Public Art

We’re cultivating an appreciation for the arts simply by making them available to all. Public art improves our quality of life by enhancing it and making our surroundings more attractive and thought-provoking.

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Arts in Gloucester

Installations and Experiences to Benefit Our Community and all visitors to Gloucester. We hope to enhance and inspire the lives of viewers.

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Fine Arts Museum of Gloucester

The Cook Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the Fine Arts Museum of Gloucester on June 13, 2023, and the acquisition of more than 300 works and artifacts by Kacey Carneal (1935-2022), a self-taught naïve folk artist who painted at her home in Gloucester every day for nearly fifty years. Carneal’s works will be featured in a retrospective for the opening exhibit.

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Our Story

By making Gloucester an art-friendly place, the Cook Foundation showcases our community as an interesting place to live – to the artists, to art collectors, and to businesses that appreciate a quality of life that cannot be found elsewhere.

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Gloucester Arts Festival

Home to the premier Plein Air Invitational competition in the Southeast, the Gloucester Arts Festival celebrates arts from around the world and right here in Gloucester, Virginia. The Festival kicks off at Machicomico State Park then moves to Main Street with the fast-paced Paint Main event followed by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s Under the Stars Concert, new programs at the Fine Arts Museum of Gloucester, our prestigious Plein Air Invitational Competition, the ever-popular Village Arts Day and Artisan Market, and many more special events will make this year’s festival more exciting than ever!

Cook Foundation • 25 Years of Artistic Excellence

Gloucester loves the arts.

Join the Cook Foundation, artists, and our community partners in celebrating the arts!

Celebrating the arts for 25 years.

The Cook Foundation shares global and local arts in Gloucester.

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  • We are ever more strengthened by and appreciative that the Cook Foundation chooses to support Arts on Main as a valued partner in bringing the arts to our region.

    — Lynne Bohon Manning / Chair, BOD

  • We are very grateful for the Cook Foundation’s support of VMFA on the Road, our re-imagined Artmobile for the 21st Century.

    — Alex Nyerges, Director

  • It means everything to know that you’re not alone. The Cook Foundation gave us the confidence to dream big, take risks, and make a difference in our community.

    — Dave Brown

  • Lives touched by art and beauty are happier, healthier lives.”

    – Karen Flowe

  • Public art improves our quality of life by enhancing it and making our surroundings more attractive and thought-provoking.

    – Adrianne Ryder-Cook Joseph

Support the arts in Gloucester, Virginia.

“Art is one of those few things that has many, many functions in a community. It is often a way to get people to pause and reflect on their lives and the lives of others and what’s important and what is meaningful.”

– Adrianne Ryder-Cook Joseph