Author: Mystic Seaport Museum

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

The Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport honored 11 artists at the opening of its 38th Annual International Marine Art Exhibition and Sale on Saturday, September 23. 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.

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.

“By successfully showcasing each year some of the finest art available from leading marine artists, this exhibition continues to delight art lovers,” said Monique Foster, director of the Gallery. “We are pleased to be able to present this unique exhibit that recognizes outstanding work and allows art enthusiasts to add to their collections and showcase marine art in their homes.”

All of the award winners and the entire exhibition may be viewed in the Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport through December 31, 2017.

Rudolph J. Schaefer Maritime Heritage Award

Given in Memory of Rudolph J. Schaerfer’s devotion to preserving maritime history
and making it accessible and enjoyable, the judges recognize the artist whose work best documents our maritime heritage, past or present and for generations of the future.
John Tayson, Harbor Scene, Oil, 24 x 18 (pictured above)

Stobart Foundation Award

This award is given to encourage the importance of painting from life. The judges recognize the work that attracts their attention, most by virtue of its uniqueness of style, quality of light and atmosphere.
Don Demers, Mcloons Dock, Oil, 11 x 14

Maritime Gallery Yachting Award

This award celebrates the singular pleasures of going to sea. The judges recognize the work that best captures the beauty and excitement of sailing in all its many forms.
Russ Kramer, DAUNTLESS Around the Lightship (study), Oil, 9 x 15

Marine Environmental Wildlife Award

This award acknowledges the importance of preserving the fragile balance within the world’secosystems. The judges recognize the work that best depicts marine mammals, fish or birds in their native habitat.
Susan Van Winkle, Melting Away, Alabaster, 9 x 8 1/2 x 13

Thomas M. Hoyne III Award

Given in memory of Thomas M. Hoyne III’s dedication and contributions to accurate, historical representations 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.
Laura Cooper, Mackerel Seiner Returning to Port, Salem, MA, 1890, Oil 13 x 18

Museum Purchase Award

The Museum Purchase Award is chosen by a committee of the Curatorial staff of The 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.
Maris Platais, TOURIST aka SABINO, on the Kennebec, Acrylic, Pen & Ink, 16 x 22

Award of Excellence

Brad Betts, Drying Sails in Camden Harbor, Oil, 24 x 18

Ian Hansen, Ship DREADNOUGHT, Oil, 26 x 24

Cindy House, Evening Dunes, Pastel, 15 x 20

Ronny Moortgat, Awaiting Orders, Watercolor, 12 x 20

Elizabeth Mumford, Rolling Home to Dear New England, Gouache, 22 x 27

Mystic Seaport announces its lineup of new exhibitions for the 2018 calendar year, including the international debut in May of The Vikings Begin, a presentation of priceless Norse artifacts from Sweden.

The Museum will begin the year with the opening in January of a kinetic sculpture installation, Murmur: Arctic Realities, from contemporary artist John Grade that will transport visitors to the Alaskan tundra with the aid of mixed-reality technology.

Joining The Vikings Begin in May will be an exhibition featuring the Vinland Map, a document that ignited a controversy in 1965 as it purported to prove the Vikings reached the New World long before Christopher Columbus. Is the map legitimate? Experts conclude it is not, but it still has a lot to tell us about issues of authenticity and the origins of modern America.

The year concludes in November with the only American display of Death in the Ice: The Shocking Story of Franklin’s Final Expedition, an exploration of the mysterious fate of Sir John Franklin and his crew on their expedition to find the Northwest Passage across the Arctic in 1845. Artifacts recovered from the recently discovered wrecks, of the ships will be presented for the first time in this country.

“We believe this lineup of world-class exhibitions confirms a new era at Mystic Seaport, one that uses our collections and knowledge along with that of partner institutions and artists to present relevant, current themes around our timeless relationship to the sea,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport. “Our goal is to bring a fresh perspective to the museum-going experience and anyone who dons a HoloLens headset to view Murmur will certainly agree that we are redefining that space.”

Murmur: Arctic Realities
January-April, 2018
Collins Gallery

Murmur: Arctic Realities will present a groundbreaking new experience by John Grade, one of the world’s leading contemporary artists. Visitors will encounter what appears to be a natural landform – a mound intricately carved from Alaskan yellow cedar. This vast sculpture represents a pingo, a hill of ice that grows over centuries in the Arctic’s highest latitudes, then collapses, pockmarking the tundra. Grade’s work replicates exactly a pingo in Alaska’s Noatak National Preserve, mapped by the artist using photogrammetry. Visitors will not only witness the pingo’s impressive scale, but will also be able to enter inside the sculpture as its walls open and close, mimicking the pingo’s lifecycle at a time when this is accelerating due to unprecedented environmental change.

Murmur will incorporate the use of Microsoft’s HoloLens Mixed Reality technology. Grade will map fragments of Noatak’s landscape into the gallery so that visitors wearing a wireless HoloLens headset will see themselves within a holographic representation of the North. By allowing visitors in Connecticut to traverse an Alaskan marsh, Murmur will revolutionize the public’s grasp of what a museum experience can be.

The Mystic Seaport installation will be Murmur’s international debut and is made possible in collaboration with the Anchorage Museum.

The Vikings Begin: Treasures from Uppsala University, Sweden
May-September, 2018
Collins Gallery

One of the world’s finest early Viking age collections is coming to Mystic Seaport. Priceless treasures, including helmets, shields, weapons, glass, and other artifacts are safeguarded at the Gustavianum, Uppsala University Museum in Sweden, Scandinavia’s oldest university. These collections, dating as early as the seventh century, are now the focus of a major research initiative designed to significantly advance our understanding of how the Norse culture evolved. Thematic sections on Viking warfare, trade, the Baltic Sea, a ship burial, Norse gods, and relations to other cultures will employ rare archaeological finds in the discovery of how this maritime society lived more than a millennium ago. This exhibition represents the first instance most of these artifacts will have ever left Sweden.

The installation at Mystic Seaport will be the international debut of The Vikings Begin, and is made possible in collaboration with the Gustavianum, Uppsala University Museum.

The Vinland Map
May-September, 2018
R.J. Schaefer Building

When it was first unveiled by Yale University in 1965, the Vinland Map immediately became one of the most valuable and controversial documents in the world. This parchment map was dated by Yale to about 1440 – an incendiary claim as the map depicts at its far western edge Vinland, the mysterious land discovered by explorer Leif Ericsson in about 1000, what we now know to be Newfoundland. Did Norse knowledge of the New World exist within mainland Europe before Columbus sailed? The Map suggests so. Its publication riveted a public deeply invested in the question of First Contact, and eager for evidence of an American connection to Viking history. The Map’s discovery also ignited a firestorm of debate as scholars, historians, and scientists across the globe argued over its meaning and authenticity. Today most scholars concur the Map is a forgery, which does nothing to diminish the role it has played in our national conversation about who we are and where we come from.

This exhibition will place the Vinland Map on display in the U.S. for the first time in more than fifty years, allowing those who have followed the saga to see its primary evidence for the first time. Mystic Seaport will engage historians, archaeologists, scientists, and other leading experts to share the Map’s story and discuss its outsized role in modern American history.

This exhibition is made possible in collaboration with the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Death in the Ice – The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition
November, 2018-April, 2019
Collins Gallery

In 1845, Sir John Franklin led the Royal Navy’s sturdiest two ships into the Arctic to great international acclaim. His mission: to discover a Northwest Passage to Asia. Franklin and his crew of 128 men were never heard from again. Thirty-seven expeditions were launched from several countries in a decades-long effort to discover the fate of Franklin’s men. Tantalizing clues, including graves, provisions, Inuit tales, and a single handwritten note told a grim story, but the men and ships were never found.

This most enduring of mysteries leapt back into the headlines in 2014 with the discovery of Franklin’s flagship, HMS Erebus, then two years later with the discovery of HMS Terror, each incredibly well preserved at depths of less than 100 feet in the Arctic Ocean. Dives aboard the wrecks are rapidly changing our understanding of what befell Franklin’s expedition.

This exhibition pulls together every strand of this epic history, including expedition materials from London, Inuit culture and knowledge that led to the wrecks’ discoveries from Canada, and artifacts raised from HMS Erebus, seen for the first time in 170 years.

This is a travelling exhibition developed by the Canadian Museum of History (Gatineau, Canada), in partnership with Parks Canada Agency and with the National Maritime Museum (London, United Kingdom), and in collaboration with the Government of Nunavut and the Inuit Heritage Trust.

Traveling Exhibitions

Peoples of the Whale: Captain George Comer and the Inuit of Hudson Bay
Embassy of Canada, Washington, D.C.
April-July, 2018

Capt. George Comer (1858-1937) enjoyed dual careers as a successful Arctic whaling captain and an accomplished – though not formally trained – anthropologist. He is best known for his close association with the Inuit of the west coast of Hudson Bay. This exhibition explores this remarkable relationship.

Comer and his whaling crew fared well in the cold North, thanks in large part to the support of the Inuit, who also possessed strong whaling traditions. The Captain appreciated the remarkable ingenuity, skills, and character of his Inuit companions. They willingly shared their knowledge and helped him survive. Surrounded by one of the earth’s most harsh environments, the two groups worked together and enjoyed each other’s company.

The Inuit also supported Captain Comer’s efforts to document their rapidly changing culture, enabling him to conduct comprehensive studies of Inuit life; the first ever made in the Hudson Bay region. Today, his studies and collections provide a unique and striking record of shared legacy.

This exhibition is made possible in partnership with the Embassy of Canada and the Canadian Museum of History.