The Vineyard Playhouse hopes to raise $1 million this summer in the first phase of a $5 million capital campaign that encompasses the renovation, restoration and expansion of the historic theatre on Church street in Vineyard Haven.

The restoration already has begun. With Community Preservation Act funds and private donations, the playhouse has installed new wood clapboard siding and windows on three sides of the building, and a new fire-safety sprinkler system.

The Ritz in Oak Bluffs is a dimly lit joint, hot and smelling of beer and smoke, even though people have to go outside to inhale. There’s live music tonight and the bar is packed. On the floor, a DJ gets people dancing before the headlining band, Dukes County Love Affair, goes on.

Jamie Greene, the drummer of DCLA, sits towards the edge of the room prior to playing, watching the crowd.

Mike Parker, the singer, gets six Rolling Rocks from the bar, one for each band member. He cracks them all and carries them to the dance floor. Then they begin.

The Old Sculpin Gallery was full of lively energy and a crowd of people on Sunday. It was the show for the scholarship winners of the Martha’s Vineyard Arts Association.

This year’s winners are Isaac Hurwitz and Kira Shipway; the alternate is Tova Katzman.

Each of the three recent high school graduates presented an impressive array of work, stretching across mediums and subject matters.

In the Edgartown Triangle there is a store with boxes of compact discs labeled “$1” out front, crates of used CDs inside, and a sizeable collection of new and used vinyl. Aboveground Records is adapting to the 21st century.

The heart of the business is Vineyard-born Mike Barnes. At 36, he has owned Aboveground for 16 years. The store began before the mp3 existed and has seen what that technology has done to the music industry.

A man once said to his daughter while driving to a long-promised Island outing, “We can’t go to Felix Neck, it’s raining.” To which the girl replied, “Well, it’s not raining on my side of the car.” To which the father replied, “Of course it is.”

Years later that girl still maintains that it was not raining on her side of the car.

She recently wrote a book about it.

Behind a small unobtrusive sign near Beetlebung Corner on Middle Road in Chilmark beats what many feel is the heart of dance on the Island. This is the location of the Yard, a Vineyard fixture since 1973.

A vibrant summer at the Yard was by no means a certainty this year, though, after it was revealed last fall that the dance organization was deeply in debt. In announcing its summer season, the Yard looks to a financially stable future that builds upon its longtime reputation of artistic integrity.