ISHRA June 2010 Conference on Star Island- Updated 3/2010

Join us to discover the rich artistic history of the Isles of Shoals, nine hauntingly beautiful islands just off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire. Explore the fascinating work of Shoals artists, writers and musicians from by-gone eras. Recreate the days when famous writers, musicians and artists gathered in the parlor of Shoals poet Celia Thaxter. Step into the scenes of artist Childe Hassam’s work on an optional trip to Appledore Island. Delve into the architecture of the fishing and resort village of Gosport on Star Island and experience the cuisine of the Shoals resort hotels firsthand. Engage in some craftsmanship of your own at our Victorian era seaweed-pressing and watercolor illustration workshops. View the PBS historical Shoals documentary An Island Kingdom and meet the producer.

Meet people who share an interest in the natural and cultural history of the Shoals. Dine in the historic Oceanic Hotel, which opened in 1865. Relax in a rocking chair on the Oceanic Porch and enjoy an endless sea vista. Attend candlelit chapel services as Shoalers did in centuries past. Enjoy a tour of this historic island and explore how modern life is possible on this isolated island with a behind the scenes tour.

The ISHRA June conference is open to members of the public aged 18 years or older.

Registration for the conference is $90 for ISHRA members and $100 for non-members (includes a one-year ISHRA membership.) Star Island is reached by a conference boat that departs from Portsmouth, NH at a cost of $44 per person, round-trip. Parking in Portsmouth is $10 a day or any portion of a day. Accommodations on Star Island are modest but comfortable with shared sinks and toilets. Three meals a day are served buffet or family style. Room and board is $392 for a triple, $416 for a double and $538 for a single. Motel units may be available at $469 double and $743 single. A $75 room & board deposit is payable with registration; the balance is payable on Star Island along with boat transportation and parking fees.

Registration for the conference may be done online at the Star Island Corporation website, www.starisland.org/conferences/2010-listings/ishra-june or a registration form can be downloaded and sent in by postal mail, www.starisland.org/conferences/register. For more information about the ISHRA June conference, please email ishraconf@comcast.net.

For general information about attending a conference on Star Island, please visit www.starisland.org.

Planned Conference Sessions:

Isles of Shoals: the Eternal Sound of the Sea:  Enjoy a special performance of this play presented by the Pontine Theater and starring by Marguerite Matthews & Greg Gathers. Witness the 19th century meeting between Celia Thaxter and Nathaniel Hawthorne and learn about the creative process that went into this production.

Architectural Tour of the Village of Gosport:  Take an intriguing tour of the charming 19th century buildings of Star Island with architectural designer and university lecturer Robert Cook.  Learn about the people who lived and worked in those buildings from Star Island museum curator and ISHRA vice-president Sarah O’Connor.

Artists of the Isles of Shoals:  Delve into the work of artists like Childe Hassam, J. Appleton Brown, Ross Sterling Turner and the DeHass brothers with artist and Banks Gallery owner Jamie LaFleur. Learn of the artists painting on the Shoals today and determine why the Isles present an endless source of artistic inspiration.

Writers, Musicians and Artists of the Shoals:  Explore the lives and work of the famous visitors to Celia Thaxter’s salon on Appledore Island.  Discover how they collaborated to produce some of their finest work with Shoals historian Ann Beattie.

Seaweed Pressing of the Victorian Age:  Discover anew this pastime that swept the seacoasts of the Western world in the Victorian era and create your own pressed seaweed masterpiece with phycologist and artist Amy Cook.

Poetical Watercolor Illustration:  Peruse poet Celia Thaxter’s flower and marine watercolor illustrations of her work at the Star Island museum and create your own illustrations of her poetry with artist and designer Gretchen Gudefin.

Digital Photography at the Isles of Shoals: Learn creative composition techniques to create enhanced depth perception and balance in your digital photographs. Tour idyllic island scenes with photographer Arnie Silverstone and practice your newly acquired composition techniques.

An Island Kingdom:  Watch the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary that illustrates the 400-year history of the Isles of Shoals and meet with the producer, Andrea Melville, to discuss the fascinating creation of the program.

Childe Hassam’s Appledore Tour:  Step into the scenes of artist Childe Hassam’s work on this optional trip to Appledore Island ($22 per person.)  Compare and contrast the landscapes today with those of Hassam’s time.

Cuisine of the Grand Shoals Resort Hotels:  Marvel at the menus from the dining rooms of the Oceanic and Appledore House resort hotels.  Enjoy the creation of a salt cod dish from the 1872 cookbook of Miss Parloa, the pastry cook of Appledore House.

Celia Thaxter’s Parlor:  Listen to the sounds of the music that rang through Celia Thaxter’s cottage when the famous musicians of her time played the piano in her parlor.  Recreate the poetry readings performed by writers such as John Greenleaf Whittier and Celia herself.

Historical Tour of Star Island:  Investigate the fishing and resort eras of Gosport and learn about the natural and cultural wonders of today’s Isles. Examine the lore and legends of the Shoals and determine the truth behind stories of pirates, treasure, ghosts and murder.

Historic Chapel Services: Join the candlelit procession to the centuries-old stone chapel on Star Island and step back in time to experience the sense of community on this hauntingly beautiful island.

Conference Speakers & Leadership:

Ann Beattie is the Co-Chair for the conference and will explore the writers, musicians and artists of the Victorian era Shoals through a series of fascinating historical images. Ann is a marine educator with a particular fascination for the Isles of Shoals. She is past-president of the Isles of Shoals Historical and Research Association, a Proprietor of the Portsmouth Athenaeum and acts as the Shoals Historian for the Seacoast Science Center. Ann gives tours of Appledore Island and the Shoals Marine Lab during the summer as a UNH Marine Docent and speaks frequently about the remarkable history of the Isles of Shoals at conferences on Star Island. As a Smuttynose Steward, she spends a week each summer on that island as a caretaker.

Jamie LaFleur will speak about historical and contemporary art on the Isles of Shoals. Jamie was born in the Monadnock region of Southwestern New Hampshire, growing up in a family that encouraged creativity and artistic achievement. He studied at Pratt Institute of Art in New York City and has lived and worked in Newport, Rhode Island and Naples, Florida. Having returned to New Hampshire, Jamie's work now focuses on the New Hampshire landscape and the New England coastline and can be found in collections around the world, including the New Hampshire State House. Jamie is the owner of the Banks Gallery in Portsmouth, www.thebanksgallery.com and in 2006, the gallery featured works by Jamie and other artists in an exhibition called Island Light: Isles of Shoals.

Andrea Melville is the Co-Chair for the conference and will discuss her Shoals history documentary, An Island Kingdom. Andrea has over 20 years of television and film experience, from magazine style programs to documentaries, and producing two Emmy-award winning programs for public television. In 2008 she completed the 90-minute documentary An Island Kingdom, the first of its kind to feature the 400-year history of the Isles of Shoals and its people, and was honored with an Emmy Award Nomination from the Boston/New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. An Island Kingdom is funded in part by The New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, the New Hampshire Humanities Council, and the Isles of Shoals Historical and Research Association. Visit www.barkingspiderproductionsvt.org for more information. 

Arnie Silverstone will lead a digital photography workshop at the conference. Although Arnie has had a 43 year career in the aviation industry, photography has been his avocation for over 30 years.  He graduated from The School of Modern Photography in 1977 and began his first assignments working from his home dark room facility on projects ranging from portrait and landscape photography to restoration of antique photographs.  Now retired, he has been teaching digital photography concepts to students in the UNH Marine Docent Program and a Digital Photography Course on Star Island for Elderhostel for the past 3 years.

Robert Cook is speaking on the architecture of Star Island, both past and present, along with leading a tour of the facades of some of the buildings on Star Island. He has had a lifelong interest in the history of architecture and its cultural meaning. Bob first visited the Isle of Shoals in 1990 and frequently returns to sketch the islands beauty. When he is not researching architecture; he is a design principal at Adaptdesign Architects (www.adaptdesignonline.com) in Portsmouth NH and teaches architecture in Boston.

Sarah O’Connor is leading a cultural tour of the buildings of Star Island. Sarah O'Connor has been the Vaughn Curator and island historian for Star Island since 2008. Her interest in Shoals history was sparked during her first year working for SIC, in 2002, when she got very familiar with every building on island as a chambermaid and wanted to know more about who had lived in them. Her academic background is in maritime history and museum studies, with a particular focus on Shoals history and the New England fisheries. An avid fan of living history, her research into the New England fisheries has led her to try her hand at fishing for cod off the Shoals with traditional handline gear aboard a hand-built wooden ketch. She has also worked as a deckhand on a 136' brigantine through the Sea Education Association. When not on island, she lives on a homestead on the Vermont/Canada border that manages to be even more primitive than Star Island. (No running water at all, and the electricity occasionally goes out at random intervals.) This makes her one of the few Pelicans whose standard of living actually goes up when on island!

M. Marguerite Mathews and Gregory Gathers will perform the play, “Isles of Shoals: Legend and Lore.” They are artistic Directors of Pontine Theater in Portsmouth, NH. Marguerite studied with the French actor, Etienne Decroux, at his L'Ecole du Mime Corporeal in Paris, France. She has served on the board of the National Movement Theatre Association, as editor of the Movement Theatre Quarterly and as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. Ms. Mathews was named New Hampshire's Artist Laureate of 2002. Greg has been designing and constructing Pontine's costumes, sets, and props since 1982. He has served as design director for the Movement Theatre Quarterly and as chair of the Individual Artists Advisory Committee at the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. Both Marguerite and Greg are onsite reporters for the National Endowment for the Arts. http://www.pontine.org/

Amy Cook has been a student of phycology for almost twenty years, although if you ask her family, they will tell you this fascination started as a toddler on the sands of York Beach, Maine. Amy received her BS in Marine and Freshwater Biology from the University of New Hampshire with a minor in Microbiology. She has been actively involved in life out on the Shoals since her initial introduction to them as a freshman at UNH. She has been a student, cook, teaching assistant and volunteer on Appledore Island, a day tripper, conferee and conference registrar on Star Island, a seabird restoration biologist on White and Seavey's Islands and a Smuttynose Steward on Smuttynose Island. She can always be found out and about on the islands or whichever coast worldwide her travels take her to, combining her love of travel, the outdoors and her art. Amy has been pressing seaweed for herbarium specimens for the close to twenty years and has branched out into creating more artistic pieces in the last 5 years. Her artwork is on display at a hospital in Derry, NH and in private collections from Maine to New Jersey.

Gretchen Jaeger Gudefin of Sutton NH, will lead a watercolor workshop at this year's conference. A self taught artist, she is a working illustrator in the style of the classic children's books that she grew up with including those of Beatrix Potter and Tasha Tudor. Growing up in New Hampshire fueled a deep love for its history, especially for that of the Isles of Shoals and Celia Thaxter's world. In addition to writing, illustrating and photographing for local publications including Kearsarge Magazine, she currently has her own line of greeting cards, each one depicting a beloved facet of New England from the lighthouses along the rocky shores to the white clapboard meetinghouses that grace our landscapes through the seasons. You can see her work at: http://winterharborpress.com

ISHRA September 2009 Weekend on Star Island

More information to come soon.