Floating New Ways of Collaboration
For the throngs of visitors who come to Provincetown every August, Carnival is a time to let loose and enjoy the spectacle. For local businesses, it’s an opportunity to increase their visibility and connect with the community. And for artists, it’s become an opportunity for creative expression and collaboration.
This year the Provincetown Business Guild’s Carnival Parade Artists Matchmaking Program will pair Provincetown artists with local businesses to create floats for the 2023 Carnival parade. The program will present an information session for businesses and artists at the Commons on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 4 p.m.
“Producing a float for Carnival takes a lot of time, energy, and resources, things that are not always easy for P’town businesses to come by,” says PBG Associate Director Trevor Pittinger. “It made perfect sense to involve and engage Provincetown artists, pay them for their work, and help ensure the creativity of the parade.”
For last year’s pilot program, five sponsored floats were created from partnerships between businesses (including Bay State Cruise Lines, Linchris Hospitality, and the Crown & Anchor) and local artists.
The information session is free, but registration is requested. See ptown.org for information.
Hot Jazz on a Cold Winter Day
While the word “gypsy” is now widely considered a derogatory term to refer to the Romani people, the term “gypsy jazz” is still used to refer to the musical style popularized by the Romani-Belgian jazz guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) in collaboration with violinist Stéphane Grappelli (1908-1997) in the first half of the 20th century. (The genre is also referred to as “hot club style jazz” and “jazz manouche,” the latter in reference to the Manouche clan of Romani people in France.)
The music group 440 will perform its own interpretation of the style in a concert at the Cape Cod Museum of Art (60 Hope Lane, Dennis) on Sunday, Feb. 26, 3:30 p.m. The performance will include both standards and originals composed by the band. The ensemble includes Tomoko Iwamoto on violin, Mark Chenervert on clarinet, Jack Soref on guitar, and Jim Guttman on bass.
Tickets are $24 ($18 for museum members) at ccmoa.org. —Dorothea Samaha
Looking Through Artists’ Eyes
Three prominent Provincetown painters will serve as inspirations and points of departure for contemporary art making in a series of online workshops led by artists Laura Shabott and Alana Barrett through the Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Museum School at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum starting this weekend.
The workshop series begins on Saturday, Feb. 25 with a session devoted to the work of Blanche Lazzell (1878-1956), with a focus on Lazzell’s use of abstraction. The workshop on Saturday, March 4 will take its cues from the figurative work of Tony Vevers (1926-2008), and the Saturday, March 11 session will return to abstraction with a look at work by Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011).
Each workshop will begin at 10 a.m. with an introduction to the featured artist that week, followed by two hours of drawing, painting, and collage making with a live model and a half hour of feedback and critique. Suggested background readings will also be provided. There will be an all-series critique of works produced in the workshops on Saturday, March 11 from 3 to 5 p.m.
The workshops are $145 per session or $345 for the full series, with discounts for PAAM members. See paam.org and shabottbarrett.com for information.
The Outer Cape as Muse
Submissions are being accepted for Perspectives: Seeing Cape Cod National Seashore Through Art, a series of month-long exhibitions at the Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham. The exhibitions, which are sponsored by the Cape Cod National Seashore, will take place from April through December this year.
Artists are asked to submit work that reflects the natural, cultural, and recreational aspects of the Outer Cape and the National Seashore and “be acceptable for a diverse family audience,” according to a statement accompanying the announcement. Works in all media including paintings, photographs, sculpture, and mixed media will be considered.
Interested artists should email Brent Ellis at [email protected] or call 508-255-3421, ext. 0302. More information on the program is available at nps.gov/caco. The selection process will begin in March.
Learning to Last a Lifetime
“Anyone who keeps learning stays young,” said Henry Ford. The Friends of Snow Library contribute to that goal with their Lifetime Learning sessions, which begin on Monday, Feb. 27 and run through Thursday, April 27.
Each of the more than two dozen courses, many of which are taught by community members who are experts in their fields, will meet one to five times weekly. Among the subjects are the films of Cary Grant; music of the baroque era; race and class in America; myth and symbol in ancient Ireland; and women figures in the Trojan War. Most will be conducted in person at the library and simulcast via Zoom.
The first class on Monday, Feb. 27 will be taught by Mary Ann Eaton, who will discuss Irish films and their context in Irish history and culture. It will include a screening of the 2015 thriller Strangerland, starring Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes.
There is a suggested donation of $10 per course, and registration is required for all classes. See friendsofsnowlibrary.org for a complete schedule and more information. —Eve Samaha
