One description may not exactly fit every locale, but it is safe to say our coastal areas are supportive of and enriched by the arts. The Cape, for example, has more than its share of theater. Travel to New Bedford and discover the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center where audiences enjoy world-class music, dance and theater. On the Vineyard, organizations offer equal opportunities in the arts for everyone. Nantucket and Provincetown have well-received film festivals. Summer brings nationally-known musical artists to the South Shore Music Circus and The Melody Tent on Cape Cod. The visual and literary arts are also alive and well.               

Antique mavens and you know who you are, can find almost anything here. Travel to Nantucket for scrimshaw and Nantucket Lightship baskets. Shops on Martha’s Vineyard with their often eye-catching and clever names draw the browser through the door, and then delight with all manner of collectibles, furniture and Oriental items. There’s also an auction house on island. The Cape has its auction houses as well, offering estate items, glassware and duck decoys (the famous carver Elmer Crowell lived and worked here). Charming shops abound on highways such as Route 6A. Take Route 3A just over the Sagamore Bridge on up through Plymouth and beyond, or travel the old Route 6 through New Bedford for that treasure you’ve been hunting for.                 

Galleries from Provincetown to New Bedford, on the islands and up the South Coast offer the best of local artists, sculptors and jewelry-makers, some nationally renowned, others, such as Ralph Cahoon, locally cherished. Think Edward Hopper, and then imagine that artist whose name you don’t know yet!.