Cape Ann Museum

06/19/2026

Happy and thank you to all who joined us at Gloucester City Hall today for the 6th Annual Gloucester Juneteenth Celebration, marking the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States!

In addition to the raising of the Juneteenth flag accompanied by city officials, CAM staff, and the CAM Teen Council, participants experienced a community reading and discussion of Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” and pinmaking with the CAM Teen Council.

06/19/2026

No car? No problem! Check out the Cape Ann Museum on The Boston Globe’s list of excursions in New England while avoiding the gas station. Plan your route by train at https://www.mbta.com/ and take the 10-minute walk to the Museum!

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/12/lifestyle/new-england-summer-excursions-no-gas/

Whether you want to soak up the sun, expand your artistic horizons, or bike by the waterside, here's how to make the most of the season.

06/19/2026

💌 Unwrap something beautiful when you order an exhibition catalogue for “Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea”!
Get a copy shipped to your door by ordering online through the Cape Ann Museum Store, or pick up a copy in person when the CAM Store reopens on June 30!
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Shop online at https://store.capeannmuseum.org/products/presale-avery-gottlieb-rothko-by-the-sea-exhibition-catalog.

06/17/2026

“Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea” opens soon on June 30!
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The special exhibition “Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea” explores the artistic bond between three pivotal 20th century American artists—Milton Avery (1885–1965), Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974), and Mark Rothko (1903-1970)—whose shared summers in Gloucester, Massachusetts, from the 1920s to the mid-1940s had a lasting impact on their work. The exhibit is being presented through a collaboration between the Cape Ann Museum and The Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.).
🗓️📍 On view at the Cape Ann Museum from June 30 through September 27, 2026, the exhibition will then be displayed at The Phillips Collection from October 24, 2026, through January 24, 2027.
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As the first Cape Ann Museum generated show to then be taken on by another institution, the Museum is working in close collaboration with all three artists’ estates. The show will feature over 82 works from the 1920s to the 1960s, with loans from 26 prominent national and private institutional collections, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which is a central partner lending 10 works by Mark Rothko to the exhibition. Many works in this exhibition have never been on public view.
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Learn more and reserve timed tickets at https://www.capeannmuseum.org/exhibition/avery-gottlieb-rothko-by-the-sea/.
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Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974), “Blue at Night,” 1957. Oil on canvas, 42 x 60 in. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. John Barton Payne Fund, 1958, 58.13.4. Photograph: Troy Wilkinson. © 2026 Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

06/16/2026

✨ Walk and learn in a quaint seaside city ✨

CAM Walking tours are a great way to know Gloucester on a deeper level!
Explore the streets of Gloucester through the lens of art and history on the following topics:
🇺🇲 Patriots and Privateers of Revolutionary Middle Street (June 19, Aug. 7)
🏘️ Hopper’s Houses Downtown (July 10, Aug. 1, Aug. 14, Aug. 28)
◽ Public Sculpture of Gloucester (July 11, July 25, Aug. 22)
🪨 Historic Dogtown­ – A Walk Back in Time (July 12, Aug. 16, Sep. 20, Oct. 18, Nov. 😎
🖼️ Harbor Views – The Paintings of Fitz Henry Lane (July 17, Sep. 5)
🎨 Ed & Jo Hopper’s Houses – Views from Portuguese Hill (July 24, Aug. 15)
🌊 Waterfront Reflections – Gloucester’s Harbor Village (July 31, Aug. 29)

🎟️ Learn more and reserve tickets at https://www.capeannmuseum.org/events/category/walking-tours/.

06/15/2026

Save the date for the Reflections on Friendship: Grade 8 Student Exhibition Opening Reception on Saturday, July 11, from 2–5 pm at CAM Green!
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Join us for the opening reception of this year’s collaborative installation by middle school students of Cape Ann including sixth grade students from Gloucester’s O’Maley Innovation Middle School and 8th grade students at Rockport Middle School and the Manchester Essex Regional Middle School.
Enjoy student work as well as the “Among Friends” special exhibition in the Janet & William Ellery James Center. All are invited!
The Cape Ann Museum is proud to partner with Cape Ann Public schools to explore the art, culture and history of this unique place.

📍Janet & William Ellery James Center, CAM Green | 13 Poplar Street, Gloucester, MA 01930
🎟️ Free and open to the public. Parking is first come, first served.
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Art by sixth grade students from Gloucester’s O’Maley Innovation Middle School.

06/14/2026

The special exhibition “Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea” wouldn’t be possible without the partnership of The Phillips Collection and guest curator Eliza Rathbone, Chief Curator Emerita of The Phillips Collection!
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The Phillips Collection founders Duncan and Marjorie Phillips were champions of Milton Avery, Adolph Gottlieb, and Mark Rothko—acquiring work by all three during the artists’ lifetimes. The Phillips Collection became the first museum in the United States to purchase Avery’s art in 1929, later organizing his first solo museum show in 1943. In the 1950s and 1960s, The Phillips acquired two major paintings by Gottlieb, and in 1960 it created the first room in a museum permanently devoted to the display of Rothko’s work.
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“Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea” is being presented through a collaboration between the Cape Ann Museum and The Phillips Collection. On view at the Cape Ann Museum from June 30 through September 27, 2026, the exhibition will then be displayed at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., from October 24, 2026, through January 24, 2027.
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Learn more and reserve tickets for the Cape Ann Museum this summer at https://www.capeannmuseum.org/exhibition/avery-gottlieb-rothko-by-the-sea/.
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Collection of The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.:
(1) Mark Rothko (1903–1970), “Green and Tangerine on Red,” 1956. Oil on canvas. Acquired 1960, 1665. © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizael & Christopher Rothko/Artists Rights Socierty (ARS), New York.
(2) Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974), “The Seer,” 1950. Oil on canvas. Acquired 1952, 0803.© 2026 Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
(3) Milton Avery (1885–1965), “Harbor at Night,” 1932. Oil on canvas. Acquired 1942, 0038. © 2026 The Milton Avery Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

06/13/2026

Families of Cape Ann 2nd graders! Mark your calendar for the Where the Water Wonders Live: Grade 2 Student Exhibition Opening Reception on Saturday, July 11, from 10:30 am–1:30 pm at the CAM Downtown Campus!
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Join us for the opening reception of this year’s collaborative installation by second grade students of Cape Ann, enjoy art making activities, tour the Museum and take a Cassie Scavenger Hunt through the galleries. All are invited!

The Cape Ann Museum is proud to partner with Cape Ann Public schools to explore the art, culture and history of this unique place.

📍 Archival Gallery & Education Studio, Downtown Campus | 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA 01930
🎟️ Free and open to the public.
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Art by second grade students from Cape Ann’s Public Schools in Rockport, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Gloucester, and Essex.

06/12/2026

to artist D. Jerome Elwell (1847-1912)! Elwell was born in 1847 in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He and his Gloucester-born cousin, Kilby W. Elwell, painted in the 1850s and 1860s, studying many of the same landscape subjects as Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865). A new subject matter arose in 1867 when Gloucester built a new town hall on Dale Avenue. The building lasted only two years before it was destroyed by fire in 1869. D. Jerome Elwell recorded the damage in this evocative painting that stood as a reminder of the loss the citizens felt until the current city hall was built on the same site in 1871.
Elwell certainly admired the work of Fitz Henry Lane, and growing up in Gloucester he may have had the chance to see it in his own neighborhood. Later, Elwell studied in Belgium (supported by Gloucester philanthropist Samuel Elwell Sawyer) and traveled around Europe, spending time in Venice. There he became friends with James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), who painted Elwell’s portrait in 1900. Elwell died in 1912 in Naples, Italy.
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D. Jerome Elwel (1847-1912), “Burnt Ruins of Town House on Dale Avenue”, 1869. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA. Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Harold Bell, 1980 [2211].

06/11/2026

See you next weekend at the 6th Annual Gloucester Juneteenth Celebration on Friday, June 19, from 9–11:00 am!
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Join the Cape Ann Museum at Gloucester City Hall to celebrate , the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

🚩 9:00–9:30 am - Flag raising with comments from city officials and CAM staff outside City Hall.
📖 9:30–11:00 am - Community reading of Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” at Kyrouz Auditorium, Gloucester City Hall. Following the reading, the public is invited to stay for a facilitated discussion to discuss the speech and their experience reading it.

We hope that you can join us for this community gathering to reflect on important history and the work that still needs to be done. Learn more at
https://www.capeannmuseum.org/event/6th-annual-gloucester-juneteenth-celebration/.