Category: News

The Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport honored 11 artists at the opening of its 37th Annual International Marine Art Exhibition and Sale on Saturday, October 1. The International is a juried show that features the finest examples of contemporary marine art in the United States. This year artists from around the world presented examples of their most recent work. All submissions are a new work that has not been previously exhibited.

“This exhibition and sale continues to delight art lovers and visitors year after year, showcasing the finest art by today’s leading marine artists,” said Monique Foster, director of the Gallery. “We are very pleased to be able to recognize their outstanding work with these awards. ”

Participating artists were honored with four awards of excellence and seven named awards–including the Rudolph J. Schaefer Maritime Heritage Award, which recognizes the work that best documents maritime heritage for future generations. The judges were John Hays, Deputy Chairman, Christie’s Americas; and Todd French, French & Webb, Inc., Co- Founder and President.

All of the award winners and the entire exhibition may be viewed in the Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport through December 31, 2016.

Rudolph J. Schaefer
Maritime Heritage Award
Give in memory of Rudolph J. Schaefer’s devotion to preserving maritime history and making it accessible and enjoyable, the judges recognize the artists whose work best documents our maritime heritage, past or present and for generations of the future.

Frederick Kubitz
“Two Barkentines Docked, Port of Boston, 1880”

(See above)

Stobart Foundation Award
This award is given to encourage the importance of painting from life. The judges will recognize the work that attracts their attention most by virtue of its uniqueness of style, quality of light and atmosphere.

Leif Nilsson
“From Hamburg Cove”

Maritime Gallery Yachting Award
This award celebrates the singular pleasures of going to sea. The judges will recognize the work that best captures the beauty and excitement of sailing in all its many forms.

Laura Cooper
“Resolute, America’s Cup Defender, 1920″

Marine Environmental Wildlife Award
This award acknowledges the importance of preserving the fragile balance within the world’s ecosystems. The judges will recognize the work that best depicts marine mammals, fish or birds in their native habitat.

Cindy House
“Plovers over the Gulf”

Thomas M. Hoyne III Award
Given in memory of Thomas M. Hoyne III’s dedication and contributions to accurate-historical representation of the great Gloucester fishing schooners and the men who sailed them, the judges recognize the work that best documents an aspect of the marine fisheries industry of today or yesterday.

Paul George
“Back Cove”

The Museum Purchase Award
The Museum Purchase Award is chosen by a committee of the curatorial staff of Mystic Seaport. They will select for purchase one work appropriate to the current needs of its permanent collection, which emphasizes the commercial maritime experience of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Jeffrey Sabol
“Fog on the Banks”

Rudolph J. Schaefer, III
Emerging Artist Award
This award is given in memory of Rudie J. Schaefer and his lifelong commitment to recognizing and supporting new maritime artists to the Gallery for their exceptional skill in capturing the endless beauty and heritage of the sea in painting, sculpture, scrimshaw, or ship models.

William Hobbs
“Mid-Morning Break”

Award of Excellence
For outstanding creativity, insight, and integrity in Marine Art.

Del-Bourree Bach
“Raw Bar”

Paul Beebe
“Evening’s Fire”

Ronny Moortgat
“British Warships at Anchor”

Ronald Tinney
“Gusting Beauty”

Hundreds of people gathered on the Cambridge Plaza in front of the Thompson Exhibition Building Saturday, September 24, to help celebrate the opening of the newest addition to the Museum. This was the first opportunity for members and the public to view the new structure.

“This stunning building is the manifestation of many years of planning, bold vision, creative programming, and effective fundraising,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport, in his address to the crowd.

The Thompson Building is named for the late Wade Thompson, a Mystic Seaport trustee for 27 years who believed passionately in the need for new, state-of-the-art exhibition space and its importance for the future of the Museum.

“It is clear that this represents a new dimension for the Museum,” said Susan Funk, executive vice president and COO of Mystic Seaport. “Along with the redesigned McGraw Gallery Quadrangle and its prized riverfront location, the Thompson Building creates a unique sense of place while expanding our capacity to to present a compelling array of exhibitions and programs.”

The building is the cornerstone and final element of the McGraw Quad, which integrates existing buildings and grounds with new construction and unifies the components of the north end of the Museum by focusing on their common role as formal exhibition galleries.

The area in front of the building on Greenmanville Ave. is the new Cambridge Plaza. Designed to be an inviting welcome to both Mystic Seaport and the Mystic area, the plaza is a formal, grassy space that frames the Thompson Building entrance and opens up views to the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle and the Mystic River from the street.

Upon walking up the stairs and passing through the vestibule, one enters the Pilalas Visitor Reception Lobby, a soaring room with a ticketing station, a retail shop, and visitor amenities. Dominating the space on the high wall across from the entrance is a mural commissioned specifically for the room. Titled “Away,” it is a papercut by Washington State artist Nikki McClure. The image was cut from black paper using an X-ACTO knife, then enlarged and fabricated in vinyl to install on wall. “Away” depicts a figure in a boat dragging his or her hand in the water, reflecting the continuing human desire “to touch the water and feel the wake,” in the words of the artist.

Joining “Away”  in the lobby is the Museum’s Amphi-Craft, a rather clever Depression-era boat from the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company that was designed to be rowed, sailed, or driven by an outboard motor. It even came with a custom trailer.

Once through the lobby, one can turn left and exit to the McGraw Quad and the Museum grounds or continue straight into the Collins Gallery. This 5,000-square foot exhibit gallery is the largest of the seven at Mystic Seaport. It has ceilings 26 feet high and is supported by a sophisticated HVAC system to maintain the critical environmental standards for artifact display and preservation.

Beyond the Collins Gallery on the west end of the building is the Masin Room, a meeting space that can be reconfigured for conferences or lectures, additional gallery space, or educational programs. The room has a spectacular vista of the Mystic River through a panoramic window on one wall and a remarkable mural enlarged from an 1874 photograph of Greenmanville Ave. opposite.

Outside, the building is surrounded on three sides by an elevated deck that provides views of the river and of the common area at the center of the McGraw Quad. The deck is constructed of Honduran mahogany. In fact, the majority of the building’s construction materials are wood. In addition to the mahogany, the siding is western red cedar and the laminated structural beams are Douglas fir, much like the spars of many ships, the Mueum’s whaleship Charles W. Morgan among them.

“This building is very much like a ship,” says White. “It was important for us to maintain that vernacular connection to watercraft and maritime artifacts. Wood is very important to us here.”

The Thompson Building now functions as a full-time entrance to the museum. The first exhibit to be installed in the Collins Gallery will be SeaChange, a dramatic presentation of a range of compelling and unique objects drawn from the vast collections of the Museum. A handful of these intriguing artifacts will be on display for the first time, and all will be presented in a new setting which reveals surprising stories of transformation that continue to impact a contemporary audience and its experience with the sea. The exhibit opens December 10.

Each year, the Fellows of the G.W. Blunt White Library at Mystic Seaport issue awards to recognize significant achievements in maritime heritage writing.

The John Gardner Maritime Research Award is presented by the Fellows of the G.W. Blunt White Library for making a significant contribution in the maritime research field. The award is named for the late John Gardner, author, editor, curator, small-boat designer, builder, regular user of the Library and a proponent of maritime research.

The winner for 2016 is: David Head, Ph.D. for his book Privateers of the Americas: Spanish American Privateering from the United States in the Early Republic, University of Georgia Press, Early American Places Series. 2015.

Head teaches in the History Department at the University of Central Florida. He looks at how Spanish American privateering worked and who engaged in it; how the U.S. government responded; how privateers and their supporters evaded or exploited laws and international relations; what motivated men to choose this line of work; and ultimately, what it meant to them to sail for the new republics of Spanish America. His findings broaden our understanding of the experience of being an American in a wider world.

Each year, the Fellows also bestow a prize upon the author of the best article written in CORIOLIS: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Maritime Studies. This $1,000 prize is named in memory of the former Director of the library and head of publications, Gerald E. Morris. The Morris prize this year was given to Maria Vann for her article in the Volume 5, Number 1, 2015 issue entitled “Sirens of the Sea: Female Slave Ship Owners of the Atlantic World, 1650-1870.”

A graduate of the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies, Vann is currently the director of the Marine Museum in Fall River, MA.

Vann notes that throughout the active years of the transatlantic slave trade, some European and American women gained economic and social influence by involvement as participants in the slave trade. They challenge the dominant narrative that the slave trade was practiced exclusively by white men. Her article focuses on female slave traders from Britain and American colonies during the period of 1650-1760, with a concentration on New York, the former Dutch colony that fell under English rule after 1764.

Her research is largely based on review of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, slave ship records, newspapers, journals, court records and diaries. Sources were evaluated with intentional focus on women who were previously overlooked. The existence during the early years of the transatlantic trade challenges common notions about both gender and the slave trade and additionally raises important questions about the role of women slavers in other times and places.

“A fascinating study, this article is a well-deserving winner of the Morris Prize Article Contest,” said Paul O’Pecko,Vice President, Research Collections and Director of the G.W Blunt White Library at Mystic Seaport.

Mystic Seaport will be the first destination for this year’s Hinckley Rendezvous with more than 20 of the iconic Hinckley picnic boats, and 70 guests, visiting the Museum August 4-5. During their stay, Hinckley owners will tour the Museum’s Collections Research Center viewing photographs from the Rosenfeld Collection and artifacts relating to the schooner America. In addition, a tour of the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard will be given as well as a special tour of the exhibit “Over Life’s Waters” featuring the art collector Charles Hamm.

Following the Mystic Seaport events, Hinckley owners will travel to Newport for the second leg of the Rendezvous. A parade of boats is planned for the 9:40 bridge Friday morning. The Hinckley Rendezvous was chaired by Mystic Seaport Trustee Grant Cambridge and his wife Peggy. It is an example of the Museum’s Mystic Affinity Program (MAP), which is new strategy the Museum is using to introduce new people to the Museum and to the region through events hosted by members and friends of Mystic Seaport.

Hinckley Yachts, headquartered in Portsmouth, Rhode island, is known for the beauty and craftsmanship of their boats. Hinckley builds a variety of motor and power yachts through the Hinckley Yachts, Hunt Yachts and Morris Yachts brands, which are distributed worldwide.