“Have you ever seen anything so blue?” Jonathan Sherman holds out a mason jar filled with a beautiful powder of the richest, most shocking blue. It’s ground stone—lapis lazuli from Afghanistan—and he’s using it to mix his own oil paint. He scoops a bit of the powder onto a marble board and adds a few drops of amber-hued Italian linseed oil that he thickened in the south-facing summer sun for three weeks. It’s a meticulous task but seems fitting for Sherman, an artist whose works, and even his Marblehead studio, feel of another time. “The fascinating thing about oil paint is the oil and the pig ..read more

For decades, the city of Lynn has had a vibrant hip-hop scene, with local performers and DJs contributing to an unmistakable sound. But by the 2010s, according to Edwin Cabrera, a local music promoter and founder of Grind House Recordings, gentrification of the industrial city and an association with violence and gang life threatened to overshadow the special culture, and he worried something unique was in danger of being lost. Cabrera reached out to the Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF), an organization supporting regional nonprofits with resources and funding. With a special projects ..read more

Classical music can have the reputation of being somewhat stuffy, a relic of the past confined to big city stages. Yoichi Udagawa, conductor and musical director for the Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra, is out to show how misguided that idea really is. “We think of it as a living art with something to say to people today,” says Udagawa. “It’s full of passion, it’s full of energy, and it can be very exciting in the here and now—and we hope that we get that across in our performances.” For more than 70 years, in fact, the Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra has been gathering talented musicians to bring cla ..read more

If you’ve ever had a springtime stroll along the Newburyport boardwalk, Marblehead Harbor, or another North Shore seaside locale, you’ve no doubt encountered plein-air painters, photographers, and other artists inspired by our beautiful landscape and views. It’s no wonder, then, that the North Shore has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to art associations, which exhibit works from artists around the region—and even the country—in rotating galleries, exhibitions, and competitive juried shows that showcase the best of the best, while also providing education, public art, and connection t ..read more

Dr. Minji Kim, musical director of the Newburyport Choral Society, conducts with her whole body. It’s almost balletic, the way she moves around the stage, bouncing on the balls of her feet, swaying, waving, and clapping, with her hands elegantly swirling and fluttering. Music swirls around her as a hundred voices follow her every move, rising, falling, and pausing in tentative harmony. It’s the end of October, and the group of more than 100 singers is rehearsing at Belleville Church in Newburyport, about six weeks away from a winter concert performance, “A Celebration of Unity: Holiday Mu ..read more

An operational farm, the property does true farm-to-table weddings in a charming, restored 18th century barn. SPONSORED CONTENT WITH BARN AT BRADSTREET FARM If walls could talk, the Barn at Bradstreet Farm could tell us a history of eighteenth century New England. The second oldest continually operated farm in the United States, it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places. But today, it functions a bit differently — the fully restored antique barn is a gorgeous wedding and events space. Michael Sabatini purchased Rowley’s Bradstreet Farm in 2012, after it belonged to the Bradstreet ..read more

There’s no place like the North Shore to celebrate the holiday season, between its cold temps, community initiatives, and holiday happenings everywhere you look. Below, you’ll find details on the yearly traditions we’ve all grown fond of, like Winterlights, North Shore Music Theatre’s A Christmas Carol, and skating at MarketStreet Lynnfield. Some of our favorite holiday shopping events are back, too, like Marblehead’s Christmas Walk and Newburyport’s Holiday Invitation Nights. Read on for ten things to do this December north of Boston—we guarantee they’ll put you in the holiday spirit! The Ri ..read more

A ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday afternoon will unveil The Cut, a new, much-buzzed-about restaurant and performance venue in downtown Gloucester that the leadership team hopes will become an entertainment and dining destination for the entire North Shore and beyond. The space includes a 120-seat dining area and bar, a game room, and a performance area with room for up to 500 spectators to really enjoy the music. “We want the place to be kinetic,” says director of operations Travis Siewers. “Gloucester is a stand-up-and-dance kind of place.” To achieve this goal, Siewers and his partners tra ..read more

The mural is a surprising riot of color, covering a south-facing wall of the Tannery Marketplace in Newburyport. An arresting image of a heron, wings spread across a deeply saturated background, towers in lush contrast to the industrial brick of the surrounding buildings.  Painted by renowned muralist Felipe Ortiz, it’s perhaps the most obvious signifier of the ways that the Newburyport Art Association is stretching to welcome new voices as it celebrates 75 years in operation. “Our mission statement is huge and wide, and we’re trying to do a lot,” says Dr. Lisa Naas, executive director, w ..read more

The domestic arts of sewing, embroidery, and quilting result in beautiful, intricate creations that are bright, colorful, and intimate. But they’ve also been long associated with women and the home, and haven’t been given the wider artistic attention they deserve. Black women, too, are often overlooked, ignored, and left out of the rarefied world of fine art.  That’s not the case this fall at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), which is showcasing 12 textile-based portraits by Gio Swaby, a young Bahamian-Canadian artist who uses fabric and thread to create colorful images of the women in her ..read more