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Breath of Life– C.B. Fisk, Designers & Builders of Pipe Organs spotlights world famous local organ designers in special exhibition
On view at CAM Green from April 12 through June 29 – free and open to the public
Opus 150, designed by C.B. Fisk in 2018 for Christ Church Episcopal, Philadelphia, PA. Photo courtesy of C.B. Fisk.
GLOUCESTER, Mass. (March 2025) – Through the work of Gloucester-based C. B. Fisk Organ company, Cape Ann Museum’s new special exhibition will explore C.B. Fisk’s development from a modest workshop to an industry-leading designer and builder of pipe organs, now installed all over the globe. The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, will be on view at the Janet & William Ellery James Center at CAM Green (13 Poplar Street, Gloucester), from April 12 through June 29, 2025.
Founded in 1961 by Charles B. Fisk (1925-1983), the firm is one of the most highly regarded organ builders in the world today. The exhibition will focus on a selection of projects using scale models, photographs and carvings. The centerpiece of the show is a selection of 10 scale models created as part of the organ design process.
”The Cape Ann Museum is delighted to partner with C.B. Fisk in the presentation of their exemplary work as a local business with national and international reach,” says Oliver Barker, Director of the Cape Ann Museum. “As an institution dedicated to the interface between the artists and industries encapsulated within the Cape Ann area, CAM is excited to showcase the breadth of C.B. Fisk’s artistry and innovation.”
Charles Brenton Fisk was the first American organ builder to build significant tracker organs in the 20th century. In 1967 at Harvard University and again in 1979 at House of Hope Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, Fisk constructed the largest four-manual mechanical action instruments built in America in the 20th century at the time of their building. In 2003, C.B. Fisk built a five-manual organ for the Cathedral in Lausanne, Switzerland, the first American organ to be made for a European cathedral, and in 2010 the company installed its first instrument in South Korea. C.B. Fisk still combines the science of physics and the art of music as practiced by Charles Fisk. The company continues to use its imagination to stretch the boundaries of organ building.
“While the pipe organ is most often thought of as a kind of music making machine, its physical appearance adds an element that plays a vital experiential role,” says Michael Kraft, President of C.B. Fisk. “Beyond the music and the use of one’s ears, the visual design of a pipe organ, expressed through our scale models in the CAM exhibit, allows one to use their eyes to delight in these three-dimensional, architectural sculptures.”
Breath of Life– C.B. Fisk, Designers & Builders of Pipe Organs will feature organs made for The Memorial Church at Harvard University, House of Hope Presbyterian Church in Saint Paul, MN, and Minato Mirai Hall in Yokohama, Japan. The scale models are supported by displays of additional materials used in the design/build process, including tools, organ components, preliminary drawings, and examples of hand carved ornamentation from finished instruments. Featured pipe organ designs date from 1967 to 2019.
Throughout the exhibition, Cape Ann Museum will be offering tours of the C.B. Fisk workshop for members, weekly organ demonstrations on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. open to the public, and three special CAM Talks. The talks will be led by current and past Fisk designers, builders and project managers.
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Saturday, April 27 at 3 p.m.: A Gallery Talk by Charles Nazarian, Fisk Architectural Designer, on The Collaborative Design Process
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Thursday, May 22 at 3 p.m.: Fisk Organs: Voicing an Organ, by Organ builders Nami Hamada and Steve Malionek
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Saturday, June 3 at 3 p.m.: C.B. Fisk Tradition and Innovation, by Greg Bover, Retired Project Manager at Fisk
CAM Green offers free general admission. To learn more about Breath of Life– C.B. Fisk, Designers & Builders of Pipe Organs, please visit: https://www.capeannmuseum.org/
The Cape Ann Museum, founded in 1875, exists to preserve and celebrate the history and culture of the area and to keep it relevant to today’s audiences. Spanning 44,000 square feet, the Museum’s Downtown campus, which is closed for renovations through spring 2026, remains a major cultural institution on Boston’s North Shore that has welcomed thousands of local, national, and international visitors annually to its exhibitions, programs and community led events. In addition to fine art, the Museum’s collections include decorative art, textiles, artifacts from the fisheries and granite industries, four historic structures, a Library & Archives and a sculpture garden in the heart of downtown Gloucester.
The Cape Ann Museum Green (CAM Green), the Museum’s campus off Grant Circle and Route 128 in Gloucester is home to the 12,000 square foot Janet & William Ellery James Center, built in 2020 which includes a flexible exhibition and community programming space designed to reach broader audiences with new exhibits and public programs. CAM Green also features three historic structures: the White Ellery House (1710), the Babson-Alling House (c.1740), an adjacent Barn (c.1740), a Contemporary Art Wetu (2023-2024) and a Mush8n (mi-shoon) (2023), an eastern woodlands boat.
General admission to the Cape Ann Museum Green campus is free. Due to limited parking, timed parking reservations for vehicles are recommended.
More information can be found on www.capeannmuseum.org or please call (978)283-0455 x110.
