Provincetown: Where Art Lives
by Jeanette de Beauvoir

There’s something about the light in Provincetown. That’s the phrase you hear, over and over again, when you ask artists what drew them here in the first place. Not necessarily the long art history—Provincetown is the oldest art colony in the United States—or even the beautiful vistas of dunes and sea.  It’s that there’s something about the light.

It’s light that’s influenced a long line of artists of all kinds, from Charles Hawthorne’s plein-air school to Blanche Lazzell’s white line woodcuts. It’s light that has drawn artists from Europe and Asia and all over North America to come here to work. And it’s light that continues to inspire another generation of Provincetown artists.

Art lives here, just as surely as that light is still attracting artists, gallery owners, and art connoisseurs from the world over. And all you have to do is take a walk through the gallery district of Provincetown’s East End to discover it.  Two things are immediately apparent - it’s a tremendously concentrated art district, and it’s an exceptionally diverse art district. Designed and zoned uniquely for art establishments, the East End features galleries that range from contemporary, progressive, cutting-edge art to laid-back funky local work.

Art lives here. Rivaling Santa Fe, New York City, and Boston’s Newbury Street, Provincetown brings in art trends, and starts quite a few of its own. Strolling through the East End—and indeed all along Commercial Street, well into the center—you’ll find gallery after gallery that offer different and eclectic art, with no overlapping themes or media.  There is no one “Provincetown look,” but instead a wide range of art to view, think about, even to buy.

Buy it? Why not? Buying art is surprisingly affordable here. “Do you know who’s a collector?” one gallery owner asked me. “It’s a person who has bought one piece of art.” That’s all it takes, and bringing home something from Provincetown’s galleries is in fact bringing home a piece of Provincetown itself.  Some of the art you’ll find here is created expressly for people to live with, not simply gaze at, and you may find a piece that seems to have been created expressly for your home!

Art lives here. It’s clear from the number of painters you can see set up on piers and streets, and from the number of artists working, teaching and living in town. More often than not, as you wander through the galleries, you’ll discover that the person sitting at the sales desk is in fact the artist him- or herself, ready (and delighted!) to talk with you about their work. Many of the galleries are artist-owned and operated, and you’ll learn more from talking with the artist than you ever could reading descriptions in curated shows.

Which is not to say that those shows don’t exist and aren’t worth visiting.  In fact, you can see them right here, at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. PAAM has extensive collections art available for viewing in various ongoing shows and exhibitions.  Juried members’ shows are put up several times a year and, no matter when you’re visiting, you’ll always see something new there.

Art lives here. And weekends are made for it! Every Friday at 7 pm, there are openings and receptions all over town. Take the “gallery stroll” and drop in on any number of opportunities to see new work, to meet the artist, to have a glass of wine as you learn about a technique or a place or a name you didn’t know before. Gallery schedules are printed in the local newspapers, or you can just take a walk and see what’s going on that particular week. See oils, encaustics, watercolors, metalwork, sculptures, acrylics, even combinations of various genres and materials, and all of them reflecting that special Provincetown light.

Provincetown’s unique artistic past is just the beginning of a continuum that stretches out to the present and the future, a continuum that continues to inspire and produce an artistic vision that is uniquely ours. Art lives here, a tradition that you can count on to dazzle and seduce you every time you visit. It is indeed where art lives, and we’d love you to come and see it for yourself.