Dear Readers,

This summer is sizzling with interesting festivals, art museums, exhibitions and concerts. In this August edition, we share some of the highly appealing performances and the organizations that are putting them on. All of these places are historically important and they are creating new and innovative programming where old meets new with world class performances and art in local communities.

Linda Cabasin writes that in the late 19th century, many artists in Europe and America sought beautiful places away from cities to paint, including plein-air work....."special light, stunning beaches and dunes, and open skies in Provincetown, on the tip of the remote Outer Cape, appealed to many artists." It was not long before the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) was founded and today it has become an influential art center and community on Cape Cod.

Likewise artists flocked to the Hudson Valley for its light, views, nature and wilderness and the Hudson River Valley School of artists eventually became synonymous with the area. Boscobel was one of the famous mansions built along the Hudson River in the early 1800s and today it is about to become the site of a new chamber music festival with the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach.

Not far away, the older, more established, chamber music festival of Music Mountain in northwestern Connecticut is celebrating its 93rd year. With the help of a Sears architect, violin prodigy Jacques Gordon and his wife planned a unique campus for the Music Mountain summer festival that is still a vital part of the fabric of northwest Connecticut community.

Also in the northwest of Connecticut, in the rural town of Sharon, the Sharon Historical Society is playing an important role as a center of history and culture in its community and surrounding area. The current exhibition by Sharon resident Alexandra Peters, Sharon Collects: Samplers from the Collection of Alexandra Peters, is a telling example of the Society’s thoughtful and insightful approach to making history relevant today. With over 60 works on display from 1692 to 1852, Peters brings to light the role of young girls in America. 

This month, we write about organizations that are vibrant and important centers of culture for their communities. They act as the glue for sustainability initiatives, they are economic engines, places of cultural learning and awareness, and provide a chance for regional centers to enjoy world class talent. Importantly they are places where people come together in meaningful ways.

Thank you for reading!

Victoria Larson
Creativity and Community at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum
By Linda Cabasin
The name of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) hints at three aspects of its mission—as a professional association of artists, a creator of educational classes and programs, and a collector of works by artists who have worked and lived on Cape Cod. Read on
North Meets South: What do Palm Beach and the Hudson Valley Have in Common? The Launching of Boscobel Chamber Music Festival
By Victoria Larson
The Hudson Valley is about to get a brand new music festival, the Boscobel Chamber Music Festival, and it has the distinction of presenting the intimate art form of chamber music not indoors but in an expansive and beautiful outdoor setting and a new state of the art performance pavilion with removable walls. Read on
Untold Stories of American Girls at the Sharon Historical Society & Museum
By Victoria Larson
Rather than relegating itself to dusty shelves and shaky internet connections, the Sharon Historical Society & Museum is a quietly strong and vibrant community center on the village green in the peaceful town in Northwest Connecticut. Unique exhibitions, cake auctions, book signings, a library, genealogical and house research and art shows are some of the ways that the Historical Society makes history come alive and the past become meaningful to its residents and visitors. Read on
Music Mountain at 93: Music and Nature on a Mountaintop in Northwestern Connecticut
By Anne Liebling
Since 1930, Falls Village in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut has been home to a summer chamber music festival at Music Mountain, now in its 93rd year. Jacques Gordon, born in Odessa in 1899, was a violin prodigy, and upon immigrating to the United States as a teen, studied at the Institute of Musical Art, Juilliard’s predecessor. Read on