Arts & Minds
Celebrating the creative and sometimes quirky culture of the Outer Cape.
Browse all Arts & Minds stories below or dive into a topic:
BOOKS
Angling for Social Change
Stephen Duncombe on how fishing can inspire the work of making the world a better place
When Stephen Duncombe started walking to the ponds and jetties of Cape Cod a few years ago, he didn’t plan on doing anything besides starting the long project of teaching […]
LINE BREAK
Learning From Lichens
Susie Nielsen explores intuition and influence via a poem by Jane Hirshfield
In our thing-filled culture, our super-documented lives, what happens in the liminal spaces? What happens in those nothing-moments as we leave one place (either physically or mentally) and move toward […]
THEATER
A Playwright Collective Brings People Together
In Truro, monthly readings foster a community of writers and audiences
TRURO — A group of tender-hearted queers, disparate in their predispositions, shelter in a dune shack to hide from a right-wing militia that prowls the grounds outside. Will they survive? […]
GROUP SHOW
The New FAWC Fellows Make Their Mark
A quiet, nuanced show offers a first chance to see work by the current visual arts fellows
In her film Untitled (burned rubber on asphalt), 2018, Tinja Ruusuvuori turned her attention to a small community in Norway where she probed one town’s minidrama about a mysterious person […]
Arts Briefs
Arts Briefs for Jan. 26, 2023 through Feb. 2, 2023
Artists Reflect on Their Happy Places A new exhibition at the Cape Cod Museum of Art (60 Hope Lane, Dennis) features the work of 66 artists who responded to a […]
LOCAL VIEWS
An Art Collection With Wellfleet as Its Muse
Michael Parlante collects art with an eye toward a town’s history
When Michael Parlante was a child, the celebrated painter Edwin Dickinson lived across the street from him near Cove Road in Wellfleet. “I’d watch him painting in his front yard,” […]
QUEER ‘I’
Mapp and Lucia and Me
From coastal England to the shores of Provincetown, some things never change
At first glance, it’s a postcard-perfect seaside town, brimming with music, theater, and art. Look closer, though, and you’ll see that beneath the quaint village veneer lies a hotbed of […]
AN ACTOR’S LIFE
A Provincetown Actor Makes It Work
Joe MacDougall on the challenges and rewards of a theater life on the Outer Cape
“Doing the work” — actor-speak for whatever it takes to develop one’s talent into marketable skills — is a phrase that probably goes all the way back to the first […]
INDIE SCREEN
Once Upon a Time in the Movies
Strange characters in three new films adapt to loss
The year is 1923. The Irish Civil War is nearing its end, leading to the creation of the Irish Free State despite the violent objections of the Irish Republican Army. […]
Arts Briefs
Arts Briefs for Jan. 19, 2023 through Jan. 26, 2023
A World of Animation Comes to Wellfleet After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the 22nd annual Animation Show of Shows returns to Wellfleet Preservation Hall from Friday, Jan. 20, through Sunday, […]
ART HISTORY
Reconsidering the Artistic Legacy of Charles Heinz
His paintings of local landscapes reveal a bold and visionary artist
A fickle system determines which artists are remembered and which are forgotten. The Outer Cape has its canon of artists. Some are known internationally, like Edward Hopper, while others are […]
BOOKS
More ‘Less’ May Be Just What We Need Right Now
The sequel to Andrew Sean Greer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is winter comfort reading
Escapism is a form of self-care, and self-care is a high priority right now for Provincetown residents facing months of winter. Good reads — like batteries, chocolate, moisturizer, and canned […]
MUSIC
An Indie Playlist for New Beginnings
Picks by staff and contributors to get your New Year off to a smashing start
We begin every January thinking about resolutions, but we never hear anything about what music to listen to while we’re trying to accomplish them. So, we asked Independent staff and […]
Arts Briefs
Arts Briefs for Jan. 12, 2023 through Jan. 19, 2023
Warm Sounds for a Cold Night Music wafting over the waves and sand on a Rio de Janeiro beach is about the farthest thing from the vibe on the Outer […]