Revitalizing art

Michael J. DeCicco

Autumn is the time to “fall” into unique museum experiences around the South Coast.

Case in point: the Mattapoisett Museum. It’s a uniquely vibrant place to visit at its 5 Church St. headquarters, the former Mattapoisett Christian Church. You’ll find not just displays of cultural and historical materials relating to Mattapoisett’s heritage; you’ll find variety, including readings and talks by local historians and authors, silent movie nights, open mic nights featuring local poets and musicians on traditional instruments, as well as art exhibits and workshops.

“It’s because we want to be a community place,” Museum Director Jeff Miller explained, “a community resource. We want to offer things that will appeal to different people. Our focus is still history. But we look to offer something to people not as interested in history as they are in, say, the performing arts. Our goal is to enrich the whole cultural life of Mattapoisett and the region.”

The organization that started as the Mattapoisett Historical Society featured mostly talks on historical topics when it opened in 1958. It was around the time Miller became director in 2015 that things started changing. Seth Mendell, son of one of the museum’s founders Charles Mendell, was handling the historical lecture duties. Under the younger Mendell’s leadership, the organization decided to introduce musical events.

In 2017, the first such event, a concert by Issac Taylor, a folk singer/songwriter and James Taylor’s nephew, was a success. “And we made some money,” Miller said. “So we did a few more of them.”

The next big museum-sponsored music event was a festival to celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2018, with six different acts performing in and around the museum grounds.

Around that time, more new members joined the museum and became interested in further broadening the programming. The decision was made to change the organization’s name, from the Mattapoisett Historical Society to the Mattapoisett Museum.

Why the name change? “‘Historical Society’ elicited a conservative view of what we offer,” Miller said. “We wanted to be more broad in our approach; offer culture, not just history.”

The new plan became a successful one. COVID pandemic shutdowns sent museum programming online, but in 2021 the museum re-emerged with more vibrant programming than ever. In the spring of 2021 the most noteworthy of this new programming began when Jeff Angeley, a music teacher and talented local musician, was looking for a place to display his and others’ musical talent. He became the MC of the open mics that are nowadays held regularly in the museum’s main gallery.

In 2022, the museum is a place for open mics of music, poetry and comedy, author readings, art exhibits, craft and other educational workshops such as one that taught children theatercraft, monthly movie nights (presented outdoors in warm weather), and walking tours of Mattapoisett.

Here’s what should interest people about the history of Mattapoisett itself, Miller added. Town shipyards built the Acushnet, the ship Herman Melville sailed on that inspired his writing of his classic novel Moby Dick, and the famed Wanderer whale ship. Mattapoisett evolved into a port town known for building merchant and whale ships after it separated from the Village of Rochester to become its own town in 1852.

Miller said they are looking to expand the walking tours beyond covering just the neighborhood around the museum facility. And they are always looking to expand what activities they offer the community. For more information visit mattapoisettmuseum. org.

From past to present

You should also put on your list the Fall River Museum of Contemporary Art, at 502 Bedford Street, on the ground floor of the historic granite building of Merrow Manufacturing.

Opened in October of last year, this museum prides itself on displaying the most contemporary pieces the national and local art world produces, said Harry Gould Harvey IV, co-founder with his wife Brittini Ann Harvey.

“My wife Brittini and I are both contemporary artists,” Harvey explained. “I was born in Fall River, worked in New York as a photographer. Years passed and I saw a need and a responsibility to start a museum in Fall River that better encapsulates the world that contemporary artists live in today.”

The museum’s creation, he noted, was supported by FABRIC Festival, an organization started by the family who owns and operates Portugalia marketplace in Fall River. As co-founders of the museum, Harvey said, he and his wife “work with students and contemporary artists to create a hub of innovation. We use art to make new conversations legible, we invite students from partnering institutions to make art amongst and with world-class globally exhibiting artists. We do everything from workshops to projects in vacant storefronts to stimulate and question how it is that art can better serve a community like Fall River.”

The art that the museum has offered so far has included mixed media displays, paintings, photography, video, and performance art. While the museum is currently undergoing some re-construction of its physical location and space, it will re-open in November for an exhibit in cooperation with Fall River Durfee High School and the UMass Dartmouth’s Studio Art Foundations program.

The students in these programs will have full access to the museum space to exhibit their work, Harvey is proud to note. Artists from outside of Fall River will come in and teach these young students more about today’s contemporary art.

“We want a ‘pollination’ of these students to the contemporary art world,” he said. “Pollinating them to think more broadly and interconnectivity about how art can stimulate not only an individual’s experience of art but also a whole community’s experience of art,” he said.

Visit the museum’s website at frmoca. org or on Instagram at @fr.moca.