Built on Stilts

Built on Stilts, the Island’s own annual dance festival, will celebrate its 12th season with performances August 15 to 19 and 23 and 24, 2008. Submission guidelines and registration info can be found online at builtonstilts.org. Registration deadline is Monday, July 1.

In this serialized novel set on the Vineyard in real time, a native Islander (“Call me Becca”) returns home after many years in Manhattan. Her uncle Abe requires assistance to keep their landscaping business, Pequot, afloat. Through Mott (Pequot’s general manager) she’s met Quincas (a Brazilian) and the rest of Pequot’s staff. Her Uncle Abe has an intense loathing of Richard Moby, the CEO of Broadway, an off-Island landscaping business.

The Federated Church of Edgartown again will hold clam chowder suppers this summer.

Last year the church raised over $1,600 for the Island Food Pantry during these events, which are held Thursday evenings in the church Parish House prior to the Thursday evening concerts by The Vineyard Sound held in the Federated Church Meetinghouse on South Summer street in Edgartown.

Why didn’t anyone think of it sooner? The first annual Aquinnah Music Festival is shaping up for July 19, from noon to moonrise in the circle atop the cliffs of Gay Head, on Lighthouse Road.

The Field Gallery invites all to a free artists’ reception Sunday June 29, from 5 to 7 p.m. for an exhibition of new work by Ben Johnson and Janet Woodcock.

Returning artist Ben Johnson’s paintings celebrate the natural world. Images of birds and their surroundings depict the landscape in a bold and colorful style. Mr. Johnson draws his inspiration from the spacious landscape of Martha’s Vineyard. Recently reviewed in American Art Collector (June 2008), he is certainly an artist to watch.

Martha’s Vineyard music students will display their violin, piano, viola and flute skills at a concert Sunday, June 29, at 4 p.m. in the Whaling Church on Main street in Edgartown.

The program includes a flute and piano duet by sisters Rebekah and Kaija Nivala. Rebekah is the winner of this year’s Caroline Worthington Prize, named for one of the founding musicians of the Chamber Music Society.