Happy one year to The Art Colony! This week, we had a live recording hosted by Provincetown Commons and the Provincetown Art Gallery Association, noting 60+ guests, about 15,000 downloads across all U.S. states and many countries, grants from the Provincetown Economic Development Council and the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, and listener donations. Joined by Jill Rothenberg-Simons (OnCenter Art Gallery), Gavin Kennedy (Emergent Art Advisory), and Christine McCarthy (PAAM), the panel discusses future-focused trends including climate-change-driven and multidisciplinary work, recycled and repurposed materials, AI and technology, and a renewed emphasis on craft and authenticity. They stress sustaining institutions, galleries, and affordable housing, encourage buying art and supporting funds like the Commons’ Benji Fund, and predict continued reinvention, year-round arts activity, and Provincetown’s role as a creative safe haven. Audience Q&A covers post-COVID gallery shifts to online visibility, supporting nontraditional artists and venues, bringing Provincetown artists beyond town, balancing local and outside artists, and PAAM’s growing 12x12 fundraiser show.

Portrait photographer, Michael Joseph, joins us this week to bring us on a journey through his work documenting subcultures through long-term projects. He describes discovering photography at the New England School of Photography and shifting from studio work to street portraits, with a pivotal Las Vegas image sparking his decade-long “Lost and Found” project on the modern traveler subculture, built through trust, repeated encounters, and communication via social media; he notes ethical challenges and backlash around media exposure and explains his book used travelers’ own words. He then discusses his eight-year Provincetown series “Wild West of the East,” inspired by Norman Mailer’s book, shot with a vintage Polaroid Big Shot and often in an alley by Marine Specialties, including a Twenty Summers residency that produced a large wheatpaste mural. With pack film expired and scarce, he’s finishing the project and launching a Kickstarter (starting July 14) with MW Editions to publish a curated book.

Multidisciplinary artist Jimmy Lee Curtis (aka Mama Lee) joins us this week, kicking off by highlighting Momma Lee’s Fashion Show. Curtis explains his name’s origins at the Birch House, his path from Michigan to Atlanta to 1980s London fashion/textile study, and how the alternative London scene (including Vivienne Westwood and Leigh Bowery) influenced his aesthetic. He recalls British Vogue selecting one of his scarves for a Morocco shoot featuring Christy Turlington. After moving from West Hollywood to Provincetown, he describes the Birch House as a community hub and his role in the long-running Wednesday-night FΔg BΔsh, including themes and the Miss FΔg BΔsh pageant. He outlines his current work (painting, Polaroids, hand-painted silk scarves, upcycled fashion and hats) and how a Provincetown Commons residency led to starting the fashion show with Dave LaFrance in 2021, now expanded to include other designers; this year’s theme is “London Calling,” with the fundraiser show on Saturday, August 22 at 7:00 and tickets at provincetowncommons.com.

This week, we interviewed fashion and textile artist Daniel Hammond, a cashmere sweater designer with 25 years’ experience who studied at Parsons and worked for major 7th Avenue names including Emanuel Ungaro, Nautica, Oscar de la Renta, and Perry Ellis. He describes early sewing influences from his mother and grandmother, his technical approach to construction and knitwear, and mentorship that led him to specialize in men’s cashmere. He recounts first visiting Provincetown in 2011, buying a home in 2020 during the COVID shutdown, and opening his shop on 364 Commercial Street in fall 2021 (formerly Plush), later rebranding under his name as production shifted to primarily in-house, small-batch, hand-touched work. The conversation highlights limited runs, direct-to-consumer value, and major artist collaborations, including Gaston’s “Eclipse” sweater and projects with Trevor Makula, plus upcoming shows with Lindsay Porter (starting July 3) and Jared Heslip (late August).

Elizabeth Smith, founding executive director of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, joins us this week to talk about painter Helen Frankenthaler and her connection to Provincetown. She explains the foundation’s origins, assets, and mission to promote understanding of visual arts. She recounts Frankenthaler’s New York upbringing, early art education (including Rufino Tamayo and Bennington College with Paul Feeley), brief 1950 Provincetown study with Hans Hofmann, and her sustained summers in Provincetown from 1960–1969 after marrying Robert Motherwell. They discuss her studio routine, locations (Days Lumber Yard, the Seed Barn, and a later “tree house” studio), evolving 1960s painting toward simplified geometry, and her soak-stain technique on raw canvas and later acrylics. She describes visitors, the 2018 PAAM “Abstract Climates” exhibition, how to view her paintings, upcoming exhibitions (including Basel and a 2028 National Gallery retrospective), her printmaking, the foundation’s research access, and its Climate Initiative Grants funding 401 U.S. arts organizations.

In episode 50 of The Art Colony podcast, former journalist Joe Woolley interviews our host, Gaston Lacombe. Gaston, a Canadian-born artist and American citizen, recounts earning history degrees in Ottawa, living 16 years in Latvia in roles from teacher and newscaster to embassy cultural work, becoming the first head of Latvia’s national LGBT organization, and leaving amid threats. In Washington, DC he earned a photography degree, worked as a photojournalist, and created the globally published Captive Project documenting animal welfare in zoos. After first visiting Provincetown in 2016, he left his marriage, moved there, and opened a Whaler’s Wharf studio in 2018. He describes evolving from mixed-media photography to hard-edge painting, his tape-and-color-code construction process, and how the podcast deepened his community ties, spotlit a thriving, largely queer-driven art colony, and led to plans for a July 21 live anniversary event.

Zoe Lewis, born in Rottingdean on England’s south coast, joins us this week as she describes becoming a largely self-taught multi-instrumentalist, learning through bands, travel, and absorbing world rhythms across 70+ countries. She recounts leaving planned tourism studies after joining punk-era bands, traveling with minimal resources, and eventually settling in Provincetown around 1990 after being offered extensive restaurant and late-night shows. She credits Provincetown’s community for sustaining her artistry, and explains her songwriting as joyful, story-based, nostalgic, and often inspired by everyday “magic,” including residencies in Greece and Key West. Lewis performs her song “Entre Chien Et Loup,” then shares current engagements: her long-running 1920s Speakeasy at The Red Room (July 21 and Aug 17, 2026) and “Zoe With a Z” at the Art House, plus touring, recordings, and collaborations.

Artist Joshua Wilmoth joins us this week as we talk about how he has shaped the town’s look through murals, store facades, interior decor, and massive Carnival installations. He describes his celebration-driven, maximalist, unapologetically queer mission against blank white walls, recounts growing up in South Florida with intensive arts education, studying at Tufts/Museum School, and pivoting fully to art. He explains his mural process (client consultation, digital renderings, chalk outlines, no projection), materials (latex house paint), and working fast outdoors amid weather and public attention. He discusses live painting, painting on found glass and frames, and announces gallery representation with Greg Salvatori, including a street-facing mural and a show opening June 26 (up through July 3). They cover Carnival floats, past large-scale pieces, dream projects (Town Hall, water tower), and a brief speed round.

This week, we bring on Eric Lesh, a figurative artist now in his fifth season, describes his path from musical theater to LGBTQ rights law (including work at Lambda Legal and directing the LGBT Bar Association of New York) and how figure drawing at the NYC LGBT Center and Zoom sessions during the pandemic grew into commissions and queer art fairs like Barnwood and Art Gaysel. He explains his whimsical, expressive line-based nude work and influences (Al Hirschfeld, Keith Haring, Jean Cocteau), his shift from digital to acrylics and oils, and his business model of private live portrait sessions and group commissions. He discusses managing public reactions to nudity, hosting pop-up artists, running the Tuesday life drawing group at the Gifford House, and serving as president of the Provincetown Business Guild to help sustain Provincetown’s queer identity.

This week, we welcomed returning guest Christine McCarthy of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) plus Elaine Grossman and Daniel Sagalyn to discuss the exhibition “Avital Sagalyn: Mid-Century Provincetown,” on view through August 2, 2026. McCarthy describes the exhibitions committee’s excitement at discovering Sagalyn’s “breathtaking” works and their maturity for an artist in her 20s. Daniel and Elaine explain Sagalyn’s life: born in 1925 in Palestine under the British mandate, raised in Brussels, fled WWII to the U.S. in 1941, studied art via MoMA teen classes and later Cooper Union, and worked in Provincetown in 1945–46 amid the Hofmann era. They recount her Fulbright to Paris, encounters with major artists including Picasso, and an Admiral McMillan/Monhegan Island story, while noting she rarely exhibited until late-life encouragement led to a UMass show and now PAAM. Resources include avitalsagalyn.com, @avitalsagalyn on Instagram, and PAAM.org, with related Outer Cape Chamber Orchestra concerts.