Gone Fishing: a Tribute to our Industry

Berta Walker Gallery opens its 25th season on May 23 with the exhibition, “Going Fishing, A Tribute to Our Industry,” which was also the theme of its first opening.

In 1989, Walker, a former Manhattan gallery director and art museum administrator, was in Provincetown, a place where she’d come since early childhood for some R&R. During her stay, she got tapped to be the emergency acting director of the Fine Arts Work Center (FAWC), having been its chairman of the board for over a decade.

At the end of her tenure at FAWC, she decided to stay and open her Provincetown gallery with a show benefiting the Blessing of the Fleet. “It was an amazing beginning for what has turned into 25 years thus far,” she said. “I can’t believe it!” Having spent her summers in Provincetown her whole life, Walker has been inspired to create many shows that honor the fishermen and the world that they create at land’s end.

This year’s anniversary celebration pays tribute to Provincetown’s fishing industry with the launch of a fundraising campaign for the long-overdue Fishermen’s Memorial, a 14-foot bronze by sculptor Romolo Del Deo. It is sited for MacMillan Wharf and commissioned by the Provincetown Fisherman’s Memorial Committee. A percentage of the sales from the upcoming show will go toward this effort.

Laura Shabott