Arts & Entertainment
It’s a 3-D world, and Vineyard artists are hip to that.
At artist Jeanne Staples’s upcoming exhibition at the Granary Gallery you will see Crick Hill at Menemsha, just as lovely as you know her work to be, but in addition to landscapes of Martha’s Vineyard, Staples may surprise you with some installation pieces, including a thrilling third dimension.
Look out for Eat Beets for Health and The Vodou King, a life-size double portrait of Haitian artist Wilfred Dantis. In these pieces, Ms. Staples explores her more modernist interests.
For the Jim Thomas Spirituals Choir, the history is as much a part of the experience as the music. Tracing the evolution of American music through the Underground Railroad and the Middle Passage, Jim Thomas and his chorus sing a story of our cultural past.
“Listen Local” might be the theme of the evening on Monday, July 18. That’s when Jemima James hosts her third annual Variety Show at Featherstone Center for the Arts, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The show is part of Featherstone’s Musical Mondays concert series.
Transformed into what appears to be a room of curiosities, the Yard’s black-box theatre this week evokes a sense of wonder. A guitar leans against a funky metal chair, a streetlight stands in one corner, a piano is angled in the other and a lamp with no shade illuminates the stage.
But there’s a softness to the lighting that smooths what might be rougher edges of junk and turns it into a collection of life’s treasures.
A Little Bonsai Talk
Bonsai: Its History and Practice will be the presentation, by Island bonsai buff Don Sibley, at this month’s meeting of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club, scheduled for Tuesday, July 19, at 1 p.m. at the Old Mill in West Tisbury. A hospitality hour with refreshments will follow the program.
Anyone interested in horticulture, home gardening, flower arranging and preserving the best qualities of the Island environment is welcome.

