The Cook Foundation, a Gloucester organization dedicated to supporting the arts, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this month with a visual exhibit in the Fine Arts Museum of Gloucester, 6894 Main Street.

The exhibit highlights the foundation’s philanthropic arts endeavors from its beginning in 1999 to today. It is on display and available to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

From the beehive sculptures to the Symphony Under the Stars to the Gloucester Arts Festival, the exhibit traces the history of the foundation’s efforts and those of its founder, Adrianne Ryder Cook Joseph, to cultivate an appreciation of the arts in Gloucester and to make the arts accessible to everyone.

“Art is a way for people to discover the world themselves,” said Joseph. “It’s been a joy to bring the arts to Gloucester in so many different ways over the past 25 years.”

The foundation’s executive director, Elizabeth Blackney, said that in the three years since she joined the staff at the Cook Foundation, she’s found that it’s “really special to be a part of something that has been here so long, with people who are committed to making art and the community intersect.”

Part of the focus on making art accessible is that “nobody should have to drive to New York or get on a train or a plane to have access to fine and performing arts,” said Blackney. “There’s fine art everywhere.”

That’s one reason the museum was thrilled when it obtained a large number of pieces by the late Kasey Carneal of Gloucester, said Blackney. A naïve artist, Carneal “captured what life is like here,” she said, just as the 19th-century Impressionists captured the life they saw around them, “from landscapes to the beauty of the people.” Some of Carneal’s pieces are included in the anniversary exhibit.

This year’s Gloucester Arts Festival is highlighted, as well, with images from the wide range of activities included in the festival, and with sculptures from the Johnson Atelier collection, including “The Girl with a Pearl Earring,” based on a Vermeer painting of the same name.

History of the Cook Foundation

Blackney said that Joseph was inspired by her own mother’s love for the arts to envision a community where art flourished in various forms. The Cook Foundation was launched with that inspiration, and Joseph was joined by artists Carolyn Dudley and Gloucester High School teacher Karen Flowe. The first project they undertook to engage the Gloucester community was the Beehive Project. Over four dozen large cast beehives were created and artists in the community were encouraged to submit designs for painting them. The beehives were proudly displayed in front of homes and businesses throughout the county for years. Some still are.

The foundation grew, adding board members, and went on to sponsor annual performances by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, hanging flower baskets on lampposts and large public murals on the sides of buildings to beautify Main Street, and the monthlong Gloucester Arts Festival, which annually brings over two dozen of the nation’s top plein air artists to Gloucester to paint in public places and meet local residents.

On top of those things, the foundation provides scholarships for high school seniors and arts programs in the schools; partners with organizations such as Arts on Main, the Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation, and the Fairfield Foundation to support ongoing efforts to highlight artistic and cultural efforts; and brings traveling Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Chrysler Museum exhibits to Gloucester.

But the foundation isn’t just about big organizational partnerships, said Blackney. She pointed to a grant recently provided to Ellis Finney, a Gloucester native who is now working on his master’s degree at Columbia University in New York City. Finney’s focus is on creating a short film, “Sports Star,” and the matching grant he received can be used to leverage funding in other Virginia communities.

“The best thing about running an arts foundation in a community is that people can see their friends and neighbors being successful in the arts and realizing their dreams,” said Blackney. “People realize art is a profession, and they can dream bigger.”

Blackney said all of the Cook Foundation’s efforts have added up to more than $3.3 million invested in Gloucester over the past 25 years.

“That’s a pretty exceptional track record,” she said.

There’s been a positive outpouring of support for such Cook Foundation projects as the murals painted on buildings, especially the newest mural of iconic women of Gloucester, and for the Johnson Atelier sculptures and other pieces, such as the horses, that have become a part of Main Street, said Blackney. She said next year, the foundation will be partnering with Gloucester County on a mural that honors all of Gloucester’s history.

The foundation’s latest accomplishment is to establish the Fine Arts Museum of Gloucester, “Our first physical space,” said Blackney. She said it’s wonderful to finally have a home “where we can share all of this wonderful art with people.”

The Cook Foundation has a nine-member all-female board of directors. Adrianne Ryder Cook Joseph serves as president, with Carolyn Dudley as vice president, Karen Flowe as secretary, Margaret Singleton as treasurer, and board members Kim Hensley, Suzanne Scott, and Julie Weissend. Blackney is the executive director and Rosie Crawford is the accounting manager.