for the ARTS record
Historic kitchen tour Nantucket’s historic kitchens are opening their

doors and the secrets of their ovens. On Thursday, July 21, the Nantucket Preservation Trust will present “A Baker’s Dozen: Thirteen Nantucket Kitchens on Orange Street.” Between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., visitors will be able to tour the kitchens in private homes on historic Orange Street, including mansions, a row house and guest cottages.

After 1 p.m. there will be a tour of the kitchen of the Nantucket Bake Shop at 79 Orange St. The kitchens range from traditional to ultra-modern to commercial. In each case, the historic nature of the houses has determined the kitchen solutions owners have found.

A program accompanies the event with cooking techniques, products, menus and shopping advice as presented in what might have been the 1787 version of Martha Stewart Living. A kitchen boutique will provide a shopping experience for visitors on the tour. “The Toast of the Tour,” for Preservation Trust patrons and participating homeowners will take place at 5:30 p.m. on the day of the tour.

Contact the Preservation Trust at 228-1387 for further information about becoming a patron or purchasing tickets to “A Baker’s Dozen.” Author of “Freethinkers” speaks Susan Jacoby, award-winning scholar and author

of “Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism,” will be speaking tonight, July 20, at 7:30 p.m., at the Unitarian Church, 11 Orange St.

Jacoby offers an impassioned view supporting the separation of church and state and preserving the long tradition of American secularism that is the foundation of our democracy.

She is the director of The Center for Inquiry, a secularist think tank in metro New York, and has appeared on PBS’ “NOW with Bill Moyer.”

Tickets are $15 and are available at Nantucket Bookworks and The Bean, and at the door subject to availability. Musical Arts Society continues Now in its 47th season, the Nantucket Musical

Arts Society presents its 2005 concert series, championing young performers and contemporary composers. Evan Drachman, cellist, and Richard Dowling, pianist, will perform on Tuesday, July 26.

The Musical Arts Society was formed in 1959 and has been presenting classical musicians since that time. Concerts are on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. in the First Congregational Church at 62 Centre St. Tickets can be purchased for $15 at the door or in advance at the Antiques Depot at 14 Easy St. or the Lochtefeld Gallery at 4 Fair St.

For those seeking to know more about the artists and the music, a free and informal “Meet the Artists” series is held in Hendrix Hall of the Unitarian Church at 11 Orange St. on the Monday before the Tuesday concert at 8 p.m. For more information, call 228-1287. Lightship Museum presents author The Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum will

feature guest speaker Martha Lawrence, lightship basket maker and author of “Lightship Baskets of Nantucket: A Schiffer Book for Collectors,” on Thursday, July 21, at 2 p.m. in the Museum’s workshop area.

Lawrence will share her expertise in the history and construction of lightship baskets. She is the third generation in a family of artists who have drawn inspiration from Nantucket. She remembers watching her grandfather, William Crichton, carve ship figureheads at his shop on the harbor.

The lecture is free for members of the Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum and with Museum admission. A book signing will immediately follow the lecture. Call 228-1177 for further information. Rorem to speak Ned Rorem, composer, author and part-time

Nantucket resident, is scheduled to speak at the Nantucket Atheneum today, July 20, at 8 p.m. The focus of his talk will be his new book, “Wings of Friendship: Selected Letters 1944-03.” Rorem’s letters to friends, relatives, and lovers include gossip and emotional insight.

Besides Rorem’s publication of his correspondence between himself and Paul Bowles, he has never published the correspondence he shared with a motley mix of people – Leontyne Price, Virgil Thomson, Reynolds Price, Angela Lansbury, Judy Collins, Gore Vidal and Cynthia Ozick. In “Wings of Friendship,” Rorem’s letters to these friends and to more than 40 others are assembled in chronological order and reveal the range of his interests and passions.

Rorem, one of the country’s foremost living composers, has published more than 20 books, as well as several volumes of critical essays. Between the stars Dr. Geoffrey Clayton, professor of astronomy at

the Maria Mitchell Observatories and at Louisiana State University, will give a lecture today, July 20, at 7 p.m.

In his lecture, “Dust Beneath the Stars,”Clayton will describe the clouds of gas and dust in interstellar space that collapse to form new stars. He will also explain the life cycle of a star and present pictures of star life cycles and dust clouds taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The lecture is sponsored by the Maria Mitchell Association and will be held at the Hinchman House on the corner of Milk St. and Vestal St. Admission is $5. For more information, contact Dr. Vladimir Strelnitski at 228-9273. Whaling lessons Eric Hilt, an assistant professor of economics at

Wellesley College, will discuss “Management Incentives in Corporations: Lessons from the American Whaling Industry, 1830–1849,” on Thursday, July 21, at 8 p.m. in the Whaling Museum, 13 Broad St.

In his talk sponsored by the Nantucket Historical Association, Hilt will address the problems created by the introduction of corporations in the 19th-century whaling industry.

He is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on the financing and organization of early American businesses and he has written on the American whaling industry. Hilt’s work has appeared in such journals as the Journal of Law and Economics, and the Journal of Economic History. Lunch hour concerts The Unitarian Church’s Thursday Noonday

Concert series will be held from noon to 12:30 p.m. every Thursday, featuring musicians from Nantucket and off island. The series has been held since 1991. There is a suggested $5 donation at the door.

The Cobbletones, a doo-wop men’s ensemble, will perform on Thursday, July 21. Barbara Dennis, organist, will perform on Thursday, July 28. Geschke lecture series continues The Nantucket Atheneum continues to present the

Geschke Lecture Series, a program that supports lectures on topics of cultural and intellectual importance.

The first two topics are “Ideals of a Nation” and “China.” Both series will consist of five lectures scheduled for July and August. The next lecture in the series is: Wednesday, July 27, 8 p.m., Joseph S. Nye, author of “The Power Game.” Nantucket Atheneum, the Great Hall. Admission is free. Other islanders The Nantucket Historical Association will host a

reception with author Frances Karttunen at the NHA Research Library, 7 Fair St., on Friday, July 22, 4 p.m. In her newly released publication “The Other Islanders: People Who Pulled Nantucket’s Oars,” ethnohistorian Karttunen documents the diversity of Nantucket's population through the centuries.

A book signing will follow the discussion. Admission is free. For more information about the event, call 228-1894, ext. 0, or visit the NHA website at www.nha.org. Obsession to sail The Egan Institute of Maritime Studies

announces that Rigel Crockett, author of “Fair Wind and Plenty of It: A Modern-Day Tall Ship Adventure,” will speak on Wednesday, July 27, at 8 p.m. at the Coffin School, 4 Winter St. A reception for the author and a book signing will follow.

On November 25, 1997, the barque Picton Castle, a three-masted, square-rigged tall ship, headed out from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, on a voyage around the world. Aboard ship, a crew of 30 professional sailors and paying passengers would travel for over a year-and-a-half, calling at ports as exotic and varied as Aruba, Samoa, Bali and Zanzibar. “Fair Wind and Plenty of It” tells the story of an obsession, as Captain Dan Moreland, driven by a desire to make his mark in the world of traditional sail, rallies forces to convert a 69-year-old North Sea trawler into a seaworthy tall ship, and then assemble the crew to sail it.

It is the story of the uneasy balance that is achieved on board, where insubordination and rancor must be kept in line among a crew whose only connection is their common desire to be part of the journey.

And it is Crockett’s story: a man who was conceived the day his father laid the keel for his first boat, whose mother was a sail maker, and who has to reconcile his family legacy with his own need to understand why he must take part in the voyage. Crockett recounts the shipboard camaraderie, the struggles and the near mutinies that marked the year-and-a-half journey.

Admission to the lecture is $5 at the door. ‘Ode’ to creativity Kim Ridley, former editor of Hope magazine

and now contributing editor of Ode magazine, will speak at the Nantucket Island School of Design and the Arts today, July 20, at 8 p.m. at the NISDA campus, 23 Wauwinet Road. Ridley’s talk, “Creating a Greenhouse for Transformative Ideas: The Accumulative Power of Individual Actions,” will focus on the innate capacity of all people to impact change and the future.

Hope was a magazine devoted to “inspiring people, encouraging change.” It closed its doors in 2000 and Ridley began at Ode, a magazine she called Hope’s “well-traveled cousin.”

A NISDA van offers pick-up service at Orange and Main Street prior to each gallery opening and lecture. Call 228-9248 by 5 p.m.

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