In the early days of the Island’s busiest season, there are many events billed as unofficial “welcome to summer” celebrations. Memorial Day weekend is generally considered the kickoff to the summer season, after which many stores extend their hours, many beaches require passes, and motorists begin to heed time limitations for parking spots, lest they find themselves graced with a ticket from a seasonal, special police officer.

Featherstone Center for the Arts was a flurry of activity Sunday afternoon as Islanders came out to see the opening of New Art Now, a collection of paintings and ceramics by a motley trio of artists.

Chioke R. Morais, Darcie Lee Hanaway and John Robert Hill met while working at the Oak Bluffs restaurant the Oyster Bar, and forged fast, lasting friendships that they said helped them land the show together at Featherstone.

Her favorite subjects are math and science, and when she heads off to Connecticut College in the fall, Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School valedictorian Shaelah Huntington said she plans to study biochemistry with a premed concentration. As a student at the high school, she’s loaded up her schedule with advanced placement and honors courses. But at heart, Ms. Huntington said she’s really a bit of a beach bum.

Nectar’s general manager and talent buyer Aaron Busick had perfected a one-line response to all the musical agents calling and e-mailing him over the past few months, all trying to nail down whether their clients should plan on summer gigs at the Edgartown nightclub after its successful trial-run season last summer. Mr. Busick’s reply:

“We’re working on trying to purchase the building and we don’t really have anything yet.”