Year one of the new arts festival explored the island-ness of Gloucester. Cape Ann, which includes Gloucester and Rockport, is an island separated from the mainland only by the narrow Annisquam River. But 'going over the bridge' implies that leaving the island is a significant act, and act of separation, of going into the rest of the world. When I moved to Gloucester in 2004 I rowed a little boat out to Ten Pound Island, a small island in the middle of Gloucester Harbor that can only be accessed by boat, every couple of days. I observed the mentality that being on an island induced - the feelings of ownership, of intruders vs. 'inhabitants', the comfort of being isolated, the harshness of exposure to the elements of water and wind on all sides.

The sites for GNAF 05 were chosen to illustrate the island as it had defined itself. Then there was 'the island within the island': a three hour performance that brought festival artists out to ten pound island, with public observing from the mainland via binoculars and radio transmission.

ARTISTS
Maida Withers, Bruce Bemis, Willie Alexander, U.V. Protection, Rose, Andy Zipf, Gerrit Lansing, Lida Winfield, Wendell Cooper, James Cook, Greg Cook, Jo-Ann Castano, Sarah Slifer, Christina Strong, Patricia Pruitt, Dear Old Stockholm Syndrome, Lara Lepionka, Linda Crane's poetry read by Sara Stotzer, Mike County, Jesse Aron Green, Alissa Cardone, the Weisstronauts, Hannah Burr, Elizabeth McLindon, Henry Ferrini, Vincent Ferrini, Patrick Doud