Goodbye To Visionary Artist Jon Sarkin
The visionary artist Jon Sarkin died in his storefront Fish City Studios at 39 Main St. in Gloucester on Friday…
Boston’s Gallery Kayafas To Close After 21 Years
This week was a week of lasts at Gallery Kayafas in Boston. “Sitting here stuffing envelopes for the LAST exhibits,”…
Duke Riley Turns Dazzling 19th Century Maritime Crafts Into Fossil Fuel Warnings For Today
“Proud Winner of the Guinness Book of World Records Largest Sailors Valentine in the World,” an 8-foot-tall pattern of radiating…
Photos: Mermaid Promenade at Cambridge Arts River Festival
The Mermaid Promenade kicked off the Cambridge Arts River Festival along the Charles River this morning. The parade, which I…
Honoring The Enslaved And Healing At Ifé Franklin’s ‘Ancestor Processions’
“We’re there to lift up the spirits and the vibrations of the thousands of free and enslaved Africans and African-Americans…
Midcentury Gay Haven In Gloucester Revealed In Long Lost Ellsworth Kelly Drawing
Late last year, archivists made a dramatic discovery when paging through an old guest book at the Hammond Castle Museum…
William Schaff’s Visions Of Our Sordid Society Beset By Calamity
In some spiritual traditions the “Axis Mundi,” or axis of the world, is a place where heaven and earth come…
Judy Kensley McKie Shapes Furniture Like Animals To Bring It To Life
A dog becomes a table, an owl becomes a bronze vase, and a cast bronze tree holds up a glass…
To Spread God’s Word, Howard Finster Created 46,991 Artworks. New Exhibit Reveals Method To His Productivity.
As the story goes, in 1976, when Howard Finster was 60, the Baptist preacher was painting a bicycle when he…
Giant Troll Takes Over Thomas Saltsman’s Marblehead Driveway
Architect Thomas Saltsman, of the Boston firm SaltsmanBrenzel, has become a sensation for the giant installations that have taken over…
Wonderlands: Visionary And Folk Art Sites Across The U.S.
For several years now, I’ve been making pilgrimages to visionary sites across the United States. Below are a selection of…
Ted Degener Has Spent 50 Years Photographing Creators Of Visionary Art Environments
For more than five decades, Ted Degener—who lives near Cornish, New Hampshire—has driven across the United States photographing more than…
Martin Prekop’s Mirror House Is For Sale
The problem was the view. “If you looked out the bathroom window, you looked onto a brick wall,” the artist…
At Old Sturbridge Village, 1830s America Comes Alive With Chickens, Sheep, Cows, Pigs
Part of the fun of an old timey living-history museum like Old Sturbridge Village is the feeling that you’ve stepped…
Photos: 2024 Somerville Porchfest
Somerville Porchfest is part hootenanny, part a giant open studios for bands. Inspired by an event in Ithaca, New York,…
Boston Rock History And Vintage Views Of Local Streets In Charles Daniels’s Photos
Charles Daniels always had one or more cameras with him—when he was strolling local streets; when he was emcee at…
‘Road To Ruane’ Remembers Legendary Boston Rock Impresario And Wild Man
“Billy Ruane walked into the room and he said, ‘I need an extra room for my birthday party. I think…
If You Could Play One Of the World’s Best Violins Which One Would You Choose?
On Monday afternoon, musicians from the Boston chamber orchestra A Far Cry were picking out violins to borrow for the…
Oscar-Winning Documentary ‘Last Repair Shop’: Repairing Instruments To Make People Whole Again
“The Last Repair Shop” is an astonishing, tender, heartbreaking, inspiring look behind the scenes at the expertise and love that…
Willie Alexander, Godfather Of Boston Punk, Celebrates His 81st Birthday
I was lucky to spend last night celebrating the 81st birthday of my friend Willie Alexander—with a capacity crowd of…
Midcentury Gay Haven In Gloucester Revealed In Long Lost Ellsworth Kelly Drawing
Late last year, archivists made a dramatic discovery when paging through an old guest book at the Hammond Castle Museum…
‘Comics in Color Festival’ Showcases Artists Of Color
The “Boston Comics in Color Festival” showcased comics creators of color with a hall full of comics for sale, talks…
The Children’s Books Of Celebrated Designer Seymour Chwast
In 1954, Seymour Chwast, along with a handful of friends he’d made while studying art and design at Cooper Union,…
At Boston’s Old North Church, Reprinting The Dangerous Ideas That Sparked A Revolution
Though the first printing press was imported from Europe into the Americas around 1554, to Mexico City, and Harvard got…
Amidst ‘70s Boston Desegregation Protests, A Mom Investigates Her Daughter’s Disappearance, In Dennis Lehane’s New Novel
Recommended The folks in Southie might not have money, but at least they take care of their own. That’s the…
Christian Robinson’s Books Share The Message Art Gave Him: You Matter
“It’s important for me to tell stories that reflect the diverse world that we live in,” picture book illustrator and…
Century-Old Shipwreck Emerges From Sand At Ipswich’s Crane Beach
In February, pieces of a century-old shipwreck began emerging from the sand at the northwest end of Ipswich’s Crane Beach—a…
Listening For Bats At Mount Auburn Cemetery
The group of nine of us began looking and listening for bats at Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery as night fell…
Herring Run At Horn Pond
Herring run at Horn Pond, Woburn, Massachusetts. In 2018, new fish ladders and spillways allowed herring to bypass dams on…
Spring At Garden In The Woods
Garden in the Woods is a 45-acre botanic garden operated by the Native Plant Trust in Framingham, Massachusetts. With more…
Pig Racing, Giant Pumpkins And Oxen At The Topsfield Fair
The annual Topsfield Fair in Topsfield, Massachusetts, from Sept. 30 to Oct. 10, 2022, offers giant pumpkins, racing pigs, an…
Bike To The Sea | Rail-Trail From Everett To Lynn
Join us for Bike To The Sea’s 2022 ride along the Northern Strand Community Trail, from Everett’s Madeline English School…
In Double Edge’s ‘Heron’s Flight,’ A Bird Sheds Its Wings On A Transformative Quest For Wisdom
“Herons are believed to be symbols of good luck and transformation,” Travis Coe, who co-directed “The Heron’s Flight” with Jennifer…
‘Book Of Mountains And Seas’ Reenvisions Chinese Creation Myths Via Puppetry
“Shanhai jing”—which gives the title to the choral singing and puppetry performance “Book of Mountains and Seas” at ArtEmerson’s Emerson…
Bread And Puppet Theater’s Indictment Of War On Gaza: ‘Hope Principle Show’
“And if our yelling does not reach their uninterested ears? Will we invent new yells that are harder to neglect?”…
Coming Soon: Bread & Puppet ‘Hope Principle Show: Citizens’ Shame and Hope in the Time of Genocide’
Our friends at Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theater bring their new performance “The Hope Principle Show: Citizens’ Shame and Hope…
How Puppet Magic Brings Plexus Polaire’s ‘Moby Dick’ To Life
“It’s the perfect way of bringing something back to life,” says Julian Spooner, who plays the narrator Ishmael in Plexus…
Puerto Rico’s Agua, Sol y Sereno Performs With Boston’s Hyde Square Task Force
The theater troupe Agua, Sol y Sereno from Puerto Rico performed and paraded with youth from Boston’s Hyde Square Task…
Photos: Mermaid Promenade at Cambridge Arts River Festival
The Mermaid Promenade kicked off the Cambridge Arts River Festival along the Charles River this morning. The parade, which I…
Photos: Honk Parade From Somerville To Cambridge
Honk, the annual festival of activist street bands, arrived in Somerville and Cambridge this weekend. Begun here in 2006, the…
Puerto Rico’s Agua, Sol y Sereno Performs With Boston’s Hyde Square Task Force
The theater troupe Agua, Sol y Sereno from Puerto Rico performed and paraded with youth from Boston’s Hyde Square Task…
Feast Of The Madonna Della Cava In Boston’s North End
The Society of the Madonna Della Cava held their 103 anniversary Feast in Boston’s North End on Aug. 11 to…
Photos: J’Ouvert Dawn Parade At Boston Caribbean Carnival
J’Ouvert means “breaking of the dawn,” according to organizers of Boston’s annual Caribbean-American Carnival. The Carnival parade, held this afternoon,…
Photos: Provincetown Carnival Parade: Land Of Toys
Provincetown’s 45th annual Carnival Parade danced down Commercial Street from the Harbor Hotel in the East End to the Coast…
MLK Memorial ‘The Embrace’ Unveiled At Boston Common
“This work is really about the capacity for each of us to be enveloped in love, and I feel enveloped…
Deceased Beech Tree Turned Into Statue In Somerville Park
When a massive, old European beech tree at Somerville’s Symphony Park declined into disease, the city’s Parks and Open Space…
Rob ‘ProBlak’ Gibbs’ ‘Breathe Life Together” Mural On Boston’s Greenway
“My vision is to add to Boston’s skyline in a way that elevates the voices and work of those who’ve…
Olmsted’s 200th Birthday Remembered With Moss Installation At Jamaica Pond
“Gradually and silently the charm comes over us; we know not exactly where or how” reads a moss installation by…
Best Christmas Decorations Around Greater Boston
Below is Wonderland’s guide to dazzling holiday decorations around greater Boston, from Attleboro to Somerville (listed by community, in alphabetical…
Halloween Displays Around Greater Boston
Some highlights of Halloween displays around Greater Boston for 2021 (listed by community, in alphabetical order). If this is the…