News and Events for Nantucket Island
Teachers are a special breed. They are vital to our society and far too often underappreciated (and underpaid). As in so many things in my life, I remember those who treated me well…and those who didn’t. In fairness, I also remember the ones that I didn’t appreciate enough at the time. I truly regret the times that I acted poorly for those who simply wanted to make me a better person. My two daughters have both grown up to become teachers and I couldn’t be any prouder. It is a noble profession.
Early this spring, a board member from the Nantucket Performing Arts Center (NPAC) approached director Mark Shanahan during intermission of Theatre People, or The Angel Next Door in the Westport Country Playhouse, and the conversations and collaborations that followed brought this theater production to our island in record time. “He came to me and said ‘I think this would be great on Nantucket,’” Shanahan recalls. What typically takes a year to plan became a summer reality, part of an new chapter in Nantucket’s theater scene.
Along the Washington Street side of the building at 16 Main (the current location of the island’s Ralph Lauren store) is one of downtown Nantucket’s most popular spots to be photographed: the Compass Rose Mural.
This Wednesday, August 6, from 9 am to 12 noon, the Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) is hosting a special Summer of Seams Community Day at Children’s Beach, when all ages can participate in a tradition of community connection that is part of the tapestry of life on Nantucket. The fun […]
For nearly half a century, artist G. S. Hill has captured the essence and spirit of Nantucket in his paintings, documenting island life in beautifully textured and precise works that let viewers feel the wind in the sails and smell the salt air. His work is in exhibitions and collections […]
In her waterfront studio on Easy Street, Nantucket, jewelry designer Susan Lister Locke transforms precious metals and gemstones into timeless pieces that capture the eternal beauty of the sea and sky and reflect the stories of those who wear them. In her gem-lined playground, she makes jewelry to be worn, loved, and lived in.
This Saturday, July 26, island resident Natalie Thompson will put on her familiar Swim Across America – Nantucket swim cap and dive off Jetties Beach into Nantucket Sound for a four-mile open-water course, all to make waves to fight cancer. Thompson has been a participant of the Swim Across America – Nantucket swim every year since the swim started in 2013. She has worked every job at the swim: setup crew, safety kayaker, “angel” swimmer, and, for the past five events, she has been a four-mile swimmer. This year’s swim is different though, and Natalie’s strokes will carry a deeper weight. This year Natalie swims in memory of her father, who passed away from stage 4 renal cancer in June 2024. She also swims in gratitude for the health of her wife Cassie, who also battled cancer with a diagnosis of ocular melanoma in 2019.
Heather Unruh has won a lot of awards over the years. Four Emmy awards for her journalism and the Clarion Award for women in communication. How about the Gracie Allen Award from the group American Women in Radio and Television? Yup, she won that as well. But which award is displayed prominently in the family room of her Nantucket home, you ask? Of course it’s her first place framed August Blues—Nantucket Champion print that she won last year.
In our society we tend to idealize and idolize pioneers. Think of those intrepid travelers who went west in the mid-1800s. Or those who explored somewhere for the first time. It takes a certain character to be the first to do something: not only spunk, but grit and determination. If you’re the first to settle in a new area, you have to figure out space, resources, safety. How are you going to survive? We admire these qualities in people who start from scratch, find new territory, put a flag on the moon.
