The National Gallery of Art has announced the first full retrospective of American artist George Bellows in more than three decades will open in 2012.

Bellows, one of the artists of the Ashcan School of Realists, was an important transitional figure between the Victorian and modern eras. Widely known for his dramatic scenes of boxers and urban life, Bellows was interested in everything around him. His work is celebrated for its detailed renderings of dreary life in New York, with laundry hanging out apartment windows and people crowded on tenement steps. But he found a contrast in the lyrical views of snow in the parks, and in formal portraits, mostly of his family.

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George Bellows National Gallery of Art retrospective

Nantucket, Massachusetts has long been a laboratory for innovative ideas, ever since the island emerged as America’s leading whaling port in the eighteenth century. In fact, this island–a fragile outpost located 26 miles off the coast of Cape Cod–was so technologically advanced that it caused the British statesman Edmund Burke to remark how it had “exceeded the collective might of all of Europe.”

This unique crowd-sourcing event, which was brought to life by an influential founding circle that includes Wendy Schmidt, Robert and Jennifer Diamond, Tom and Emily Scott, Tim and Alicia Cannon Mullen, Steve and Jill Karp, Tom Bresette and Kate Brosnan, is built around the idea of “Rethink” as its inaugural theme.

The cross-disciplinary group of participants, which features hedge fund managers, CEOs, artists, filmmakers, poets and writers–all share one thing in common, according to Nantucket Project co-founder Tom Scott: they are on the cutting edge of their field at the moment.

The Nantucket Project runs  from September 30 – October 2, 2011. For more information visit The Nantucket Project.

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The Nantucket Project

The app is brought to you by designer/marketer Arlene O’Reilly and program developer Tihomir Ivanov, both long-time island residents, this application offers islanders and visitors alike the ability to explore all that the Nantucket art world has to offer.

Download the Arts Nantucket iPhone App here

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Download the Arts Nantucket iPhone App

It is with sadness that we learn of the death of Cy Twombly – the American Artist who passed away earlier in Rome.

Born in 1928 at Lexington, Virginia, Cy Twombly studied art in Boston, New York and at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he met John Cage, Robert Motherwell and Robert Rauschenberg.

In the middle of the 1950′s, following travels in North Africa and Europe, Twombly emerged in New York with paintings that combined elements of gestural abstraction, drawing and writing. He was the first American artist to use graffiti-like marks or scribbles. This kind of graffiti is not derived from urban centers, but rather from the French New Realists, especially the work of Jean Dubuffet and the work of Paul Klee as well as the automatic writing of the Surrealists.

Twombly moved to Rome, Italy in the late 1950′s. There his compositions became more elaborate and the paint surface denser and more textured. His paintings took on the look of ancient Roman walls mixed with references to the antique in color and markings that often refer to Homer and the Iliad. At once epic and intimate, Twombly’s work is infused with references to literature and landscape, especially that of the Mediterranean.

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RIP Cy Twombly

The 3rd Annual Petticoat Row Celebration of Nantucket’s Women in Business takes place this Wednesday, June 8, 2011 (6:30 pm – 9:30 pm) at The Beachside.

Guest speakers are Tracy Hutson of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and Nantucket’s Own Leslie Linsley, with music being provided by Brother Jake & I Scream, You Scream. Complimentary cocktails and hors d’oeuvres with Nantucket Catering Company, Cisco Brewers, Nantucket Vineyard & Triple Eight Distillery. Live and silent auctions.

Tickets $75 in advance/$100 at the door. 508.221.1081. Proceeds will fund Nantucket Community School Scholarships for the Fall 2011 & Spring 2012 classes.

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Petticoat Row Celebration of Nantucket Women in Business

“After the success of NFF 15, it was inevitable that we would need to expand the festival’s length and scope to accommodate the growing interest,” said Executive Director Colin Stanfield. “Along with the later dates allowing more families to attend after the school year wraps, the festival stands to help bring more people to the island and in turn positively affect local business economically.” Passes are currently on sale on the festival website, with individual tickets on sale May 27.

The opening night films will be Disney/Pixar’s “Cars 2″, and “Buck”, a documentary about horse trainer Buck Brannman. “Cars 2″, directed by John Lasseter, follows Lightning McQueen and his best friend Mater as they race around the globe and unwittingly find themselves caught up in international espionage. “Cars 2″ writer Ben Queen will receive the New Voices in Screenwriting award.

Closing the festival will be “Higher Ground” by first time director Vera Farmiga, who also stars in the film.

Awards this year include Showtime’s annual Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting, The Audience Award for Best Feature & Best Short, Showtime’s Tony Cox Awards for Best Screenwriting in a Feature Film and Short Film, Teen View on NFF Award, Best Storytelling in a Documentary Film, and the Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award, which gives a cash prize annually to a promising female writer/director at the Festival.

The line up:

* Being Elmo

* A Puppeteer’s Journey

* Benavides Born

* Beyond the Road; Bobby Fischer Against the World

* Buck

* Cars 2

* Circumstance

* Connected

* Donor Unknown

* Five Days Gone

* Granito

* Happy, Happy

* Higher Ground

* Hot Coffee

* The Last Rites of Joe May

* Life in a Day

* The Lie

* Mia and the Migoo

* Mozart’s Sister

* The Names of Love

* Nantucket by Nature

* On the Ice

* One Lucky Elephant

* The Other F Word

* Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times

* Senna; Submarine

* Terri; To be Heard

* Tyrannosaur

* Unraveled

* We Still Live Here: As Nutayunean

* When the Drum is Beating

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Nantucket Film Festival 2011

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Art Gallery Openings on Nantucket

The shores of Vancouver Island’s wild west coast are overflowing with Whale based Art & celebrations during this week’s Pacific Rim Whale Festival, as they celebrate the arrival of upwards of 20,000 grey whales on their northbound migration from the Baja Peninsula to Alaska’s Bering Strait and beyond.

Visit the link to find out more about the Pacific Rim Whale Festival and support this great cause

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Whale Art Festival

From April through May over three million daffodils bloom on Nantucket Island. This blossoming, and the advent of spring itself, is the focal point of the Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Daffodil Festival. The Festival’s is the Antique Car Parade, and features hundreds of daffodil themed antique cars (pre-registration necessary for participation.) After winding through town and across the island to the charming village of Siasconset, participants join residents and visitors for the Daffodil Tailgate Picnic.

For more information call 508-228-1700 or visit Nantucket Daffodil Festival Facebook Page. Look out for more info on Nantucket Spring calendar including Figawi Race Weekend, Nantucket Wine Festival, Nantucket Restaurant Week and Nantucket Film Festival!

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Nantucket Daffodil Festival