Through more than 60 photographs taken at Gloucester’s Stage Fort Park, documentary photographer Anne Rearick captures the gatherings, traditions, and quiet moments that bring people together. From family picnics to weddings and baptisms, her images reveal the park as a place of respite, connection, and shared experience.
A Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and longtime Gloucester resident, Rearick invites viewers to consider themes of belonging, community, and the importance of shared public spaces. An adjacent gallery explores the history of Stage Fort Park, which has been open to the public since 1898.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog featuring essays by Rearick, photography curator John Jacob, and Cape Ann Museum Chief Curator Martha Oaks.
Image Credits: Anne Rearick, Battle of Bunker Hill Reenactment at Stage Fort Park, June 2025. Archival ink-jet print on rag paper. Private Collection.
Young Friends, August 2025. Archival ink-jet print on rag paper. Private Collection.
Post-Wedding Ceremony, July 2024. Archival ink-jet print on rag paper. Private Collection.
Baptism, Cressy’s Beach, August 2025. Archival ink-jet print on rag paper. Private Collection
![Image Credit: Anne Rearick, Reina at 13, 2025, archival print. Collection of the Cape Ann Museum. Museum purchase with funds provided by the Kanter Kallman Foundation, 2025 [Accession # 2025.064.001].](https://www.capeannmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Anne-Rearick-Reina-at-13-2025-Hi-Res-300x300.jpg)
Enjoy the accompanying catalog to the exhibition This Other Eden, Photographs by Anne Rearick on view at the Cape Ann Museum November 14, 2026 – March 21, 2027
“Why would anyone allow me to photograph them during such precarious times? Yet nearly everyone I asked said yes,” Rearick writes. “I was humbled and deeply moved by the trust extended to me by families from Syria, Puerto Rico, Palestine, the Dominican Republic, Türkiye, Afghanistan, and Guatemala, among so many others.”
The exhibition takes its title from John of Gaunt’s description of England as “this other Eden” in Shakespeare’s “Richard II.”
“Looking at Stage Fort Park today, Gaunt’s words take on a renewed, vital force,” Rearick writes. “It stands as our own ‘other Eden,’ a sanctuary that preserves our shared humanity in uncertain times. These photographs are my love letter to a place that belongs to us all.”
In addition to Rearick’s essay, the fully illustrated catalog features an essay by John Jacob, McEvoy Family Senior Curator of Photography at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery, positioning Rearick’s work within the tradition of 20th-century documentary photography. The catalog also includes an overview of the history of Stage Fort Park by Martha Oaks, Henrietta Gates and Heaton Robertson Chief Curator at the Cape Ann Museum.
Spanning more than 60 acres of sandy beaches, granite outcroppings, and open green space, Stage Fort Park has been owned by the City of Gloucester and open to the public since 1898. When advocating for its purchase, city officials noted that the park would be “thoroughly appreciated by every man, woman, and child in this city, as well as the many who come among us for a summer home.” Over the decades, the park has hosted circuses, Wild West shows, civic celebrations, and cultural festivals.
Softcover, 140 pages, 9.375 x 11″, 65 images and Black & White Photographs
Available for purchase at the Cape Ann Museum or the online store.
CAM Members $31.50, Non-Members $35
Tuesdays & Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. Central Gallery, Downtown Campus 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA Free with General Admission Drop In Program 15 person capacity, first come, first served What […]
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![Image Credit: John Sloan, Scavenger Rocks, 1914, Oil on canvas, Gift of Stephen Lindo in memory of Sigrid Elizabeth Olson, 2024. [Accession #2024.043.002.]](https://www.capeannmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/John-Sloan-Scavenger-Rocks-600x400-1.jpg)
Thursday, November 5, 2026 and Thursday, November 12, 2026 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. CAM Education Room Downtown Campus 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA CAM Members $5, Non-Members (Adult) $25 […]
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Fridays 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Central Gallery, Downtown Campus 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA Free with General Admission Check in with Visitor Services at the Desk Space is limited What can a house […]
Downtown Campus
Tuesdays & Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. Central Gallery, Downtown Campus 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA Free with General Admission Drop In Program 15 person capacity, first come, first served What […]
Downtown Campus
![Marsden Hartley (1877-1943). Summer Outward Bound, Gloucester, 1931, oil on board. Collection of Cape Ann Museum. Gift of the estate of Robert L. French, 2009 [Accession # 2009.51.9].](https://www.capeannmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Marsden-Hartley-Dogtown-600x400-1.jpg)
Sunday, November 8, 2026 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Babson Boulder Parking Cherry Street, Gloucester, MA 01930 CAM Members $15, Non-Members $25. Registration Required On Cape Ann, the name “Dogtown” […]
Babson Boulder Parking
Sundays at 11:00 a.m. Central Gallery, Downtown Campus 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA Free with General Admission Drop In Program 15 person capacity, first come, first served What can we […]
Downtown Campus
Tuesdays & Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. Central Gallery, Downtown Campus 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA Free with General Admission Drop In Program 15 person capacity, first come, first served What […]
Downtown Campus
Thursday, November 5, 2026 and Thursday, November 12, 2026 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. CAM Education Room Downtown Campus 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA CAM Members $5, Non-Members (Adult) $25 […]
Downtown Campus
Fridays 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Central Gallery, Downtown Campus 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA Free with General Admission Check in with Visitor Services at the Desk Space is limited What can a house […]
Downtown Campus
Saturday, November 14, 2026 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Downtown Campus 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA Free for Cape Ann Residents Join us for the second Saturday of each month, […]
Downtown Campus
Tuesdays & Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. Central Gallery, Downtown Campus 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA Free with General Admission Drop In Program 15 person capacity, first come, first served What […]
Downtown Campus
Saturday, November 14, 2026 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Downtown Campus Pleasant Street, Gloucester, MA Free for CAM Members and Special Guests. Registration Recommended Join us for an opening reception […]
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