Arts & Entertainment
Whether consuming or creating, Vineyarders are known for their enjoyment of the arts. On one side, the Island has a lot of galleries, artisans’ festivals and professional performances; on the other, there are classes and quality amateur opportunities for theatre, dance, music and fine arts. But it’s not common for the vocational and avocational processes to intertwine. Over the past two weeks at The Yard, choreographer Sarah Wilbur has masterminded just such an intertwining.
It’s the opening of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby — and that means it’s time to open, too, the Louisa Gould Gallery’s annual group show of sporting art.
In the spirit of the Vineyard and the 63rd derby exhibiting artists celebrate, in various media, the Island, its natural beauty and all aspects of fish and derby fishing.
Richard Paradise stood in the corner of the Katharine Cornell Theatre on Saturday afternoon, silent but smiling.
It was a rare moment. Mr. Paradise, co-director of the annual Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival, is a natural talker and schmoozer. From the time this year’s festival kicked off Thursday afternoon to the time it closed Sunday at sunset, Mr. Paradise gabbed nonstop. He introduced films, talked shop with reporters and greeted audiences and filmmakers alike.
Wearing matching grey fleeces, the children from the 33rd Watoto Children’s Choir filed out of the pews of the Faith Community Church Sunday, smiling broadly as they approached the altar. Standing side by side in a few short lines, one behind the other, the 17 children — along with four of their adult leaders — were ready to sing. When they did, the smiles on the church members faces matched those of the children.
Word gets around on a small Island. “I only wanted to do this for my grandmother,” explained Michael Domitrovich to the crowd, “but you tell one person, who tells one person, who tells one person, and then somebody tells the Gazette, and then suddenly . . . .”
Then suddenly you’ve got an audience of more than 100 people, sitting in neat white folding chairs on State Beach, for an evening at once unique and yet quintessentially Vineyard.
Deborah Silliman Wass will showcase her handiworks of calligraphy and illuminations for the month of September at the West Tisbury Library.
Mrs. Wass studied at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School and is the former art director at the Mobil Corporation’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. She founded Martha’s Vineyard Calligraphy and Illumination and currently lives in Chilmark with her husband.
For more information, call 508-693-3366.
