The 70th annual Community Carol Sing at Mystic Seaport will be 3-4 p.m. Sunday, December 17. A new addition to this beloved seasonal tradition this year is a Holiday Hat Contest.

The Museum will be open to visitors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and admission is free with the donation of a non-perishable food item or by cash donation. All contributions will be donated to and distributed by the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center.

The Mystic Seaport Carolers will perform a holiday concert in the Greenmanville Church at 2 p.m. The carol sing will commence at 3 p.m. in the McGraw Quadrangle, led by Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at the University of Connecticut Jamie Spillane (now in his 32nd year directing this event) and backed by the Museum Carolers and a brass quartet.

Guests at the Carol Sing are always in the holiday spirit, and often their headgear gives new meaning to “merry and bright.” This year, judges will be circulating through the crowd, and prizes will be awarded to the top hats! Winners will be announced during the concert.

Also that day, the Treworgy Planetarium’s 2 p.m., program, “The Star of Bethlehem,” explores the winter skies, merging science, mythology, religious observance, winter traditions, and music. A holiday craft workshop will be hosted in the Howell Classroom (lower level of Planetarium) from noon to 2 p.m.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has recognized the Thompson Exhibition Building for an achievement in design.

The building earned an Honor Award-With Distinction at the AIA QUAD 2017 Design Awards in Albany, New York. The annual QUAD (Quality Unites Architectural Design) Conference brings together the AIA chapters from Connecticut, New Jersey, New York State and Pennsylvania.

The AIA QUAD Awards jury commented: “Whimsical and joyful, this project has very strong imagery: the jury admired its resilience and its work with glulam structure to connect with traditional shipbuilding imagery.”

The award was presented to Chuck Mueller of Centerbrook Architects & Planners, who designed the building for Mystic Seaport.

This marks the second award the Thompson Exhibition Building has received. The 21,000-square-foot facility was designed as a keynote building for the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle on the Museum grounds and features an exhibit hall, welcome center, retail shop, and wraparound deck.

On Saturday, October 14, Mystic Seaport opened Contemporary American Marine Art: The 17th National Exhibition of the American Society of Marine Artists. This exhibition highlights the works of artists recognized as the best working in the marine art field today. The exhibition was curated by a juried competition held by the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA), and includes 120 works of painting, sculpture, and scrimshaw from the nation’s leading marine artists. Selected from more than 500 paintings and sculpture submitted for consideration, the works represent a wide variety of subject matter, medium, technique, and inspired vision. The exhibition runs through  through January 21, 2018.

The exhibition is hosted every three years in museums across the United States, and debuted on September 8, 2016, at the Muscarelle Museum of Art, in conjunction with the First National Marine Art Conference in Williamsburg, VA. The exhibition then traveled to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD, and the Academy Art Museum in Easton, MD, and continued to the Quinlan Visual Arts Center in Gainesville, GA, and the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, in Winona, MN.

This week, ASMA has its National Marine Art Conference in Mystic, the second such conference the organization has staged. The conference, from October 18-22, offers lectures and demonstrations. We asked Kim Shaklee, President and Fellow of ASMA, to answer five questions for us.

Q. Why does ASMA do this exhibition?
A. The purpose for holding our National Exhibition is twofold: The Society believes it has a responsibility to provide an opportunity to our members to submit works to be juried by the Fellows for a National Exhibition every three years. Such exhibitions are promoted through some of the top Museums around the country. It is a way for members to hone their artistic skills to become the very best in their field. Competition is fierce, and as such, members know they must submit exceptional work to garner a spot in the exhibition. This inspires members to become better artists.

On the flip side, it is critical to keep an awareness for maritime art in the public’s eye. The subject matter has been around for centuries, however our organization has evolved to be so much more than a small group of artists who paint boats and seascapes. With 500 artists, there is so much diversity in what we have to offer – something for nearly every age group to appreciate.

Q. How does the selection process work for the pieces in the show?
A. Regular members are eligible to submit anywhere from one to three works to the show, but they are not required to do so. Only one piece may be selected from an artist.

Those who have attained the membership level of Signature Members are required to submit at least one piece for consideration to each of the ASMA National Exhibitions. Fellows are required to display one work in each National exhibition, and are not subject to jurying. With 19 Fellows, 174 Signature members and nearly 300 Regular members, there are usually 450 to 700 entries for each and every national show.

The Fellows have a dual process for selecting the works for the show. Members submit online through a special provider, which tracks submissions until it is time for the jury to convene. All Fellows review the images online once the submission deadline has closed. The Fellows then meet in person to make their final selections from the submitted images. Fellows unable to attend in person are allowed to submit their jury scores online. Images are ranked individually on a point system from 1 to 7 (1 being lowest, 7 being highest), with each Fellow’s vote being tallied. Most Fellows attend the meeting for the selection process, as it is one of the most important obligations of Fellowship. Each Fellow is asked to give input regarding their area of expertise for both medium and subject matter. This is a crucial part of the selection process.

Q. As you look at the exhibition, is there something that stands out that is different or unique from past years?
A. As time passes we are seeing more diverse subjects being explored in various mediums. Traditional maritime art is still alive and well, but many artists have become interested in portraying water subjects, endangered species, and environmental issues pertaining to each of us. The possibilities are endless. Artists have become bolder in presenting unusual vantage points to their paintings, or obscure watercourses; many different nuances are sought to individualize themselves from what is typically thought of as “marine art.”

Q. How does the Exhibition support the mission of ASMA?
A. By drawing attention to all things maritime: whether historical subjects, peaceful waterways, the emotions one feels when looking out to sea, preservation of endangered marine mammals and birds, the educational aspect of students participating in our Young Marine Artists Search program, which has taken the top students to the pinnacle of opportunity by having their work exhibited at Mystic Seaport. There are many tributaries that are intertwined. All these keep the American Society of Marine Artists proud and strong. We are building our future each day by supporting the passion our artists have for marine art.

Q. Is there a quality or characteristic of maritime art that you would like exhibition viewers to appreciate?
A. Maritime art relates to each person in a different way. We are a planet that is sustained by water. Water is a necessity of life and an emotional component to who we are.

Marine art has broadened its focus to include anything related to water, including what lives in it and around it. The visceral effect of the Sea has been apparent as long as humanity has record events. How we choose to relate to marine art is shaped by our own life experiences.

The American Society of Marine Artists 17th National Exhibition has something that every person can relate to in some way. It is up to each viewer to discover the mysteries that live within our hearts as artists.

Mystic Seaport presented its 2017 America and the Sea Award to David Rockefeller Jr. and Sailors for the Sea. 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.

Rockefeller and Sailors for the Sea received the award October 11 at a gala dinner held in their honor in New York City.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.

Describing Rockefeller as, “an avid sailor and storied competitor, and a champion of the natural world,” Mystic Seaport Chairman Barclay Collins cited the common goals of the honorees and the Museum. “We have a shared mission to educate today’s youth, not only about the importance of our seas to our culture and growth as a nation, but also Sailors for the Sea’s focus on the fragility of our seas, and to actively enlist them in measures to protect that environment.”

[embedit snippet=”gala-video-2017″] 

A highlight of the evening was a “paddle raise” challenge to support the ongoing curation and conservation of the Rosenfeld Collection of maritime photography. Acquired by Mystic Seaport in 1984, it is one of the largest archives of maritime photographs in the United States with nearly one million pieces dating from 1881 to 1992. More than $120,000 was raised from the gathered guests to continue work on the collection.

David Rockefeller Jr., Chairman of Rockefeller & Co., is an active participant in the nonprofit arena, especially in the areas of the environment, the arts and philanthropy. He served as a member of the Pew Oceans Commission from 2000-2003, and he founded Sailors for the Sea to educate the recreational boating community about significant challenges to ocean health and to motivate them to become ocean stewards. Sailors for the Sea is located in Newport, RI, with satellite offices in Japan, Portugal, and Chile.

Rockefeller is a Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, the Asian Cultural Council and the David Rockefeller Fund. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Sailors for the Sea was founded as a collective rallying cry for a community that loves and is passionate about protecting the ocean. Since its start in 2004 by lifelong friends and sailors David Rockefeller Jr. and David Treadway, the non-profit organization has been inspiring and activating the sailing and boating community toward healing the ocean. Sailors for the Sea is a movement and pragmatic voice for action that addresses current environmental challenges including plastic pollution, ocean acidification, climate change and toxic chemicals that threaten marine life, our health—and the health of our children for generations to come. Their programs have been created to empower boaters to become catalysts for change while working to restore our ocean to the vibrant and bountiful resource it once was. To learn more about their work visit www.sailorsforthesea.org.

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 Publications founder Jon Wilson, yachtsman and author Gary Jobson, maritime industrialist Charles A. Robertson, author Nathaniel Philbrick, and Rod and Bob Johnstone and their company J/Boats.

The trick, for a maritime history museum staging a Halloween show, is not just to be scary, but to be accurately scary.

So says Denise Kegler, performance and gallery programs supervisor for Mystic Seaport, while chatting about the upcoming Nautical Nightmares: A Creature Among Us, the annual Halloween “traveling play” the Museum has been staging since 2015.

The original production, written and staged by Museum staff, volunteers, and local theater professionals, is this year based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, itself celebrating its 200th birthday (Shelley wrote the book in 1817, and it was published in 1818). We won’t give away too much of the story except to say it involves a whaling captain back from a journey to the Arctic, a Creature, a bride, a heinous crime, and a plucky police matron intent on solving the grisly case.

Basing the program in classic literature “adds historic depth and provides us with authenticity,” Kegler says. “What I love is that we have the fantastical and the theatrical, but through accurate costuming,  we root it in research and make it authentic. It has a sense of realism even though the story is fantastic or grotesque. We make certain that even though it’s a Halloween play designed to scare people, it lives up to the core values of Mystic Seaport.”

The event takes about an hour from start to finish, and progresses across the Museum’s 19 acres as the story unfolds. The police matron also serves as tour guide. The cast of 17 includes six tour guides, six scripted characters (the scary parts) and five supplemental characters, who add to the ambience of the story.

When the script was being written over the summer, it was originally envisioned to include the iconic mob scene from Frankenstein, complete with pitchforks and torches. Kegler said that plan changed in the wake of the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, VA, in mid-August that resulted in rioting and the death of one protester. “After the circumstance this summer, we wrote it out of the script,” she says. “It would be insensitive to do otherwise. The image of that mob has been changed forever.”

Costuming for the annual event relies on existing Museum stock and new creations. The “costume shop” at the Museum is home to dozens of circa late-19th-century outfits, from shoes to hats, for males and females, overseen by Rebecca Bayreuther Donohue in the Interpretation Department.

Auditions were held the last week of August, and a costumer was on hand at the try outs to take each hopeful’s measurements. The stock is then checked against the actors as decisions are made, so that once the roles are finalized, costumers know exactly what needs to be created and what can be reused.

Casting is confirmed about a week after auditions, and then each player must come in for his or her first fitting. What can be used from the existing stock is marked for alterations. The shop staff then get to work on the new costumes need to be created. This year the whaling captain needs an outfit suitable for a man just returned from the Arctic (complete with lots of faux reindeer fur).  A mix of staff and volunteers work on the costumes. And those costumes take a beating, as there are seven performance days, and 16 shows each night.

“There are unique challenges and interesting elements that go into staging this every year,” Kegler says. “We use what we can from what we have and the rest we make from scratch.”

A new study, led by Williams College-Mystic Seaport Maritime Studies Program Professor Emeritus James T. Carlton, documents for the first time that plastic marine debris may be significantly increasing the transport of non-native species across the world’s oceans.

The study appears in the September 29 issue of Science. The analysis of the samples that formed the basis of the study was conducted at the Marine Sciences Center located at Mystic Seaport.

Carlton and his colleagues demonstrate that, since 2012, nearly 300 species of marine life have landed alive on the coasts of North America and the Hawaiian Islands after rafting across the Pacific Ocean on debris swept out to sea by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.

Because the organisms traveled on primarily non-biodegradable objects, such as fiberglass vessels and plastic buoys, they survived far longer than marine scientists predicted. Coastal species were believed to be unable to live for more than two years on the open ocean. However, the Japanese species were still arriving on American shores in 2017, six years after the tsunami.

“This study of a remarkable ocean rafting event of unprecedented magnitude and duration reveals for the first time the profound role that plastic marine debris can now play in transporting entire communities of species in the world’s oceans—for far longer lengths of time than historic dispersal on natural substrates (such as wood) would have been possible,” Carlton says.

More than 10 million tons of plastic waste from nearly 200 countries enter the ocean every year. The authors argue that vastly expanded coastal urbanization has increased the amount of such plastic available to be washed into the sea. Hurricanes and typhoons then sweep the debris into the oceans, as happened when hurricanes struck the Caribbean and Florida Keys in fall 2017. Riding on that waste, a new wave of potential ecological invaders is pushed out to sea, where they often survive for years before landfall.

“These scientists have taken the unusual tack of looking at a natural disaster and coming to new conclusions about how our activities and structures influence species distributions in the oceans,” says David Garrison, program director in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences, which co-funded the research.

The expected increase in the size and frequency of extreme weather incidents due to global climate change is likely, the authors argue, to significantly increase the amount of debris in the oceans, and, with it, the number of possible ecological invaders. This creates the potential for vast economic costs and environmental impacts.

The research on which the paper is based was a partnership between Carlton, Deborah Carlton, and Megan McCuller, all of the Williams College-Mystic Seaport Maritime Studies Program; John Chapman and Jessica Miller (Oregon State University); Gregory Ruiz and Brian Steves (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center); Jonathan Geller (Moss Landing Marine Laboratories); and Nancy Treneman (Oregon Institute of Marine Biology).

Additional funding for the research came from the Ministry of the Environment of Japan through the North Pacific Marine Science Organization.

About Williams-Mystic

The Williams-Mystic program, managed by Williams College, educates undergraduates via a semester-long academic investigation of the sea, accompanied by original research opportunities and learning experiences at maritime sites throughout the United States. More than 1,700 students from over 100 colleges and universities have participated since the program’s founding in 1977. Williams-Mystic is need-blind, meaning that financial need is not an impediment to admission. for more information, please visit mystic.williams.edu