Fine Arts

Scholars have identified thirty-four, perhaps thirty-five, paintings they now safely attribute to the Dutch master Johannes Vermeer (1632 – December 1675). He was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime. He seems never to have been particularly wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death, Today his works are valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The Gardner Museum's The Concert was stolen and remains missing. Largely through a successful movie Girl with a Pearl Earring is particularly beloved. It will be on view at Atlanta's High Museum of Art augmented with works from Holland's Mauritshuis. Book a flight between now and September 29.

The Eclipse Mill at 243 Union Street in North Adams houses the Eclipse Mill Gallery, The Brill Gallery and River Hill Pottery and studio. The pottery is open daily and the two galleries on weekends through the fall. Both galleries have openings of new shows on June 15.

After leaving Provincetown and Sun Gallery its co founder Yvonne Andersen acquired a global reputation as a pioneer of teaching video animation to children. This led to a position at the Rhode Island School of Design where she taught for 23 year with nine of them as department chair. Partnering with Red Grooms she was acknowledged in a recent Pace Gallery exhibition for creating one of the first Happenings in Provincetown.

From 1955 to 1959 the artist Yvonne Andersen and her late husband, the poet Dominic Falcone, operated the legendary Sun Gallery in Provincetown. In one week shows over five seasons, with a combination of group, one man and two man shows they displayed work by about 100 artists. A selection of whom formed the nucleus of the figurative expressionist movement. This summer the Provincetown Art Association and Museum will focus on this activity in Pioneers of Provincetown curated by Adam Zucker. This is part one of a dialogue about that era.

The Eclipse Mill Gallery at 243 Union Street in North Adams launches its 2013 season with The Sixth Annual Berkshire Salon. The unjuried exhibition which includes work by 47 regional artists remains on view weekends, from noon to 5 PM, from May 10 through June 2.

Dumbarton Oaks, the famous estate built on the highest point of the Georgetown section of Washington, DC, is a special treat in the spring.

John James Audubon (1785-1851) was not the first person to attempt to paint and describe all the birds of America, but for half-a-century he was the young country’s dominant wildlife artist. His seminal Birds of America (1827-39), a collection of 435 life-size prints, quickly eclipsed others’ work and remains a standard against which ornithological renditions that followed are measured.

To fill gaps in the collection there are plans for 100 major acquisitions during the Centennial of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in 2014. In addition to the $8 million raised for expansion and renovation there is a need to raise the current endowment of $3 million with another $8 million in pledges. In this final installment of an extensive dialogue McCarthy discusses progress and plans for announcements during the Centennial.

In addition to the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, the Library, and Fine Arts Work Center have been renovated while Provincetown Theatre built out a new facility. These changes occured, according to Chris McCarthy, the director of PAAM, "Because we had to." It represented the tipping point of preserving the legacy of America's oldest art colony and building for future generations.