photo by Guido Harari
Originally from Adamsville, R.I. and Westport MA., Merri Cyr moved to New York City and graduated Pratt Institute. For three decades she worked as a fine art and commercial photographer starting in the early 90’s. Primarily focused on portraits of musicians and artists, her clients include Disney, Columbia Records, Sony, Vimeo, Warner Brothers, Verve, Polygram, Rolling Stone, among many others. Merri was the in house photographer from 2009-2019 for Apple Events in NYC Soho store, photographing actors, musicians, designers and movie folks for podcasts. As part of an Apple Events team, Merri worked in tandem with creatives collaborating on artwork for the Apple website, photographing more that 800 events.To see more of Merri’s work please visit www.merricyr.com
In addition, she is author of two photography books and her work is represented by Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York and Los Angeles.
In 2022, four of Merri’s generative digital fine art works on metal, (originally a part of her thesis exhibition at UMass) were commissioned by Google to be displayed in their new building in Cambridge MA.
In 2019 Merri returned to Westport and earned her MFA from UMass Dartmouth. She was a member of the Cultural Council from 2020-23 and in response to the Covid pandemic she started the Westport Artist in Residence Program at the Westport Land Conservation Trust so that the public could enjoy viewing artists at work in the beautiful nature of the Westport Land Conservation Trust.
Thanks to grant money from the Helen Ellis Trust and Bank of America, she curated six artist residencies over a period of four years at the Westport Woods on Adamsville road, where the residency is ongoing.
In addition she has facilitated two Wampanoag events working with members of the Mashpee tribe and local non profits.
In 2022 she helped produce and raise funds for a Native American dwelling: a wetu that was installed at Round the Bend Farm in South Dartmouth MA.
In 2023 Merri facilitated a project with The Trustees, Westport Land Conservation Trust and Westport River Watershed Association (WRWA) and invited members from the Mashpee tribe to burn out a canoe known as a mishoon. The mishoon was presented at the WRWA on River Day, June 24, 2023.
Merri created the online art and culture blog Westport Now to explore local arts, culture, and sustainability stories.
Growing Up in Westport
“My first memories as a child are from the house me and my parents lived in in Westport Point when I was four years old. Fisherman Bill White lived next door, and made an impression on my young mind as he stripped the skin from eels nailed to the shed door with a pari of pliers. Also an enemy of blue crabs who invaded his pots, he left them to die slowly in the bottom of his wooden skiff as they vainly tried to escape their fate by pulling their little snappy pointy exoskeletons over the salty debris.
At 5 my family moved to Adamsville where my grandparents Edgar and Olive Cyr had established Stone Bridge Dishes (in the late 60’s) in the old grange on Main Road. They also had a small shack on East Beach where I was free to be a wild child catching crabs and fish and quahogs and bring them home to devour.
Returning to Westport in 2019 after living life as an artist in NYC and Greenpoint Brooklyn, Merri now seeks to find and create art and culture projects that help enrich the community. “During the pandemic, I volunteered at Round the Bend farms, and under the tutelage of Benoit Asagoh -Kouadio I started my adventure in farming. I am still a solid amateur but I like to experiment with growing my own food and LOVE to get advice from real farmers. Westports “Right to Farm” community helps support the resurgence of local farms, and the stewardship of the Westport Land Conservation Trust enables many farmers who would not be able to afford it to farm our fertile grounds.”
Merri has received four grants to support her blog and project from the Mass Cultural Council (MCC), the Fall River Cultural Council (FCC), and the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA). In 2022 Merri received grants from the FCC and the New Bedford Cultural Council.
Merri continues to work as an artist and believes that creating art in collaboration with fellow creatives in her beautiful home town of Westport will improve the quality of life for all that live in the community. She hopes her work will help stimulate positive growth both spiritually and fiscally.
Capoeira music and dance event at Bayside Restaurant near East Beach.
Videos of Westport Artists in Residence Program makers: