Art in the Seashore

This summer, the National Park Service turns 100. Along with Parks from across the country, the Cape Cod National Seashore is celebrating the achievements of the past 100 years and enthusiastically embracing the upcoming century of stewardship of American lands. To that end, the Seashore has joined with the Addison Art Gallery for a calendar of events exploring the history of the artists that inspired the creation of the National Park Service and introducing contemporary artists documenting the Cape Cod National Seashore for future generations.

To encourage artists to create in the Seashore, the Addison Art Gallery is organizing plein air days, and the Seashore is offering pre-registered artists participating in this Centennial event free entrance to the National Seashore on Thursday and Friday, July 14 and 15. The first 50 registered artists will also be invited to a complimentary lunch on those days courtesy of Friends of the Cape Cod National Seashore and Eastern National. Artists wishing to participate need to email art@addisonart.com for more information and an application. Studio artists wishing to submit work inspired by the Seashore are also invited to submit through the Addison Art Gallery. For free Park entry too paint on July 14 and 15, and complimentary lunch, artists must register, and then pick up a vehicle placard and lunch ticket at the Addison Art Gallery.

On Thursday, July 14 at 1pm, Sue Moynihan, Chief of Interpretation and Cultural Resources Management at Cape Cod National Seashore, will present Through the Artists' Eyes: Popularizing and Preserving National Parks at the Salt Pond Visitor Center, 50 Nauset Road, Eastham. During her 34-year career with the National Park Service, Moynihan has worked in some of our nation's most compelling natural and historic sites, including Big Bend, Muir Woods, Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountains, Canyon de Chelly, and Alcatraz Island. This illustrated program will explore landscape painters and photographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with a focus on how their works inspired tourism and preservation, and how today's artists perpetuate this legacy.

On Friday, July 15 at 1 pm, Josephine Breen Del Deo will speak on the legacy of the dune shacks at the Province Lands Visitors Center, 171 Race Point Road, Provincetown. Del Deo has lived in Provincetown since 1953 (with her husband, the painter Salvatore Del Deo) where she has been engaged in significant community activity, including her participation in preserving over 3,000 acres of the state-owned Province Lands for inclusion in the Cape Cod National Seashore Park. Working tirelessly to preserve environmental and historic legacies, Del Deo provides a rare perspective. She will also be signing her latest book, The Watch at Peaked Hill, about the dune shack community. These diminutive abodes have long attracted artists, writers, and naturalists longing to escape the hectic hubbub of their day-to-day lives. She brings this history to life, setting it in the context of larger events and populating it with the interesting, often eccentric characters who have lived on the dunes.

On Saturday, July 16 from 5 to 7, there will be a reception and exhibition at the Addison Art Gallery, 43 South Orleans Road (Route 28), Orleans. Artists wishing to submit work to be included in the Gallery show should email art@addisonart.com for a submission application.

These endeavors are supported by Friends of the Cape Cod National Seashore and Eastern National, operators of book and gift shops for the National Park Service. The Cape Cod National Seashore would like to emphasize that artists are always welcome to visit, be inspired and create.

For more information, please visit addisonart.com, email art@addisonart.com or call the Addison Art Gallery at 508.255.6200.
For information on the Cape Cod National Seashore, please visit nps.gov/caco.