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On Saturday, March 30th, Kristine Fisher and I had the privilege of leading a discussion entitled “Why I Create” with a distinguished panel of artists who were part of our video series, Cape Ann ARTWaves.  The event was a celebration of the videos new home on the Cape Ann Museum website’s Vault.   Our panelists included: Shelly Bradbury, Sculptor;  Nella Lush, painter,  Adin Murray, painter,  and Dana Woulfe, visual artist and muralist.

Following are my introductory remarks.

In 2020, as the impact of the Pandemic set in, Cape Ann responded in the way it often does, looking to the community for support.  Out of a relatively simple request from the director of 1623 Studios, Cape Ann ARTWaves was born.   But simple it wasn’t.   The new high-tech video and podcast studios were shut down.  Businesses were re-tooling, residents were effectively quarantined, and in person events were canceled.  We all learned how to “Zoom.”  And truly, no one knew what the artists were thinking and how they were creating during this time.

The goal of ARTWaves was to have an informed conversation with a wide range of artists across various media who lived and/or worked on Cape Ann. There were thousands to choose from.  I quickly invited my fellow “hybrid” artist and arts advocate and dear friend Kristine to join me on this journey – knowing that her professional approach and unique perspective on art would make this a success.

As a 100% volunteer team, Kristine and I individually made lists of people and organizations we felt would demonstrate a cross section of the arts community using the vast network of arts organizations as a resource along with our individual relationships.  We kicked off the interviews as the reality of the Pandemic set in   with the heads of seARTS and Rocky Neck as they were in the thick of trying to navigate a new twist on the art scene heavily dependent on openings and events.

We learned quickly that the effect of the Pandemic on the arts was intense and individual.  As we began our outreach to individual artists it became clear that not everyone was comfortable telling their story for many different reasons.  For some, art-making came to a halt.  For others, it became even more intense.   There was huge loss in so many parts of our lives and unforeseen physical and psychological challenges.    As for the future of ARTWaves, other than initial launch of the interviews on local cable access and social media, we did not know what the future held for these video interviews.    In the end, artists had to trust that we would be stewards of their stories.

We started out with a list of questions that we hoped would guide the conversation.  As the program progressed, we realized the importance of researching each artist and customizing our questions.  We talked about how each found their path to becoming an artist, process, techniques, mentors, inspiration, challenges, reaction to the Pandemic, and looking to the future.  But the key moment in every interview often came deep into the conversation – how the artists’ work truly distinguishes them in the vast art universe.   My biggest takeaway from this experience was that I could never anticipate where this would show up in the conversation or what it would unveil.  Somewhere deep into the editing process, we were able to hone in on this critical part of the interview.  These “moments” became the inspiration for the highlight’s videos.

From having to cajole artists to do interviews in 2020, in 2023 we were fielding requests from many who wanted to be interviewed.   It would have been impossible to fulfill the requests.  But we hope that the cross section of artists we interviewed is a strong representative sample of the incredible creative talent on Cape Ann.  We are grateful to the artists for entrusting us with their stories and very proud to have found a permanent home for them here at the Cape Ann Museum.

I found a wonderful quote in the Coming Home book published by Wilber and Janet James.  In the introduction to the book, John Driscoll, the art advisor who helped build the collection wrote this about “Collecting as a Creative Act,”

Every work of art in every museum, every book in every library, every piece of music that is played, is there to be appreciated because someone created it.  Someone also protected it   and made sure it had life beyond the creator.

Truly, the CAM team – Oliver Barker, Miranda Aisling, and Trenton Carls is doing exactly this for Cape Ann ARTWaves and the stories inside it’s virtual walls.    The program was livestreamed and recorded and can now be found here.    All CAM Talks also appear here in the CAM Video Vault.

We are also indebted to our behind-the-scenes ARTWaves partners and champions– 1623, seARTS, our graphic designer, Linda Stockman, videographer Anders Johnson, musicians Steve Lacy and Pat Verga.  On a personal note, many thanks to Kristine Fisher for co-hosting, co-producing, and also being one of the sponsors of this program.   We are greatly indebted to all the sponsors for supporting this effort – Prince Insurance Agency, M. Kristine Fisher, Visual Artist, The McDermott Group of Gibson-Sotheby International Realty, Common Crow Natural Market, Protective Packaging, and Martha Anger Real-Estate Advisor, Compass Realty, and the Cape Ann Savings Bank.    Please click through the slide show below to see all the photos from the event.