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Rockport village, occupying approximately the same footprint as Manhattan Island, shares with its urban opposite one fabled aspect: an uncommon intensity of place. Each is dependably unlike somewhere, anywhere, else.
What could they possibly have in common? People living there like to come for a visit here. They like to return. In time, one pivotal experience after another, some fortunate few find a way to stay.
This is the odd charm of Rockport: the mix of local and worldly. Lobstermen plugged into IPods and bankers in Bean boots and shingled summer homes alongside fifth generation cottages inhabited by sons and daughters who continue to derive a living from the land and sea.
Rockport is both an enclave for artists, vacationing urbanites, coastal and transoceanic sailors, and poets (Edna St. Vincent Millay immortalized the view from the Camden Hills), and a working village. As such, Rockport bridges and the heightened expectations among savvy travelers.
Local lore spins from the pared down aesthetic of classic Maine and from local eccentricities. During the mid-nineteenth century, musical luminaries from around the world came to the rugged coast to perform in a rustic boat barn. In 1961 the event was formalized as the Bay Chamber Concerts, housed in the restored Rockport Opera House. Among the guests welcomed in recent years has been Midori, Marvin Hamlisch, Sean Curran Company, Cherish the Ladies, Ragamala Music and Dance Theater, The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, Kit Armstrong, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Wynton Marsalis, Dave Bruebeck and Sons, and Judy Collins.
Andre the Seal, made famous by the book A Seal Called Andre, until his death in 1986 entertained sailors, fishermen, and summer visitors to the Rockport Harbor. Equally appealing, if less communicative, the Belted Galloway cows that the Aldermere Farm raises, renamed the “Oreo Cookie Cows” by local children, draw people to the Farm which is nearly a century and a half old, and is operated by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
Rockport Marine is a family-owned boatyard, world-renowned for wooden boat building and restoration of some of the best racing yachts such as Bolero. Taylor Allen grew up on the boatyard started by his father and now serves as President. He is married to writer Martha White, daughter of boatbuilder Joel White and granddaughter of E. B. White.
Maine Media Workshops, even to the natives who are accustomed to hearing about the events at the Workshops, surprises. Filmmakers and photographers consider the Workshops among the finest film schools in the country both because of the quality and reputation of the professionals brought in to instruct and because the workshops are “hands on” – students learn theory as well as how to frame a photograph, tell a compelling story, and set up a camera. Recently the Workshops expanded, upgrading equipment and attracting distinguished media professionals to teach. The workshops offer instruction, both degree and non-degree, at every level of expertise in the fields of filmmaking and photography.
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