Gloucester’s new online gallery features city art collection

Building on its status as a living art museum and artist destination, the city of Gloucester recently unveiled an online art gallery to catalog and celebrate its collection of artwork spanning four centuries.

Gloucester launched its free online art gallery in November through Artwork Archive, a digital inventory and archiving platform. Working with the Gloucester Committee for the Arts, city staff created the virtual gallery to give both locals and art lovers greater access to its artwork, an extensive collection that includes antique oil paintings, Works Progress Administration murals, and the famous “Man at the Wheel” statue that’s synonymous with the city’s seafaring heritage.

Mayor Greg Verga, whose art-filled office at City Hall includes a treasured seascape painting by his daughter Julia and a WPA mural by Charles Allan Winter, has made it a mission to expand access to the city’s arts since taking office January 2022 — both through the online gallery and the way the city manages and displays its physical collection in its buildings and public spaces.

“That’s my hope, that people do look at [the art] and realize that, A, it is beautiful, and B, that a lot of work goes into it, and C, you as a resident, own it,” said Verga, a musician who plays guitar and bass. “You own it now, and your kids and grandkids are going to own it, and it’s our job to keep a record of it and to maintain it.”

The project reflects Gloucester’s history as both an art collector and muse. Home of Rocky Neck Art Colony, one of the country’s oldest working arts colonies, Gloucester has two cultural districts, and its picturesque coastline and “magical light” have inspired artists including Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, Fitz Henry Lane, and poet T.S. Eliot. Over the years, artists and collectors have donated pieces to Gloucester.

“So often, Gloucester’s just associated with the iconic Man at the Wheel,” said Kate Shamon Rushford, Gloucester’s arts, culture and events coordinator. “And there’s so much more, so that’s why this is all so nice to be able to see things that are maybe behind closed doors, or within City Hall.”

Gloucester’s gallery platform, Artwork Archive, is also used by Salem for its online gallery. Gloucester used $25,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the cataloguing, and the service charges a small monthly fee for hosting the archive, said Shamon Rushford, who maintains and updates the gallery.

For the online gallery, Gloucester resident Anna Chirico documented and photographed more than 300 works of art over the summer, Shamon Rushford said. The city already had information for many of the pieces, she said, though Chirico undertook additional research and digitized information from paper documents.

Depending on the information available for each piece, the gallery displays the titles of the works, the artists, subject matters, dates of creation, dimensions, materials used, and the current location, as well as lengthier descriptions and histories for some pieces.

Officials said the online gallery will help them manage and preserve the physical collection more effectively, by knowing locations, materials, and cleaning and maintenance needs. The project also brought attention to hidden artworks (including rolled-up paintings stored underneath the stage in the City Hall auditorium), and Gloucester has been hanging more of the physical pieces in more heavily visited public areas.

“I think it puts the pressure on those of us in authority to care for them, as opposed to, it’s just wrapped in cardboard, hidden somewhere,” Verga said.

The city is still receiving donated pieces, and the new online gallery has prompted additional background information from the public to add to the website, said Shamon Rushford, who views the gallery as “a work in progress.”