Celebrate The Arts on Nantucket
Ten-day Nantucket Arts Festival opens new venues for artists
BY PANOS KAKAVIATOS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The 15th Annual Nantucket Arts Festival organized by the Nantucket Arts Council opens September 28 with over 50 shows dedicated to Nantucket's thriving arts community.

ARTWORK BY JOHN F. LOCHTEFELD

Running until October 8, this year's festival provides novel ways for artists to express themselves - including first-time ever poetry and photographs in the Arts Festival program, and "signature trunk shows," introduced last year to provide space for artists and artisans who lack their own studios or galleries.

"Many people create beautiful things on island but need a venue for their work," said Arts Festival committee member Sarah Strubel. "This is a way to provide them exhibition space," she said of three signature trunk shows, to be held upstairs at the Preservation Institute at 11 Centre Street on Saturday, Sept. 29, Saturday, Oct.6 and Sunday, Oct. 7. The shows will cover a broad range of arts and crafts, from raw silk scarves and jewelry by Elisabeth Hazell to contemporary portrait art by Hannah Stone - among many others.

The 24-page festival program is peppered with original poetry and photographs by local artists: providing a "rare opportunity for anyone who has not been published before for their artwork to be featured in a publication of 5,000 copies island-wide," Strubel told The Nantucket Independent. In the past, we have had author talks, book and poetry readings, but never before published poetry in our program; we want to obtain maximum participation in the festival."

Other first-time events include the Farm & Fields Exhibition at Bartlett's Farm which features various artists' interpretations of the farm through paintings and photographs (see article) and "Wind-blown on Nantucket," a photography exhibition at Preservation Institute.

Close to $12,000 was budgeted for the fes- tival, which will include exhibitions, lectures, live music, walking tours, photography, art demonstrations, book signings and films - almost all of which will be free to the public, said Arts Festival committee chairman Edward Christian, a mortgage banker with a passion for the arts.

"Anything we make over and above our cost goes to our scholarship program," Christian said, referring to the Nantucket Arts Council scholarship which helps Nantucket High School students who study art in college. Budget money funded the program, Tshirts, the opening night reception at the Preservation Institute and artwork installation.

Among the few paid festival events: a film just featured at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival - the largest short film festival in the world - and a concert by Maeve Hughes and Gohk Bi System, an innovative music group.

Island artist Greg Bourbeau just returned from the Los Angeles festival, where 150 people attended the screening of his production, "She & He," the story of an older couple reliving their life together in one-word exchanges. Bourbeau financed and produced the film - at just under 12 minutes - after it had captured first place as a play at the 2005 Nantucket Short Play Festival. The film features Hollywood star Anita Gillette [credits include "Moonstruck" and "Shall We Dance"] and on-island actor and painter John Devaney. Active in the theatre community, island resident Bourbeau met Gillette in 2004, when they both acted in the play "Fools and Lovers."

"She stayed with us and I asked her if she would like to act in the film version of the play," Bourbeau said. Bourbeau was assisted by Ron Wolf in pre-production and Finn Murphy, whose documentary of the film will be included in the three screenings scheduled

during the Arts Festival at the Starlight Theatre and Café. All proceeds

from the $7 admission will benefit the Nantucket Arts Council's scholarship.

On Friday, September 28, Maeve Hughes and Gokh Bi System will perform at the Muse on 44 Surfside Road - at $20 per person. From Senegal, the band is considered a leader of the emerging African hip-hop movement and one of the most popular African groups in the U.S. today. Their music fuses traditional African rhythms with contemporary urban beats in a style which they've dubbed, "Ancient Meets Urban." Singer, pianist and composer in the styles of jazz, R&B and soul, Hughes is married to Gokh Bi System singer Backa Niang and looks forward to performing together: "Their music is rooted in Senegal it has a haunting style coming from ancient African melodies," she said. Gokh Bi - which means "neighborhood" - also boasts a rare instrument, the ekonting, a three string somewhat similar to a banjo played by band member Sana Ndaiye. "The only places you can find the ekonting are in villages," Hughes said. The band was discovered by American producers visiting Senegal, who recruited them for the Senegal-America Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting African music and culture.

Strubel is particularly excited about an increasing international flair at the Arts Festival: from Gokh Bi to a performance of Bulgarian opera with hip hop by Mira Lakostova and Billy Desmond. "She is going to sing in Bulgarian for one of our "live and local events," and the point of live and local is to highlight as many cultures and genres as possible," she said.

A noprofit, the Nantucket Arts Council works from both general and specific funds, the latter going towards grants and educational initiatives, while the former towards activities like the Arts Festival and the Shakespeare

Festival (third week in August). I