Mahon About Town Nantucket Blog

Audrey Sterk presented her collection of limited edition reproductions of her original panoramic murals inspired by coastal living and Nantucket at the Preservation Institute: Nantucket on September 25th. A resident of Nantucket for 10 years now, Audrey started her decorative painting business here; her work has appeared in Architectural Digest, New England Home, Fine Home Building, House & Garden, and island publications.

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Assisting me on this shoot was Amanda Morgan.

For more photos, go to the Mahon About Town Photo Pages.

The annual Scallopers Ball used to take place in the spring at the Box. The 5th annual has moved now to the fall at the Nantucket Yacht Club, as this is most certainly scallop season, and it’s also a fitting warm up for Nantucket Restaurant Week. It’s Friday night the 12th, from 6 to 10 pm. Music, Spanky’s Raw Bar, hors d’ oeuvres by the Nantucket Yacht Club, drink, auction with auctioneer Bob Turner, and MC Bam LaFarge. Music by The Shingles, a band name I’ve not heard of before, and sounds as if it they should be on the soundtrack of a Zach Braff film. They are, of course, our own Dave Provost, Andy Bullington, Michael Kopko, and Ben Champoux. Also playing is the well known and loved 4 EZ Payments. The night raises money for the Nantucket Shellfish Association, and is co-sponsored by the NSA and Sustainable Nantucket. Tickets are $40, ($30 if you have a commercial fishing license), and can be purchased at the door, or at Bookworks, Nantucket Pharmacy, Brant Point Marine, 508.228.3399, or tara@sustainablenantucket.org. Here are just a few photos from last year to whet your appetite.Quite a cast of characters.

The NHA seventh annual Harvest Fair takes place on Saturday (13th) from 11 to 2 at the Old Mill. Great family event for children of any age. The mill will be open for tours and, weather permitting, grinding corn. Also traditional crafts, Native American and colonial games, decorate pumpkins, bob for apples, and make beeswax candles and cornhusk dolls.

The Chamber of Commerce annual Chowder Contest sets up in the Grand Union Parking Lot this Saturday (13th) from 2 to 3:30. Taste chowdah from a dozen or so local restaurants and vote for your favorite.

Chris Black used to live on Nantucket, I believe in the 80’s, then moved to the Florida Keys. She was back on the island this past summer, and has put together a showing of the best of her Nantucket and the best of her Keys photographs, for an exhibition Friday night from 5:30 to 9 pm at a private home at 53 Union Street. All subscribers are invited.

The Nantucket Atheneum’s Tribute to David Halberstam on Saturday night is unfortunately sold out.

A Safe Place was founded 20 years ago by Rhoda Weinman, Julie Fitzgerald, Sarah Alger and Melissa Philbrick. They will be honored at a fund raiser and anniversary celebration on Sunday night (14th) from 5:30 to 7:30 at Cinco. Wine and heavy hors d’oeuvres. 508-228-2561.

The Nantucket Restaurant Week Gala kicks-off the 2nd annual Nantucket Restaurant Week (Sunday, October 14 - Saturday, October 20) featuring 3 course $20 lunches and $45 dinners from some of the island’s best restaurants. For the Gala, more than 20 restaurants will present samples of their cuisine at stations around the Whaling Museum, with champagne by Veuve Clicquot. No one will leave hungry. Benefits the newly formed Nantucket Culinary Arts Foundation, which provides educational experience and scholarships to Nantucket High School students interested in the culinary arts. Sunday (14th) from 6 to 8 pm. There are still tickets available, but I expect this one to sell out by tomorrow. Call 228-1515 and ask for Becky to reserve your ticket. Tickets are $100, and 75% tax deductible. Visit nantucketrestaurantweek.com for more information

A late addition to the calendar, but a big one - the legendary Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson with the Magic Rockers is coming to the Muse on Saturday night, October 6th, from 8:00 to 11:00 pm. Luther is one of the best blues musicians to emerge from Chicago’s music scene, where he started playing in the 50’s. Johnson played and sang with Muddy Waters’ band from 1973-79, when his front and center solos for that band got the world’s attention. This is the real thing folks. Don’t miss it. Admission only $15.

Summer resident and MSNBC’s Hardball moderator Chris Matthews returns to the island to talk about his new memoir ‘Life’s a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation and Success’. Saturday, October 6th, 5:00 pm, Unitarian Church. Book signing at Mitchell’s Book Corner follows.

live&local, just one facet of the Nantucket Arts Festival, presents Dave Provost, Mike Kopko, Andy Bullington, Cary Hazlegrove and Chris Westerlund, Friday, October 5th, beginning at 7:00 pm, at the Preservation Institute, Upstairs at 11 Centre Street. Al Louderer and Ben Briere will open the evening. Saturday night it’s Amy England and Susan Berman, same time, same place.

One of the centerpieces of the Nantucket Arts Festival is the Organ Crawl, this year the 15th annual, on Saturday (6th), from 9:15 am to noon. See the complete schedule here.

The traditional Arts Fest wrap is the Artists Association Wet Paint Live Auction, this year on Sunday, October 7th. Preview at 4, auction at 5, at the AAN Gallery. Click here for a complete list of participating artists.

Founded in 1997, the Walden Chamber Players, comprised of 12 artists in various combinations of string, piano, and wind ensembles, showcase rarely heard works by past composers as well as music by contemporary composers. Friday, October 5th, 7:00 pm at the Whaling Museum. Then on Saturday, October 6, at 1:00 P.M., thirteen-year-old NCMC Nantucket School of Music student Nick Davies will join the Walden Chamber Players to perform a Mozart piece. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street.

One of my favorite small and low key events, especially after a summer of dressy galas, is the Cranberry Harvest, presented by the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. Watch berries being harvested, listen to the history of the bogs, take a hay ride, eat some grilled burgers and dogs, and just generally enjoy the beautiful pastel vista of an Eastman Johnson painting. Saturday, October 6th, 11:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Milestone Bog. Raindate: Sunday, Oct. 7.

This is the last Nantucket Farmers and Artisans Market for the season, with locally grown vegetables, berries, herbs, plants and cut flowers, eggs, baked goods and locally, hand-crafted pottery, jewelry, crafts and more. Let’s hope they did well enough to come back next year. If you haven’t gone by, make it there on Saturday to show your support. Saturday, October 6th, 9:00 am to noon, at the Nantucket New School, 15 Nobadeer Farm Road.

Saturday, October 6th, from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm, is the opening day celebration of the 7th Annual South Wharf Gallery Invitational Exhibition, running October 5th through 18th, wherein artists of the gallery will give talks and demonstrations. South Wharf Gallery, 3 India Street.

For additional details on these events and many more events, click to the Arts and Social Calendar, and the online Nantucket Arts Festival Program.

Some highlights of the Nantucket Arts Festival coming up this week:

Last Call is a film by local filmmaker John Stanton about The Bosun’s Locker, a Main Street bar and meeting place that closed in 1970, as a watershed event for major changes to come for Nantucket.

She & He is a 12-minute short, based on the play of the same name, which won 1st prize at the 2005 Nantucket Short Play Festival and will be included in this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival. The short was adapted for screen and directed by islander Greg Bourbeau. In it, a older New York couple discovers what love means to them by remembering their lives together, and admitting to each other for the first time disturbing details of their relationship. Also showing is In the Can: The Making of She & He, an often comical look at the process of making a first film

Last Call and She & He play all this week on alternating days at the Starlight at 1 pm: Last Call on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; She & He on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Local rock group The Undergraduates plays Cambridge Street Victuals Wednesday (3rd) beginning around 10 pm.

Twelfth Night has been reprised by Nantucket’s own Seaside Shakespeare Company, from the Nantucket Arts Council’s 2007 Shakespeare Festival. Set in exotic Illyria and its neighboring seacoast, this play is replete with love, music, jesters, royalty and even a shipwreck. Original score composed by Kim D. Sherman. Thursday and Friday (4th and 5th) at 5 pm at the Unitarian Church.

A unique event at the Ships Inn this week: An Evening with the Artist William Welch. The Ships Inn has the largest collection of Bill Welch’s art on Nantucket, and Bill will be there to answer questions, offering commentary, and just be Bill. Thursday (4th) beginning at 6:00 pm.

OK, here’s something I guanantee that you haven’t heard before: Mira Lakostova and Billy Desmond: Bulgarian Opera with Hip-Hop. It’s part of live&local, the music series of the Festival. Thursday (4th) at 7:00 pm at the Preservation Institute.

And this is the final week of I’ll Be Back Before Midnight presented by the Theatre Workshop of Nantucket, a murder mystery comedy thriller by Peter Colley, and directed by Fritz Michel. Thursday through Sunday (3rd - 6th), 8:30 pm at the Methodist Church.

I’ll have the weekend update later in the week.

For additional details on these events and many more events, click to the Arts and Social Calendar, and the online Nantucket Arts Festival Program.