(Hopefully) Dispelling Some Misconceptions About the HarborWalk

Window to the Working Waterfront ~ View from the HarborWalk

A little-remembered fact is that the HarborWalk artists were chosen from an applicant pool of local Cape Ann artists, as well as non-local residents. The public call to art was made over a period of several months, and it was widely publicized on this blog and in the Gloucester Daily Times. As a matter of record, myself, several fellow GMG contributors, and many artists in our community applied. The application process was made fair through the CAFE system. The semi-finalists exhibited their proposals at the Sawyer Free Library.

The following are just some of the posts that appeared on Good Morning Gloucester about the HarborWalk public call to art:

Announcing Opening Call for Gloucester MA HarborWalk Public Art Challenge

Joey’s step-by-step on how to apply: Public Art Call

E.J’s reminder: Artist Get Cracking – You Have Three Weeks

The GMG post about the semi-finalist group exhibit at the Sawyer Free Library.

It is my understanding that with a public call to art, where the funding is provided by a state grant, it is illegal to restrict the call to only local residents.

Whether or not you care for the artist’s work, is a horse of a different color and subjective opinion. The three winning artists were chosen by a jury of their peers, comprised of a panel that included local residents.

Did you know that the new and fabulously well-attended Summer Cinema is part of the award winning HarborWalk? There were over one thousand attendees at Wednesday night’s Leggo Movie event. Movie night has been the talk of the town amongst kids throughout the city!

Before Photos ~ Same View as Above, Looking Towards the Gloucester House Restaurant and Taken in 2011

Have you walked one of the new crosswalks? I did, and didn’t slip or fall, and I am quite possibly one of the most accident prone people you will every meet–just ask my husband. Rather than repeating hearsay, I suggest you walk one yourself.

Do you recall the trash talk about Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway when it was first built (inaugurated in 2008)? The idea of a carousel has been bandied about for the HarborWalk. Here’s Nicole Scrafft’s recent lovely post about how she and her boys spent a fabulous day at the park: Now That’s a Carousel.

Many in our community have freely donated their time and energy to creating the HarborWalk and several people, who would prefer to remain anonymous, have donated thousands upon thousands of hours of their time and considerable skills toward developing the HarborWalk.There are challenges to overcome in every design project. I speak as the landscape designer who provided the horticultural master plan for the HarborWalk. This is only the third year of the HarborWalk’s existence and it is already proving to have a tremendously positive impact on our local businesses and restaurants. Let’s give the HarborWalk a chance to become established, to grow, to thrive, and continue to provide entertainment, education, and fun for our community and visitors.

How will you help? Please contact me if you would like to become a Friend of the HarborWalk, at kimsmithdesigns@hotmail.com or in the comment section of this post.

Read what reporter Glenn Collins had to say about the HarborWalk in the August 13th New York Time’s article titled “Polishing Its Past and Preparing Its Future.”

“This year Massachusetts designated four new cultural districts on Cape Ann, based on their museums, galleries, restaurants, performance spaces and artistic communities. Visitors can now download a free Cape Ann Cultural Districts smartphone app, to access a bonanza of web information and self-guided tours. This summer, 20 new “story posts,” bringing the total to 42, afford a walking encyclopedia of information. They are affixed to granite bollards situated strategically on the route (GHWalk.org).

The posts are part of the Gloucester HarborWalk, a free, multimile, historic, civic and artistic public-access walkway that zigzags in and out of historic locales, piers, plazas, docks and parks. Call it stealth wayfinding, since it affords an intimate view of the harborfront, giving access to the town’s history — and the water itself — without disturbing the working port, or cutesifying it.”

If you have been enjoying the HarborWalk–the Summer Cinema, the story moments, window to the waterfront, and all that it has to offer, please let us know. We would love to hear from you. Thank you!

Don’t miss JAWS!, playing Wednesday, August 27th. I hope to see you there!

Gloucester’s I4-C2 in 2011, the year before the HarborWalk was built.