for the ARTS record

Sherre Wilson Rae’s “How Weightless They Rest,” oil on canvas, 58”x54”, is on view at the South Wharf Gallery.

Memory as a building

Like haunted houses or locked rooms, spaces we are not allowed in breed intrigue and imagined contents. Sherre Wilson Rae, who cele-brates her tenth year at the South Wharf Gallery, will open with a show there on Friday, Aug. 12, inspired in part by the Coast Guard station in Siasconset on Low Beach Road.

Its squat, bunker-like rectangles appear both abrupt, next to the sea, and long-deserted. Rae is a popular island artist, with a following accrued since she began living here in 1986. Her represen-tational paintings have always been about interi-ors and landscapes, although not those you would likely find yourself encountering in reality.

Gary Kohner The Independent file

Lately, Rae has been moving towards surreal-ism and abstraction, with animals finding their way into high-ceilinged, drafty rooms. The ani-mals appear in their element, as if they are used to reigning a space left empty by people. Yet the spaces are those only a human being could imag-ine. Rae continues to paint year round in a studio on Low Beach Road and has arrived on the com-petitive New York City art scene with a show of her work at a gallery there for two winters in a row.

Rae’s opening on Friday is from 6 to 8 p.m. at 20/21 Old South Wharf. She will give a talk about her work on Saturday, Aug. 13, at 10:30 a.m. Filmmaker in our midst

’Sconset resident and filmmaker Gary Kohner’s film has been selected as one of the top 10 finalists for the first annual Hammersurf Proven In the Northeast amateur board sports film festival/contest. As one of the 10, Kohner’s film is up for consideration for the grand prize to be announced at the event on Sunday, Aug. 21, in Portland, Maine.

Hammersurf's vice president Jim Solberg started the forum to encourage amateur filmmakers to test their skills and have their work seen by a large audience. Films were solicited via the Internet, through stores and by word of mouth and then judged by a panel of four film and actions sports media professionals.

The 10 finalists are from Portland, Falmouth, Bowdoinham and Bar Harbor, Maine; Newburyport, Roxbury, New Bedford and Siasconset, Mass.; and Newport, R.I.

Antiques for firemen

Athree-day antique show to benefit the Nantucket Fireman’s Association begins on Thursday, Aug. 11. The 28th annual show will be held at the Nantucket Inn and Conference Center. A gala opening will be held Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. with wine and cheese. Regular show days are Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This year’s show will host dealers from all over the Northeast and Europe, with items ranging from furniture, oriental rugs, wicker, estate jewelry, sil-ver, paintings, prints and more for every budget. Admission is $8 and tickets will be sold at the door. Tickets for the gala opening can be purchased for $50.

Met soprano at Congregational

The Nantucket Musical Arts Society presents

the Emily Pulley, soprano for the Metropolitan Opera, on Tuesday, Aug. 16. All con-certs in the series 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 East St. or the Lochtefeld Gallery at 4 Fair St. For those seeking to know more about the artists and music, a “Meet the Artists” series is free and informal, 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.

A Sailor’s Walk

During the whaling days, many of Nantucket’s sailors and tradesmen, who worked on the whaling ships, established their homes on Union Street. This year the Nantucket Garden Club will present five recently restored and redecorated his-toric houses as part of the 51st house tour today, Wednesday, Aug. 10, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In addition to touring these homes, ticket holders will be able to visit the Nantucket Basket Museum and its recently planted 1820’s style garden. Bill Schustik will be performing his ballads of the high seas throughout the day in the garden of 20 Union St. where the reception tea and boutique will be held. Tickets for $40 may be purchased at each of the houses today.

Men on deck

Island artist, scrimshander and historian, Charles A. Manghis will speak at the Lightship Basket Museum on Thursday, Aug. 11, at 1 p.m., in the museum’s workshop area. Manghis will present a discussion on the whaleman’s art of scrimshaw, past and present.

Through exploration of whaleman’s logbook entries, special scrimshaw artifacts from Nantucket and 30 years of scrimshanding and carving, Mr. Manghis will reveal the experience of these men in depth. The lecture is free for members of the Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum and with museum admission. Call 228-1177

for further information.

Lunch hour concerts

The Unitarian Church’s Thursday Noonday Concert series will be held from noon to 12:30 p.m. every Thursday, featuring musi-cians from Nantucket and off-island. There is a suggested $5 donation at the door. Ethan Philbrick, cellist, and friends will perform on Aug. 11.

Dig deep

Archaeologist Mary Lynne Rainey will speak on Thursday, Aug. 11, at 8 p.m. at the Whaling Museum, 13 Broad St. Rainey will examine Native American family and community structures from five different archae-ological sites on the island, which were investigated by the Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. to pro-vide insights on Native American domestic and institutional architec-ture.

Rainey has worked in the field of cultural resource management

CRM) since 1979, holds an M.A. in Anthropology, and is a Registered Professional Archaeologist (RPA). Since 1993, Rainey has directed 20 cultural resource management proj-ects on Nantucket. The lecture is free for members, $5 for nonmembers. For more information, call 2281894, ext. 0 or visit the Web site at www.nha.org.

Mother/daughter endeavor

On Friday, Aug. 12, at 8 p.m., Linda Greenlaw, author of

The Lobster Chronicles,” will be talking about the new book she co-wrote with her mother, Martha Greenlaw. Nat Philbrick, founding director of the Egan Institute and author, will be the anchorman for an insight into the mother/daughter team.

The program will be held at the Coffin School on 4 Winter St. with a reception and book signing by the authors. Admission is $5 at the door. Besides recipes from Martha and Linda, “Recipes From A Very Small Island” includes a series of essays that offer an insider’s view of life on Isle au Haut, a tiny island off the coast of Maine that the Greenlaws have called home for generations. For more information, call the Egan Institute of Maritime Studies at 2282505.

Homespun history

Researcher and author of early American history and New England’s material culture, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich will speak on Monday, Aug. 15, at 8 p.m. at the Unitarian Church, 11 Orange St. Her topic is “History as Mystery: Finding Clues in Ordinary Things.” Ulrich is Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University and the author of “A Midwife’s Tale,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1991. During the last decade she has been exploring muse-um artifacts as sources for social his-tory.

Tickets for the Monday Super Series lecture, this one sponsored by the Nantucket Historical Association, are $15 and available at the NHA administrative office, 15 Broad St., The Hub, 31 Main St., and Nantucket Bookworks, 25 Broad St. For more information, call 2281894, ext. 0.

Domestic madness of King George

Flora Fraser will lecture on her newest book, “Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III,” at the Nantucket Atheneum’s Great Hall on Wednesday, Aug. 17, at 8 p.m. Admission is free, a book signing will follow. Fraser’s book takes a close look at the family life of King George III who ruled Great Britain during the tumultuous era of the American and French Revolutions.

While considered by some to be a tyrannical monarch, Fraser’s book reveals that King George III much preferred the domestic life to the splendor and formality of court and was very attentive to his queen, three male heirs and six daughters.

Fraser, daughter of Antonia Fraser and granddaughter of Elizabeth Longford, is author of “Beloved Emma” and “The Unruly Queen.” She lives in London with her husband and three children.

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