February 2025
Dear COSMOS Members & Patrons,
You are now privy to COSMOS Insider, a bulletin with updates on people and flux happening behind the scenes in the Greater Cape Ann cultural community. Producing all of the events is a cadre of intriguing people, dedicated to their missions, schedules and budgets. It all combines into is another source of theatrics!
Here at the PR friendly COSMOS crossroads, we are often the first to know the news. Or, sometimes we simply receive updates as we interact with the cultural community that we serve. Thus, COSMOS Insider is a natural spinoff from Cape Ann COSMOS, our flagship publication. Both keeping our readers In the Know...culturally on the Go!
WINDHOVER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: 2025 SEASON IN THE WORKS
One of the busier people in Gloucester right now is Lisa Hahn, Executive Director of the Windhover Performing Arts Center, who is deep in negotiations and bookings for the center’s summer season. COSMOS met with Lisa for a long coffee at The Source, on a recent January morning and caught up with her plans for 2025 Windhover stage.
If not familiar with the Windhover enclave of buildings and its centerpiece, a tented stage, it is one of the crown jewels among the Cape Ann cultural venues. Ina Hahn, Lisa’s mother and a renowned dancer on the New York stage, headed to Cape Ann when her dance career ended. She and her husband bought a dairy farm and undertook the arduous work of converting the site to a children’s dance camp. The performing stage and resident companies were to follow, establishing Windhover as a legendary summer dance destination in New England.
Art Horizons Tour
Now forty years since the founding of Windhover, Lisa Hahn is developing the next stage of the Windhover Performing Arts Center, to feature a broader range of programs. Residential and performing dance programs will continue to be the dominant genre booked into Windhover, but Lisa is increasing productions for theater, music, workshops and retreats.
As of early February, Lisa expects the season to include a Bach program, combining music and dancers; a six-week residence of the Lanes Coven Theatre Company, who will produce two plays, one Shakespeare and one contemporary. The Quarry Dance will happen this year! A production with a most unusual requirement for staging. Lisa is currently “looking for a quarry”. Certainly a signature Cape Ann performance venue!
Many people do not know that Lisa has a second business, and a significant one: Art Horizons International Inc. Founded in 1985, the company provides custom-designed cultural and educational art and architecture tours. Lisa works with museums and galleries situated all over the world. When we met, she was planning to take a group to Los Angeles, with stops at The Getty, LACMA, and other major art venues. To learn more: ART HORIZONS INTERNATIONAL Somehow Lisa balances these two audacious roles in both the Cape Ann cultural community, and that of the World!
PEOPLE IN TRANSITION
Christopher Griffith, the long serving and affable General Manager of Gloucester Stage Company, is moving on. The departure has been in the works since September, so he makes his exit stage right, before the new season. Chris served “with honor” and was last spotted at The Source, which seems to be Gloucester’s new hotspot for hot drinks. We wish his all the luck in the theatrical world. Break a leg, Chris!
Wenham Museum Board of Trustees has named Sarah Sosa-Acevedo the new Executive Director of Wenham Museum, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023. Effective February 1, 2025, Sosa-Acevedo will oversee all museum operations for the Museum, a hands-on, family-friendly history museum that currently stewards a diverse collection of approximately 45,000 objects and is known for its educational and community programming.
Sosa-Acevedo was most recently Senior Principal and Planned Giving Officer at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and President of the National Capital Gift Planning Council. Her career includes roles at Smithsonian Latino Center, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (WI), and Madison Children’s Museum (WI), a National Medal Award-winning institution. She holds an M.B.A. in Arts Administration from Wisconsin School of Business at University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.A.E. in Art Education from University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras in San Juan, PR.
Christopher Griffith
Sarah Sosa-Acevedo
COSMOS MOVES UPTOWN
Yes, COSMOS is joining the cultural district in the heart of Gloucester with a new space at 20 Pleasant Street, very near Cape Ann Museum, Jane Deering Gallery, 1623 Studio, Town Hall, Sawyer Library, MAGMA Dance Center, Matthew Swift Gallery, Charles Fine Arts.
Our new space will be multifunctional for office headquarters, small events and an art gallery.
Grand Opening: February 28, 6-9pm. The event will include our first COSMOS Art Party, with a show and sale for the works of Jon Sarkin.
We hope you can join us for this thrilling first event in our expanding COSMOS space!
STATUS: COSMOS MEMBERSHIP PLANS
We deeply thank all of you, our first paying subscribers to the COSMOS. You are in the vanguard! It was a tough decision but necessary. We have reached a stage in our operations that a Free newsletter would ultimately sack the COSMOS.
The technical execution was tricky, we worked through all that, and were enormously gratified to see the first cohort of subscribers converting over, as of January 8 launch. Please encourage your friends to take your lead.
Our sustainability plan needs at least 30% of currently enrolled subscribers to make the conversion. We are far from that goal. You’ll see the marketing messages continuing, and increasing. You now have the privilege of ignoring all requests to upgrade your plan!
Going forward, we will soon commence private communications to our paid subscribers with updates on the expanding COSMOS platform. Stay tuned!
GORDON MASSMAN BREAKS THROUGH IN BARCELONA
More than three years ago, COSMOS published a Gordon Massman painting and began our coverage of the poet who became a painter. He continues to bring fervor daily to his studio on the harbor. The Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art consortium, Barcelona Spain, has recently published a lengthy interview with Gordon and will include him in their annual book of international artists to watch. Gordon’s poetic skills and introspective nature make for a spellbinding interview: Gordon Massman 10 Questions.
