‘Best of Summer’ at Schoolhouse Gallery
For the “Best of Summer 2023” group show currently on view at Schoolhouse Gallery (494 Commercial St., Provincetown), gallery director and curator Michael Carroll selected 66 works from 27 artist exhibitions and studio visits from the past season.
Among the highlights of the show is Spring Training, a series of brightly painted and meticulously patterned cut-paper artworks by MiYoung Sohn that hangs behind Carroll’s desk. “She has this relationship with precision in the work that’s hard to accomplish,” he says.
Another is Sleeping Beauties, a large abstract oil painting by Sean Flood that seems to depict a small crowd on the street. Are the figures at peace, or are they fighting? The title says that sleep is involved. But there’s unrest in this wild combination of shapes, bold colors, and gestures.
In Breon Dunigan’s 2022 mixed media sculpture The Idiot, rounded forms curl over themselves like an idiotic figure caught in an insane cycle of repetition. The sculpture looks like a giant rounded piece of candy — but please don’t touch.
The show is on view through Jan. 14, 2024. See galleryschoolhouse.com for information. —Pat Kearns
Fiber Artists Return to the Eastham Public Library
“What we mean by ‘fiber art’ are quilts that can’t go on the bed,” says Judy Sebastian, a member of Fiber Artists of Cape Cod and an employee at the Eastham Public Library. Using polyester, silk, and other materials, artists from the group have returned to the library (190 Samoset Road) this month for their third group show, their first since 2021.
Sebastian has several works in the exhibition. Also included are works by Jane Ashbrook, Sue Colozzi, Tere Damato, Julie Graziano, Lorraine Haynes, Elaine Hickey, Brenda Jones, Robin Maguire, Moira Meehan, Priscilla Smith, and Diana Svahn. The group currently numbers about 18 members, including five from the Outer Cape and others from as far away as Hull and Cambridge.
“But we could always use new members,” says Sebastian. (For those looking to try their hands at the craft, Fiber Artists of Cape Cod meets on the first Thursday of the month at the Tumbleweed Quilt Shop in Hyannis.)
While the show was an open call with no specific curation, Sebastian does note one trend among the pieces: greater improvisation. As fiber artists mature, she explains, many move away from traditional quilting styles and explore new ideas in fabric, color, and shape. There’s a range of conceptual ideas at work, too: some works depict landscapes, others political themes, while still others are more abstract experiments in tone and form.
One work, Chip Off the Block — Edward Gorey Memory Quilt by Lorraine Haynes, incorporates articles of clothing previously owned and worn by famed illustrator Edward Gorey, granted to Haynes for artistic use by the Edward Gorey House Museum in Yarmouth Port.
More than 30 pieces are on display from November 1 to 30 at the Eastham library and about half are for sale, with prices ranging from $250 to $5,000. All sales proceeds go to the artists, and payments can be made through the front desk of the library. See @easthampubliclibrary on Instagram and TikTok or call the library at 508-240-5950 for more information. —Derek McCormack
The Cape Symphony Casts the Spell of Mozart
The Cape Symphony will perform “The Magic of Mozart,” an homage to one of the classical greats, at the Barnstable Performing Arts Center (744 West Main St., Hyannis) on Saturday, Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 12 at 3 p.m. The concert will be conducted by the symphony’s concertmaster, Jae Cosmos Lee, and will feature guest artist Sylvia Berry on fortepiano and harpsichord.
The first piece on the program is perhaps one of Mozart’s most well-known compositions: the Overture to The Magic Flute. “Even if you don’t think you know it, you know it,” says Sue Sundermeyer, marketing coordinator for the Symphony. “It’s beautifully familiar.” Composed in 1791, the year of Mozart’s death, the opera is the epitome of his style: brilliant and dramatic yet playful. Even those averse to classical music have likely heard its grand opening and thrilling themes played by the string and brass sections or the bright yet slightly foreboding melodies played by the winds.
The so-called 12 German Dances, which follow on the program, were composed in Vienna in 1789. The 12 short pieces, played one right after the other, are “a delight,” says Sundermeyer. The audience hears a dynamic range of musical atmospheres: brisk, solemn, ferocious, and deliberate. Dances in the 18th century went on all night, Sundermeyer says: “We’re going to party like it’s 1789.”
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 13, which Berry will play on the fortepiano, is in three movements. The piano lines are understatedly virtuosic. Through all three movements, Mozart subverts expectations using harmonic dissonances, carrying the listener along on a continuous musical storyline.
The program concludes with the sweeping Symphony No. 38, the “Prague.”
“Mozart was beloved in Prague,” Sundermeyer says. Beginning with an expansive adagio-allegro, moving through a turbulent andante, and finishing with a declarative finale presto, this piece is a stand-out on the program. “It’s a sophisticated piece,” Sundermeyer says, “with a broad emotional range.”
Before each concert, the Cape Symphony’s assistant conductor Joe Marchio will deliver a lecture on the music in the program. The lectures begin an hour before each performance. Tickets for the concerts ($16-$72) are available at capesymphony.org. —Eve Samaha
Film Series Brings the World of Cinema to Provincetown
For 17 years, the Provincetown Film Art Series — which begins with an opening celebration and screening at Waters Edge Cinema (237 Commercial St., Provincetown) on Sunday, Nov. 12 — has been one of the cultural highlights of the off season on the Outer Cape. But somehow it’s still managed to stay under the radar for many.
“Newcomers to the Film Art Series often tell me they had no idea we’ve been doing this for so many years,” says curator Howard Karren in a statement accompanying the release of the 2023-24 schedule. “Summer visitors aren’t aware of it. It’s really designed for year-rounders: when things get quiet, it’s nice to have an excuse to get out and share a brilliant movie with your neighbors.”
The new series features 15 films that represent a wide range of genres, filmmakers, and locales. Karren has organized the season’s schedule along two broad themes: “Dreams, Reality, and the Artist,” which encompasses the first seven films in the series, and “Songs of Innocence Lost,” which comprises the remaining eight.
The series begins with a screening of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s acclaimed 2021 drama Drive My Car on Nov. 12 and runs through its closing celebration and screening of (fittingly) Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 drama The Last Picture Show on Sunday, May 19, 2024. Both the opening and closing events will take place at 2 p.m. All other screenings take place on Thursdays at 7 p.m.
Season passes for the series — which is presented by the Provincetown Film Society in association with the Provincetown Art Association and Museum — include admission to the series opening and closing celebrations and all other screenings and cost $195 ($150 for PFS or PAAM members). Individual tickets for the opening and closing celebrations are $20 ($16 for PFS or PAAM members), and individual tickets for other screenings are $15 ($12 for PFS or PAAM members).
All tickets and passes can be purchased at the Waters Edge Cinema box office and online at ptownfilm.org and paam.org. See ptownfilm.org for a complete series schedule.
