for the ARTS record
Nantucket’s Great Fire — could you give a visitor a basic explanation? You hear it referenced all the time, but how much do you really know about Nantucket’s Great Fire of 1846? If your knowledge is at coof level, you may want to attend island historian Robert Mooney’s Food For Thought/Brown Bag Lunch Series lecture this Thursday on the tragedy that claimed one-third of the town buildings, and led to a radical restructuring of the cobblestoned thoroughfares we hobble our cars down everyday. Bring a lunch and learn something from which to impress your friends and relatives when they visit. When: Thursday, Dec. 14, noon Where: Nantucket Historical Association

(Discovery Room), 13 Broad St. Cost: Free For more information, call 228-1894, ext. 0.

“A Child’s Christmas in Wales” Taking over for John Knox-Johnston and reprising the role he debuted on Nantucket, David Lazarus will continue the performances of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” produced by the Theatre Workshop of Nantucket.

This classic short story narrates a traditional Welsh Christmas, but it contains elements as eternal as snow in winter — including the giddiness of children in love with the holiday and the challenges of packing many family members into one home to celebrate. The Theatre Workshop of Nantucket describes the tale as “heartwarming reminiscences from a child’seye view of the duties, delicacies and delights of Christmas traditions of old.”

Last year, Lazarus wowed the Christmas audiences as “Marley” in the TWN’s “Scrooge and Marley.” Though he is, like Knox-Johnston, a British actor, his version of the reading is sure to be a different interpretation, according to TWN President Pam Murphy, who added that, even though the reading has been playing to packed houses, the TWN is happy to host it for free — especially when many year-rounders were hard at work during the readings and performances around Thanksgiving and Stroll.

“We just like to give back. The community is very good to us, and this is an opportunity to give back. And it’s a good time of year to do that,” Murphy said. “During Stroll, a lot of people like myself don’t have time, so I wanted to do something for those of us who work, for people who have businesses to get out with their families and enjoy the holiday season.” When: Friday and Saturday, Dec. 15 and 16, 5:30 p.m. Where: Theatre Workshop of Nantucket, 2 Centre St. Cost: Free Armonica Concert and Franklin Tribute Admired by men and women all over the world in his day, Ben Franklin was something of a political rock star — so it is unsurprising that the man, who may have been well ahead of his time, invented a musical instrument called the armonica. It’s comprised of 37 glass hemispheres with a hole in the middle mounted on an iron spindle and placed in a wooden case on four legs. The glasses turn by foot, “like a spinning wheel,” according to the Nantucket Historical Association, which is hosting an armonica concert by musician Vera Meyer this Saturday.

Since being introduced to the instrument by master glassblower and glass harmonica builder Gerhard Finkenbeiner in 1983, Meyer has held armonica concerts all over the world. Her hour-long performance here on Nantucket — where Franklin’s maternal ancestors, the Folgers, planted their flags — will include a discussion on the instrument augmented by readings from Franklin’s own writings.

“We are excited to host [Meyer’s] first Nantucket performance here at the museum; and, as an added bonus, Meyer will allow several audience members to try their hand at playing a few notes on this unique instrument, whose sound has been compared to that of ‘the voice of angels,’” said NHA Interpretation Coordinator Sarah Bishop. “This will be an exclusive opportunity for people to learn about the armonica first hand.” When: Saturday, Dec. 16, 2 p.m. Where: Whaling Museum, 13 Broad St. Cost: $15 General admission; free for members

or with museum admission

For more information, please call 228-1894, ext. 0.

A place where the kids shop Ican’t tell you how much I loved the Christmas store we had every year at my South Florida public elementary school. Every December, the administration closed the curtains to our stage and converted it into a little shop where we could ration our money on inexpensive presents for our families. Never mind that most of us got the money from our parents to begin with, it felt like we were doing Christmas shopping on our own. My dad still has a Christmas ornament and a chintzy stationery tin that I bought him when I was in the first grade. The Nantucket Atheneum is hosting one of these delightful holiday shops again this year, with middle schoolers in attendance to help with the commerce. I can say from firsthand experience that this is an excellent way to get kids into the joy of giving at the holidays. If shoppers bring a list of people for whom they need to buy presents, volunteers will help. (Limit of five gifts per shopper.) Parents enjoy refreshments while they wait. When: Saturday, Dec. 16, 2-4 p.m. Where: Nantucket Atheneum, 1 India St. Cost: Free For more information, please call 228-1110. Foreign Film Series: Part of the Atheneum’s festival for award-winning foreign films. In “Familia,” a single mother runs from gambling debts and an unkempt life to the home of her childhood friend, also a single mother. The daughters of the two old friends form a friendship of their own in this film about challenging cycles of self-destructive behavior, with the occasional online sex tryst, secret life and pregnancy forcing each woman, young and old, to examine what she wants for her life.

The film was an Official Selection at the Locarno International Film Festival and Vancouver International Film Festival, as well as Best Canadian Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival. When: Saturday, Dec. 16, 7 p.m. Where: Atheneum, 1 India St. Cost: Free For more information, please call 228-1110.

Stone’s Superstars calendar After a few months of massive artistic output, Nantucket portrait artist Hannah Stone has created over a dozen explosive and glittering portraits of local celebrities. The series opened to a packed house at Cambridge Street last month, and attendants voted on their favorites. Stone has used the results to compile a new desk calendar of local Nantucket celebrities; its proceeds will benefit Nantucket’s A Safe Place. The organization’s mission is “to prevent abusive behavior in the family and the community by providing services and support to persons who are dealing with domestic violence, sexual assault or child abuse and the resulting conflict in their lives, and by educating the Nantucket community about the impact of these issues on all of our lives.”

“I think they do an amazing job for helping men and women deal not only with domestic violence, but also with the substance abuse that’s often related,” Stone said.

The local celebrities include The Undergraduates frontman Ted Lothian, red-headed deliveryman Kennedy Richardson, stylist Darya Afshani and artist Bob Stark.

The calendars are capitalizing on a new desk calendar “technology” that uses a CD jewel case as a stand for the free-standing cards representing each month of the year.

Several vendors around island will be selling the calendars. Annye’s Whole Foods, Grasshoppers, Nantucket Camera Shop and Video, Cambridge Street Victuals, American Seasons, Cisco Breweries and RJ Miller salons will be returning 100 percent of the proceeds of sold calendars to A Safe Place; 50 percent of the proceeds of those sold at Bookworks will be returned to A Safe Place.

— Marli Guzzetta