transpac, Pacific Cup, Swiftsure, Ensenada, Middle Sea, Sydney-Hobart, OSTAR, Chicago-Mac, and the Bermuda Race. The J/24 was named “Best Keelboat in 30 years” by SAIL Magazine in 1981. A decade later, the J/105 revolutionized keelboat design with its retractable bowsprit and asymmetrical spinnaker. Nineteen other “J” designs have earned Boat-of-the-Year or Hall of Fame recognition. Five designs have achieved World Sailing’s International Class status. J/Boats Inc. was named by Fortune in 1991 as one of America’s Best 100 Products. J/Boats in the USA are built in Rhode Island and by licensed builders in France, Italy, South Africa, Argentina, and China. J/Boats remains a family business.

Bob and Rod grew up racing LI One-Designs and Lightnings at the Wadawanuck YC in Stonington CT, where from 1947 to 1954 they took home many club and ECYRA trophies. With their father, Rob, they built Lightning #3310 in a suburban Glen Ridge, NJ, garage, setting them on a course of sailing for life.

After Princeton (’56), Bob spent 17 years managing Quaker Oats subsidiaries in Colombia and Venezuela. Returning to Chicago, he became Quaker’s Marketing Man of the Year. Later at AMF Alcort, he acquired marine market experience, a key to start-up success of J/Boats. In 2002, with the next generation in place at J/Boats, he founded MJM Yachts. The MJM 50z received the 2014 AIM Editors Award for Best Down East Cruiser 50 Feet Plus. Bob has won the 1969 Penguin Internationals, National Hospice Regatta, Maine Retired Skippers Race, New York Yacht Club Queen’s Cup plus Antigua, Block Island, Charleston, Key West and Down East Race Weeks. He was runner-up in the 1983 J/24 Worlds, served as Secretary/Treasurer of the United States Olympic Sailing Committee and was founding chairman of both the United States Youth Sailing Championship and J/24 Class Association. Bob and his wife, The Reverend Mary Johnstone, reside in Newport RI.  He is a member and Past Commodore of the Northeast Harbor Fleet and a member of the New York Yacht Club and Little Cranberry Island Yacht Club.

After Princeton (’58) Rod started designing and building sailboats while teaching history at the Millbrook School in NY from 1959 to 1962. He then ran a yacht brokerage in Stonington, later becoming a planner for submarine builder Electric Boat Co. Rod sold ads for Soundings from 1970 to 1977 when he came to know the key players in the sailboat industry, especially Everett Pearson, whose role as builder of J Boats designs for over 25 years was key to their success. In 1988 Rod co-founded Johnstone Yachts, Inc. with nephew Clay Burkhalter to produce his JY 15 sailboat design. Nephew-in-law, David Eck, took over in 1991 and produced over 3,300 JY 15s. Mystic Seaport uses JY 15s in its sail training program. Rod still helps design new J/ Boats and continues to race actively. He has won championships in the J/24, J/22, J/30, J/35, J/120, J/70 and J/88 classes and at various Race Weeks. Rod and his wife, Lucia, live in Stonington. He is a member and Past Commodore of the Wadawanuck Yacht Club, a member of the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club, Past Chairman of the Stonington Board of Education, and member of the Stonington Harbor Management Commission.

Past recipients of the America and the Sea Award include oceanographer and explorer Sylvia Earle, historian David McCullough, legendary yacht designer Olin Stephens, President and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corporation, Thomas Crowley, philanthropist William Koch, former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, WoodenBoat founder Jon Wilson, yachtsman and author Gary Jobson, maritime industrialist Charles A. Robertson, and author and historian Nathaniel Philbrick.

The 2016 gala is co-chaired by J. Barclay Collins, II, Maarten de Jong and Kendra Matthew, Michael and Joanne Masin, and Cayre and Alexis Michas. S. Carter Gowrie is corporate co-chair. To purchase tickets or a table, or to inquire about corporate sponsorship or dockage for the event, please contact advancement@https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/ or call 860.572.5365.

About Mystic Seaport

Mystic Seaport is the nation’s leading maritime museum. Founded in 1929, the Museum is home to four National Historic Landmark vessels, including the Charles W. Morgan, America’s oldest commercial ship and the last wooden whaleship in the world. The Museum’s collection of more than two million artifacts includes more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography in the country. The state-of-the-art Collections Research Center at Mystic Seaport provides scholars and researchers from around the world access to the Museum’s renowned archives. Mystic Seaport is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. Admission is $26 for adults and $17 for children ages 6-17. Museum members and children 5 and under are admitted free. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/ and follow Mystic Seaport on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Mystic, Conn. (April 7, 2016) – Mystic Seaport announced today that Nicholas R. Bell has been named Senior Vice President for Curatorial Affairs, a new position at the Museum that will be responsible for the care, management, strategic development, and exhibition of the Museum’s collections. Bell will assume the position June 1, 2016.

Bell is presently The Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator-in-Charge at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC, where he led the Gallery’s recent relaunch following a $30 million, two-year renovation. The reopening exhibition, entitled “WONDER,” explores the museum’s value to American culture and identity by presenting nine gallery spaces to site-specific installations by leading contemporary artists. The innovative project brought success and tremendous acclaim to the Renwick—museum attendance has increased 1,000 percent since its reopening.

“We are very proud to have a curator of Nicholas’s caliber join Mystic Seaport. We believe his deep knowledge of material culture, understanding of the public audience, and demonstrated leadership and creativity will take our collections and exhibitions program to a new level,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport. “The combination of the Thompson Exhibition Building opening this fall and this new leadership position truly signify that Mystic Seaport is moving into a new era of exhibitions.”

During his eight years at the Renwick, Bell curated six major exhibitions. The diverse projects included the thematic “WONDER;” a highly praised generational survey “40 under 40: Craft Futures,” organized to celebrate the Renwick’s 40th anniversary; the monographic “Untitled: The Art of James Castle;” and the presentation of groundbreaking research in “A Measure of the Earth: The Cole-Ware Collection of American Baskets.”

Bell’s vision expanded the Renwick’s focus from a narrow definition of craft to include a broad array of creative practices illustrating skilled making as a multifaceted approach to living in the modern world.  He reinvigorated the museum’s permanent collection through targeted purchases and gifts, including the gift of a landmark Dale Chihuly chandelier, the acquisition of the largest public collection of American revival baskets, and the second largest public collection of works by seminal self-taught artist James Castle.

Along with his curatorial accomplishments, Bell worked with the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s development team to raise funds to endow two curatorships and support the Renwick’s renovation. He also was part of a select group of Smithsonian experts who participated in TED talk-style presentations across the U.S. for the Smithsonian’s $1.5 billion capital campaign.

Bell has published seven books in the last five years, including six peer-reviewed exhibition catalogues and one edited anthology. He additionally positioned the Renwick as a center for scholarship with two international symposia in the past three years that have featured nearly 40 speakers.

”No matter how far we live from it, as Americans, the sea is bred in our bones. I believe the inclusiveness with which Mystic Seaport defines this relationship is the Museum’s greatest asset to building new connections with the public it serves,” said Bell. “Expanding on these connections is a thrilling opportunity, and I could not ask for a stronger team with which to embark on this adventure than the one already in place at the Museum.”

Bell earned a bachelor’s degree from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, and a master’s degree from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware. Bell, his wife, Allison, and their three children will be relocating to Mystic, Conn. this spring.

About Mystic Seaport
Mystic Seaport is the nation’s leading maritime museum. Founded in 1929, the Museum is home to four National Historic Landmark vessels, including the Charles W. Morgan, America’s oldest commercial ship and the last wooden whaleship in the world. The Museum’s collection of more than two million artifacts includes more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography in the country. The state-of-the-art Collections Research Center at Mystic Seaport provides scholars and researchers from around the world access to the Museum’s renowned archives. Mystic Seaport is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. Admission is $26 for adults and $17 for children ages 6-17. Museum members and children 5 and under are admitted free. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/  and follow Mystic Seaport on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.