###LINK### The July/August, 2006 issue of Artscope Magazine Brattleboro, Vermont is the kind of town where skateboarding street punks rub elbows with ancient bearded fiddle players. Just over the Mass Line off Interstate 91, it is an arts town with grit. Their American Gothic Main Street hosts a rag tag bootstrap collective of inventive entrepreneurs with one boot fixed in the affairs of commerce and the other tap-dancing in the world of the arts. Greg Morell The Banks Gallery<br>123 State Street<br>Portsmouth, New Hampshire<br>August 4 through September 3<br>Wind and water, waves and light, stone, sun and season are ever-present ingredients of New Hampshire&rsquo;s brief but intensely dramatic coast. Venturing offshore from Portsmouth about 10 miles, through roiling surf and past rocky underwater ledges, are nine small and nearly deserted islands astride the invisible intersection of Maine and New Hampshire borders. With dramatic vistas and sprawling beach roses, the Isles of Shoals have long held allure for creative wanderers. Rick Agrin Pucker Gallery<br>171 Newbury Street<br>Boston<br>July 15 through September 3<br>Every summer the Pucker Gallery assembles artists that have shown at the gallery over the previous year and exhibits a selection of their work as a group show. This year marks the 39th year for the gallery whose collection takes us on a visual journey through the work of over 25 artists, spanning the globe and in every medium. Engaging both the &ldquo;spirit and mind,&rdquo; the objects on view, which include collections of South African and Inuit art, are remarkably diverse in their sources of inspiration, their medium of expression and in their aesthetic. What follows is a mere sampling. Britt Beedenbender Nielsen Gallery<br>179 Newbury Street<br>Boston<br>Through August 5<br>The Nielson Gallery&rsquo;s Annual Summer Show 2006 is a show filled with verve and steady talent that will make it worth your while to venture beyond the dilatory bliss of your garden gate or favorite green park and visit the more arduous delights of Newbury Street. James Foritano R. Michelson Gallery<br>132 Main Street<br>Northampton, MA<br>Through September 2006<br>During the unveiling of his new art book &ldquo;Disasters of Love: A Defense of Delilah&rdquo; at the R. Michelson Gallery in Northampton, artist Michael Kuch put himself in the role of Samson and had his long black locks severed from his head. Catherine Laferriere DeCordova Museum<br>51 Sandy Pond Road<br>Lincoln, MA<br>Through August 20<br>For the past 17 years, the DeCordova Museum has held an annual exhibition featuring the works of new, established, and emerging artists from all over the region. The museum sends out a call to artists and then hopes for the best. This year it&rsquo;s featuring the efforts of a baker&rsquo;s dozen of regional artists who are working in a variety of materials and media. The artists represented were chosen by the curatorial staff from over 200 unsolicited entries, and come from three New England states. Leon Nigrosh Peabody Essex Museum<br>East India Square<br>Salem, MA<br>Through September 4<br>Containing over 100 paintings by 82 artists and spanning the late 1850s to the present, &ldquo;Painting Summer in New England&rdquo; covers New England from Connecticut to Maine, from its rugged coasts to the rounded graces of its inland hills and valleys, from verdant summer sanctuaries to the sweltering haunts of city-bound immigrants. It is by turns nostalgic, lyrical, mordant, problematic and meditative depending upon whose shoulder you happen to be looking over. James Foritano Cambridge Arts Council Gallery<br>344 BroadwayCambridge, MA<br>Through August 18</p><p>Public plaza design<br>Porter Square, Cambridge<br>Ongoing</p><p>A 10,000 sq. foot, large-scale landscape installation for an elongation of public space must consider numerous critical factors from the practical to the symbolic before it is transformed into a spiritual oasis carved out of a busy, convoluted urban setting. Frank W. Liu July 7 through September 3, 2006<br>Chain of Events: Marcel Breuer to Charles Jencks, Modernist Architecture on the Outer Cape<br>August 18 through October 15</p><p>Provincetown Art Association and Museum<br>460 Commercial Street<br>Provincetown<br>As the second oldest art association in the country, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum is one of the preeminent promoters of art on Cape Cod, cultivating and educating the public about the region&rsquo;s rich cultural legacy and vibrant artistic community. Its collection numbers over 2,000 and represents more than 600 artists who have worked on the outer Cape since 1900. With an eye towards form follows function combined with a 21st century imperative of environmental responsibility PAA has undergone a major transformation that is a model for replication. Britt Beedenbender Museum of Fine Arts, Boston<br>Avenue of the Arts 465 Huntington Avenue<br>Through September 17<br>&ldquo;Laura McPhee: River of No Return&rdquo; is a thoughtful exploration of classic dilemmas in a modern context. Photographed in beautifully vivid scenes depicting central Idaho&rsquo;s Sawtooth Valley, McPhee attempts to present her view on humanity&rsquo;s interaction with nature. George Gerard Inspired people often shape their whole lives around a single idea. For Juri Panda Jones, it&rsquo;s the transformative power of music. Through her non-profit organization, Genuine Voices, Inc. she hopes to establish programs nationally to teach music and sequencing to incarcerated youth in lock downs with troubled pasts and shaky futures. Roanna Forman basket [r]evolution<br>Through September 10</p><p>Daniel Clayman: Line, Form, Shadow<br>Through October 1</p><p>Fuller Craft Museum<br>455 Oak Street<br>Brockton, MA<br>Set on a beautiful 22-acre campus and sculpture garden nestled on the shores of a pond, the Fuller Craft Museum currently offers two exhibitions that are engaging, witty, cerebral and highly original. Britt Beedenbender Brush Art Gallery<br>256 Market Street<br>Lowell<br>Through July 30<br>Showcasing the works of Pamela Wamala, Leslie MacPhail, Frances Killam, and Steve Noroian, this exhibit includes pieces from all artists at the Brush. Roanna Forman In the late 1960s, Steve Nelson managed the Boston Tea Party, the Hub&rsquo;s equivalent of San Francisco&rsquo;s Fillmore Auditorium. Nelson&rsquo;s stint there gave him access to many fascinating subjects and area musicians whom he photographed. However, it wasn&rsquo;t until his 2003 exhibition &ldquo;The Square: Stills From The Scene, Harvard Square and Cambridge 1967-1973&rdquo; that many people got to see them. Nancy L. Foster Monsieur Chopin<br>Written and Performed by Hershey Felder</p><p>American Repertory Theatre<br>Loeb Drama Center<br>Harvard University<br>64 Brattle Street<br>Cambridge, MA<br>Through July 7</p><p>Hartford Stage<br>50 Church Street<br>Hartford, CT<br>August 4 through 13<br>As I entered the Loeb Drama Center for opening night (June 15) of ART&rsquo;s presentation of Hershey Felder as &ldquo;Monsieur Chopin,&rdquo; I felt as if I were an honored guest in an opulent Parisian salon. We are told that we are here to receive piano lesson just days after the failed Revolution. The centerpiece of the salon, of course, was a beautiful Steinway And Bros. grand piano. There was also a small table with a water pitcher and a hand towel that he used for washing his fingers. Thus Chopin stressed the importance of approaching the keys respectfully, even reverently with clean hands. Nancy L. Foster Berta Walker Gallery<br>208 Bradford Street<br>Provincetown<br>Not every gallery in Provincetown sits on its main street. In fact, the Berta Walker Gallery, which proudly bills itself as &ldquo;presenting the history of American art as seen through the eyes of Provincetown&rdquo; is happy to be a few blocks away, an easy stop on the way in or out of town with a guaranteed parking space awaiting you. Paintings by Carlos Estrada-Vega<br>July 21 through August 10</p><p>Photographs by Joanne Dugan<br>August 11 through 24</p><p>Ernden Fine Art Gallery<br>397 Commercial Street<br>Provincetown<br>While Ernden&rsquo;s gallery roster of 14 artists is described as up and coming, there&rsquo;s nothing about their collective modern and contemporary paintings, sculpture, and photographs that suggests they&rsquo;re not already in the midst of their creative peak. Johniene Papandreas Gallery Voyeur<br>444 Commercial Street<br>Provincetown<br>Through Labor Day<br>While you wouldn&rsquo;t call it an extreme case of painter&rsquo;s block &ndash; she had spent much of the period as a theatrical designer &ndash; Johniene Papandreas returned to painting for the first time in 25 years in 2002. Soon afterwards, her huge paintings began to fill Gallery Voyeur&rsquo;s East End windows, almost demanding everyone passing by stop and take a look. Johniene Papandreas