Bring your mom, daughter, sister, or best friend and create a set of matching pendants or hair clips that even a mermaid would love to wear! Finished pieces make wonderful Mother’s Day, Easter, or birthday presents.
Learn to embellish a beautiful necklace pendant or hair clip in the Victorian style setting of the 1800’s Sailors Valentine art form. This workshop, taught by shell artisan Melonie Massa, will offer hands-on, friendly assistance while teaching you techniques (and secrets) she has honed after a decade of creating this vintage art form. Melonie will also bring some of her most precious tiny sea treasures for you to use! Participants will go home with their natural shell art creation freshly resined and boxed, with a storycard about Sailors Valentines. Your creation will need 2 days undisturbed to cure fully. The resin adds incredible strength to your finished design and also preserves the natural colors of these treasures from the Sea!
Please feel free to bring something very tiny from the Sea of your own that you’d like to incorporate into your piece. Beginners, ages 12 and up, are warmly welcomed! Pre-registration is required – class maximum of 12 participants.
The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, in partnership with the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, is pleased to present Finding and Avoiding Fish as the Dock-U-Mentaries Film Series continues on Friday, April 19th at 7:00 p.m.
Is technology destroying or sustaining the commercial fishing industry? Attend this presentation of collaborative research being done by SMAST fisheries scientists and members of the regional fishing industry to answer that very question.
Researchers from SMAST’s Marine Fisheries Field Research Group continue to pioneer the use of high-resolution photo, video and artificial intelligence technologies to survey fish and shellfish species and develop fishing gear and practices that minimize by-catch and damage to habitat.
This program is part of an exhibit and series exploring the evolution and impact of technological change in the fishing industry. Funding for the exhibit and program series was provided by a National Maritime Heritage Grant administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, a project grant from Mass Humanities, a state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and grants from Dartmouth, Fairhaven, and New Bedford Cultural Councils, local agencies supported by the Mass Cultural Council. The Center is grateful to Chris Electronics and the School for Marine Science and Technology for their extraordinary in-kind support, and the members of the fishing community who loaned or donated artifacts and shared their knowledge.
Dock-U-Mentaries is a co-production of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center. Films about the working waterfront are screened on the third Friday of each month beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the theater of the Corson Maritime Learning Center, located at New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, 33 William Street in downtown New Bedford. All programs are open to the public and presented free of charge.
New Bedford’s Troubadour live at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center!
For more than 40 years, Art Tebbetts has provided SouthCoast music fans with wit, warmth, and skill as a guitarist and vocalist. His roots in the local community go back to his college days and his repertoire of music includes folk music, pop, and rock ‘n roll. For this performance, Art will delve into his collection of nautical songs to present an engaging and fun evening of music.
Joining Art on stage is special guest David Conlon, a founding member of the local acoustic trio Fourteen Strings. Accompanying himself on guitar and harmonica, David started playing local open mics a little more than fifteen years ago. Although David plays a variety of styles ranging from country to alternative rock (and can probably play any Neil Young request you throw at him) for this gig, he’ll be mixing some maritime themed songs into the set list.
Ship to Shore: How changing technology has impacted fishing families
This discussion panel is part of the Center’s Wheelhouse Technology from Sounding Leads to Satellites exhibit and program series exploring the evolution of communication, navigation and fish finding and the impact of those changes on the fishing community. The exhibit opens April 11th will remain on display through July 7th.
Over the past century, new technologies have allowed New Bedford’s fleet to arrive on the grounds faster, fish safer, and communicate more easily. But at what cost? This exhibit considers the evolution and impact of technological change on the industry, the community, and the fish. In addition to considering the science behind devices such as EPIRB, SONAR, and LORAN, the exhibit and programs will consider topics such as Technology & Privacy, Dependence on Technology, and Technology & Sustainability.
This program is part of an exhibit and series exploring the evolution and impact of technological change in the fishing industry. Funding for the exhibit and program series was provided by a National Maritime Heritage Grant administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, a project grant from Mass Humanities, a state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and grants from Dartmouth, Fairhaven, and New Bedford Cultural Councils, local agencies supported by the Mass Cultural Council. The Center is grateful to Chris Electronics and the School for Marine Science and Technology for their extraordinary in-kind support, and the members of the fishing community who loaned or donated artifacts and shared their knowledge.
Take the journey! Watch the full-feature lionfish documentary that inspired the naming of a US Congressional bill.
Meet the players – Activists are desperately trying to convince government officials to adopt an ingenious lionfish population program. But is it too radical?
Meet the people who experienced the unthinkable – People in Newfoundland who lived through a fishery collapse tell the story of how their lives and culture and economy were changed forever – and they warn US government officials not to make the same mistakes that they did.
Meet the congressman ready to fight – One determined elected official vaults the lionfish issue from the state to federal level but needs our support to turn a creative, sustainable idea into reality.
Dock-U-Mentaries is a co-production of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park and the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center. Films about the working waterfront are screened on the third Friday of each month beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the theater of the Corson Maritime Learning Center, located at New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, 33 William Street in downtown New Bedford. All programs are open to the public and presented free of charge.
Performance by Stephen Sanfilippo
Stephen has been performing songs of the sea since the mid-1970s, concentrating on researching and singing songs of coastal and maritime life of Long Island (New York) and Downeast Maine. He performs vocally, and on 5-string banjo, Anglo-concertina, guitar and harmonica. For this performance, song topics will range from an 1870 Maine banks fishing schooner ballad to spearing eels.
Stephen has performed at several Mystic Seaport Sea Music Festivals since the early 1980s, and his been a presenter at five of Mystic’s Music of the Sea History Symposiums. His current activities include teaching “Mariners’ Songs & the Maritime Experience” at Maine Maritime Academy, organizing the monthly Chantey Sing at the Pembroke Library, and performing naval songs of the Civil War at major cultural venues throughout the state of Maine.
Lobster War: The Fight Over the World’s Richest Fishing Grounds (USA, 74 min, Color)
Presented in partnership with the New Bedford Whaling Museum
“Lobster War” is a must-watch, award-winning feature-length documentary film about a conflict between the United States and Canada over waters that both countries have claimed since the end of the Revolutionary War. The disputed 277 square miles of sea known as the Gray Zone were traditionally fished by US lobstermen. But as the Gulf of Maine has warmed faster than nearly any other body of water on the planet, the area’s previously modest lobster population has surged. As a result, Canadians have begun to assert their sovereignty, warring with the Americans to claim the bounty.
Directed by David Abel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at The Boston Globe, and Andy Laub, an award-winning documentarian, producers of the acclaimed Discovery channel documentary “Sacred Cod”.
John Conolly, the man of “Fiddler’s Green” and his long-time stage partner Rob van Sante, will be appearing at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.
John Conolly honed his songwriting craft on the docks of Grimsby, a once bustling fishing port perched at the mouth of the Humber River on the North Sea. As he watched the fishing fleet limp into oblivion with the demise of a once-thriving industry, he began to chronicle the stories of the men who worked on the boats and along the docks. Fiddlers’ Green, which was popularized in the 1960s by an Irish group calling themselves The Dubliners, has become firmly entrenched in the canon of maritime music. These days Conolly performs his own material with warmth, good humor and lilting accompaniment on guitar and melodeon. While Conolly’s best-known songs have been performed and recorded by many famous artistes, there is always a special buzz in hearing them sung by the man who wrote them and hearing the latest ditty to fall from his pen.
Joining John on stage will be Rob van Sante, whose precise guitar work and strong vocals add a richness and depth to Conolly’s performance.
Dutch-born van Sante has been part of the British folk scene for the last 45 years, and is a noted producer, recording engineer and session musician.
We’ve heard it said about John Conolly:
“If there were ever a Campaign for Real Folk-Singers, John Conolly is the sort of act it would promote—his hand-crafted songs sit well with his easy-going charm and sense of humour, making him a firm favourite with both audiences and fellow musicians . . .”
(Bradford Topic Folk Club – established over 60 years, so they’ve seen ’em all!)
