Nantucket Official Guide | Page 85

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Arts and Culture

he arts, in all of their marvelous
manifestations – visual, performing,
and literary – thrive on this diminutive island. From art classes and art galleries to
eclectic entertainment, festivals, historic
sites, lectures, and theater, Nantucket is
renowned for its multitude of artistic and
cultural offerings.

Inset photo ©Kris Kinsley-Hancock

In January 2016,
the Massachusetts Cultural
Council approved
designation of
the “Nantucket
Cultural District,”
certifying that the
island’s arts and
cultural community is worthy of distinction, attested
to by visitors from around the world. The
Nantucket Cultural District includes most
of the island’s primary historic downtown
core – an essential element in preserving
Nantucket’s cultural integrity.

www.nantucketchamber.org • 83

A R T S & C U LT U R E

Local artisans
express their
abundant creativity in the arts of
painting, scrimshaw, glassworks,
photography, and
more. Scrimshanders and lightship
basket makers continue to ply their
age-old crafts, with
the fruits of their
labor appearing
in local shops and
museums. Nantucket Island School
of Design and the
Arts (NISDA), the
Artists Association of Nantucket (AAN)
and the Nantucket Historical Association
1800 House all offer diverse classes to
the public year-round, and NISDA runs
a vibrant, year-round Artist-in-Residence
colony.

A flurry of well-attended annual festivals
commemorate the arts, books, comedy,
film and wine. Museums and historic sites
showcase the island’s abundant and varied cultural history, from iconic lightship
baskets, Maria Mitchell (America’s first
female astronomer, born on Nantucket),
African and
Quaker Meeting
Houses, as well
as the Shipwreck
and Lifesaving
Museum, dedicated to the island’s
late 19th and
early 20th-century
lifesaving efforts.