The list is only partial, but those who've found inspiration in Rockport include: Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edward Hopper, Alexander Graham Bell, John Sloan, Maurice Prendegast, Katherine Anne Porter, Mischa Elman, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Arthur Fiedler, Harold Gomberg, Keith Jarrett, Eva Marie Saint, Cher, Hal Holbrook, Mark Twain, John Twachtman, and William Morris Hunt. No one is certain who the first painter was to discover this special place, but by 1900 many artists were arranging to spend their summers in studios on Bearskin Neck. According to town history books, those early days were communal times. Without television, movie theaters or home videos, people seemed to spend more time just talking, and certainly some of the talk must have been about art, for on July 22, 1921, a group of these artists formed an organization that would support their endeavors. One of the founders of this group will not only be remembered for his painting (his work now hangs in some of our country's most important museums), but also for his love of baseball, his painting school, his community enthusiasm, and his love of Rockport. His name was Aldro T. Hibbard and by the time he'd been in town merely a year, he helped form the Rockport Art Association.

More to come....