The Art Colony

Robert Motherwell in Provincetown with Lise Motherwell

The Artist and The Sail Loft with Elspeth Slayter

This week, we welcome artist Steven Wells, who grew up in Truro and describes the privilege and “magic” of Provincetown, its community, light, and energy. He discusses a supportive, tool-filled upbringing influenced by his father’s blacksmithing and biochar work, his siblings’ creative paths, and his own wide-ranging practice (woodworking, leatherworking, ceramics, metalwork) that feeds into paint...

Eugene O’Neill in Provincetown with Joe Paprzycki

The Master of Disguise with Eric Auger

This week, we interviewed artist Paul Rizzo, a year-round resident and “process painter” known for a distinctive personal style and unmistakable work. Rizzo recounts growing up in Marshfield, studying painting at MassArt, formative childhood art classes, a semester in Pont-Aven, France during his father’s sudden death, and moving to Provincetown (first summer 2011, year-round 2012). He describes e...

The amazingly talented Qya Cristál joins us this week on The Art Colony podcast! Qya describes early musical roots singing Whitney Houston at age three, performing in an adult church choir, growing up in Missouri with a musician father, and being inspired by her polished, powerful grandmother. She discusses a strict Southern Baptist upbringing, coming out, evolving identity exploration, and rebuil...

This week, we welcome Provincetown artist Midge Battelle to The Art Colony after buying her painting at her solo show at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (on view until Oct. 25). Battelle, a working-class Worcester native who first came to Provincetown in 1966, describes her path from cooking and gallery work (with Hilda Neely and at the Schoolhouse complex) to earning a BFA in Photogra...

This week, we welcome poet Jeffrey Berg to The Art Colony podcast to  discuss Provincetown’s poetry community. He shares his background (born 1980, raised in South Carolina and Virginia, studied at VCU, earned an NYU MFA, lived in New York since 2004, and has spent summers in Provincetown since 2023 with his husband Colin) and describes his poetry as rooted in memory, popular culture, film, m...

This week, we interviewed Provincetown native gallerist/curator Russ LaMontagne about growing up in the West End, early exposure to artists and local haunts, and how Provincetown has changed culturally and economically while remaining defined by art. He recounts co-founding a New York gallery in 2000, later opening LaMontagne Gallery in Boston in 2007, and discusses shifts in the gallery world and...

This week, we welcome Provincetown artist and Fine Arts Work Center arts administrator Naya Bricher ahead of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) annual gala, where she will be honored for Excellence in the Arts. Bricher describes her colorful oil paintings rooted in joy, featuring digitally collaged and projected imagery such as desserts, animals, and hands, influenced by childhood...

Provincetown arts patron and fundraiser Gabby Hanna joins us this week as we talk about her background and work building platforms for the arts. Hanna, raised in Boston by an artist-psychologist mother and engineer-musician father, studied music before transferring to Barnard; after a friend’s AIDS-related death, she shifted toward nonprofit development, AIDS work, politics, and activism, includin...

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 Gal...

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, bui...

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 select...

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 le...

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 w...

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, D...

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 bein...

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 full...

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 whims...

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 20...

We have finally brought in the amazingly talented performer and artist Ryan Landry to talk about his life and work. Landry recounts growing up in Wallingford, Connecticut, moving to New York City, and arriving in Provincetown in 1979, describing the town’s earlier “Wild West” atmosphere and his early jobs. He explains how his prop-heavy performances in “Puttin’ On The Hits” led him to create the l...

This week, we interview Cole Cook, a sculptor who was born in New York, raised in Los Angeles by actor parents, and spent summers on Cape Cod. Cook describes being shepherded into baseball, playing professionally across all minor-league levels, then becoming unhappy and eventually leaving the sport after an eye-opening trip around artists in New York. After studying improv at UCB, writing, and wor...

This week, we welcome author, editor, and publisher Russ Lopez to The Art Colony to discuss his new book, Provincetown Stories. Lopez recounts first visiting Provincetown in January 1981, returning for decades with his husband, and eventually buying a home before COVID, while noting changes such as higher costs, heavier tourism, and evolving attitudes around race and performance. He describes his...