Swim for Life Does More Than Tread Water
Instead of having a crowd of people running into the bay at Provincetown’s beach, this year’s Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla, sponsored by the Provincetown Community Compact, will be a “Swimming in Place” fund-raising challenge, in which participants join teams and raise money by swimming in their bathtub, in a pool, in a pond, or doing non-aquatic activities. The aim is to maintain social distancing. The challenge will be capped off with a virtual event on Sept. 12. Prayer ribbons will be displayed, as always, in the Provincetown library.
The Swim for Life raises money for AIDS support, women’s health, and the community. To participate, go to Swim4Life.org.
Compact founder Jay Critchley tells the Independent that the term “swimming” takes on a more metaphorical meaning this year. “I’m developing the choreography for a Swim for Life dance,” he says. “Somebody already said that they’ll be running up and down the stairs in their house. It could be anything, making a challenging dish at home, doing something for the community.”
All participants will get a Swim for Life swim cap, and those who raise $100 will get a T-shirt with artwork by Duane Slick, a Native American artist with longstanding ties to Provincetown. Critchley says that he felt it was imperative to have an indigenous artist create the Swim’s logo this year, due to the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s arrival here.
“People can wear their swim cap when riding their bike, jogging, when they’re in the bathtub, whatever they are doing,” Critchley says. He’s hoping for some humorous pictures on social media.
The significance of the event is greater now than ever. “Initially, the impetus for Swim for Life was an environmental one,” Critchley says. Back in the summer of 1988, Critchley and his friend Walter McLean would swim across the harbor because most of the town beaches were closed due to pollution. Weeks later, they organized the first Swim for Life to raise money for HIV/AIDS. Since then, they have added other charities, such as Helping Our Women, and, this year, Outer Cape Health Services and the Covid-19 Task Force.
“Swim for Life developed in response to HIV, but now we have a very different pandemic,” Critchley says. “The town still knows how to rally and come together.” —Saskia Maxwell Keller
Bakker Auctions Kicks Off Season Online
James Bakker, one of Provincetown’s resident experts on art colony history, has been holding online auctions for years, so the pandemic hasn’t changed things all that much. His spring auction of classic and contemporary Provincetown art, now on view at bakkerproject.com, will unfold live on Saturday, May 30, at 1 p.m.
A highlight of the selection up for bid is a rare 1905 oil landscape of Provincetown by Charles Webster Hawthorne, valued at $15,000 to $20,000. Works by Ray Nolin, Cynthia Packard, George Yater, Arthur Cohen, Harvey Dodd, Lois Griffel, and John Clayton will also be offered.
After registering, you may make bids until a lot has closed. If your bid clinches the sale, the work can be picked up or shipped later
James Frederick to the Power of Six
As reductions in pollution as a result of the coronavirus shutdown continue to have an effect on the landscape, sky, and light, one can’t help but wonder how painting on the Cape will be affected as well. This is precisely the question that Provincetown artist James Frederick explores in his new exhibit, “S6: Sand Salt Sea Surf Sky & Sun,” which will be streamed live online on Saturday, May 30, at 7 p.m. on Frederick Studio Provincetown’s Facebook and Instagram pages. The show will include new and recent works traversing the full gambit from figurative to abstract.
Broadway, Broadcasted
Broadway star Kelli O’Hara was scheduled to appear at Provincetown Town Hall this August with Seth Rudetsky on the piano as host, presented by the Art House. That was then. Now, with Broadway and Provincetown theaters shut down, O’Hara and Rudetsky will chat and perform live online on Sunday, May 31, at 8 p.m. and Monday, June 1, at 3 p.m. at thesethconcertseries.com. Tickets are $20 (early birds) and $25.
In 2015, O’Hara received the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Anna Leonowens in The King and I. Her Broadway credits include Kiss Me, Kate; South Pacific; and The Light in the Piazza. She has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in The Merry Widow and Così fan tutte.
Kim McAninch Evokes the Idyllic in Wellfleet
“Idyll,” the title of painter Kim McAninch’s new exhibit at Wellfleet Preservation Hall, is defined in the show’s announcement as “an extremely happy, peaceful, or picturesque episode or scene, typically an idealized or unsustainable one.” It is a fitting topic for a time when we can step back and appreciate, with sudden intensity, the things we take for granted.
McAninch studied surface pattern design at Miami University. Her exhibit, which is running currently through June 18, will be available for virtual viewing at wellfleetpreservationhall.org, although it hadn’t been set up at press time.
Ptown Gallery Stroll Launches Website
The Ptown Gallery Stroll, a group of more than 30 galleries in Provincetown, is coordinating efforts to ensure safe and efficient operations during the current health crisis.
The group’s broader mission is “to foster a sense of community and mutual support among gallery owners, as well as explore strategies for promoting Provincetown as a thriving art and design community both today and into the future,” a press release announced.
The group’s website, ptowngallerystroll.com, is expected to go live on Friday, May 29. Participating galleries will be represented. Information for visitors will also be included.
