Arts & Entertainment
Hooked in Oak Bluffs is baiting the hook with some serious musical talent on Saturday night. Former members of Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, Boston, James Brown Band, the Wailers and Fosterchild will join Mike Martin and Los Rootsicks for a supergroup jam starting at 9 p.m.
A new event for the Vineyard this summer is the On The Vine Festival, which will bring musical artists Smokey Robinson and Natalie Cole, among other notable performers, to the Island. What brings all this talent to one event? The On The Vine Festival benefits kidney disease research and the American Friends of Rambam, the health care campus located in Haifa, Israel where breakthrough kidney research is taking place.
Gay Head Gallery is currently featuring watercolor landscapes by local artist John Nickerson Athearn. Mr. Athearn is a self-taught artist who inherited much of his inspiration from his grandfather, George Brehm, a painter and illustrator who worked with Norman Rockwell.
This past spring Margot Datz completed work restoring a mural at the Old Whaling Church in Edgatown. The three-month project brought back to life the original mural painted in the 1840s by Carl Wendt. When Ms. Datz began the project the wall was essentially blank, and many did not know anything had ever existed there.
Comedian and actor Jim Belushi helps jump-start the summer season for the Vineyard’s own IMPers Comedy Improv Troop on Thursday night at 8 p.m. at Alex’s Place as he serves as guest MC for the night. The Island improv group is just coming off a well-received showing at the 2013 Chicago Improv Festival.

