Hope and Tenacity at the Commons
It’s not too late to see Donna Pomponio’s show of portraits titled “Love, Trust, Support, Options = Change” at the Provincetown Commons. It runs through Sunday, Feb. 27 at 46 Bradford St.
The portraits were painted in 2010 when Pomponio was teaching in a youth-at-risk program in Boston. “I saw the city through my students and painted them to represent the future,” she says.
The show aims to express the “hope, tenacity, and strength” of those students.
Pomponio, who has a residency studio at the Commons, invigorates her subjects with lively color. The wall text with snippets of their stories adds depth to a small but compelling show.
The Commons is open weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekends 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Robin Joyce Miller’s ‘Faithful Journey’
In celebration of Black History Month, Higgins Art Gallery at Cape Cod Community College, 2240 Iyannough Road in West Barnstable, presents Robin Joyce Miller’s “The Faithful Journey From Slavery to Presidency” through March 20.
Miller uses decorative papers, paint, and the occasional object to create story quilts that chronicle the Black experience: slavery, the Underground Railroad, emancipation, the birth of jazz, the Harlem Renaissance, the civil rights movement, the Million Man March, Obama’s inauguration.
They’re essentially mixed-media collages that follow a quilted format. Small in size, they’re big on impact. Miller’s tone has little bitterness — only strength, determination, hope, and faith.
There will be a webinar with Miller on Thursday, February 24 at 4 p.m. Register at capecod.edu/higgins.
Jo Hay Is ‘Artist of the Year’
Provincetown painter Jo Hay is the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod’s inaugural “Artist of the Year.” The honor recognizes work that “shapes thought, inspires change, and creates a deeper sense of connection in the community,” reads the announcement.
“Jo Hay’s work does all of that and more,” says AFCC Executive Director Julie Wake. “She tackles difficult topics, stimulates dialogue, and allows us to better understand our world by highlighting changemakers in society.”
Hay’s Persisters is a series of large-scale portraits started in 2017 to recognize contemporary women pursuing social justice: Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Greta Thunberg, Amanda Gorman, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, among others.
Hay has painted 17 portraits, with another soon to be added. Its unveiling will be at the Chatham Orpheum Theater on April 28. The work will be auctioned off at the AFCC’s “Prelude to Summer” on June 9.
Lifetime of Learning
Lifetime Learning at Snow Library in Orleans returns with 27 new in-person and Zoom courses for winter and spring. They begin Monday, Feb. 28 with Beth Stein’s “The Wyeths: Three Artists in the Family” from 1:30 to 3 p.m. The course covers N.C. Wyeth, the “great illustrator” of the family, his son Andrew, “the painter of old barns,” and grandson Jamie, who paints animals in bucolic settings.
On Tuesday, March 1, Ian Ives teaches “Winter Birds of Cape Cod” from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Then, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., Steve and Jeff Bornemeier offer “Novels & Ideas: Human Nature.” The first class will examine Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. On Wednesday, March 2, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, Joseph Auciello teaches the first of three classes on Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.
Registration is $10 per course at friendsofsnowlibrary.org. In-person registration is limited to 40.
