Back when he was serving as the Associate Curator for the Permanent Collection at the Cape Ann Historical Association (today’s Cape Ann Museum) award-winning curator and author James A. Craig’s brother-in-law paid him a visit and toured the museum. And after viewing rooms replete with works by such giants of the American art scene as Gilbert Stuart, Winslow Homer, and our very own Fitz Henry Lane, he asked Jim a simple question: Why Gloucester?

That deceptively modest query left Jim gobsmacked.  For as any resident of Gloucester knows, the fine arts abound here.  They have become part of the proverbial DBNA of our community, and can be found everywhere from our august museums and galleries down to the very sub shops and pizza parlors we eat in. The fine arts are so ubiquitous here that we take them for granted, never the once wondering why and how this one town became so synonymous with them.

When did the fine arts first arrive in Gloucester?  Why have they remained for so many centuries here? And how far into the future can we hope for them to remain with us? Join us as Jim Craig unravels these mysteries with his talk From Fitz Henry Lane to the Future: a Brief History of the Fine Arts in Gloucester.  But be warned: Sacred cows will be tipped! Revelations will abound! And after two decades of research, pondering, and head scratching the answer to that maddening question, “Why Gloucester?” will finally be revealed!