The Art Colony

This week, we welcome Provincetown musician and artist Mike Flanagan, a full-time resident, who plays saxophone and piano, as well as multiple other instruments, studied music education at Berklee, earned a master’s in Music Education at NYU, and now is the entertainment director at Provincetown's Tin Pan Alley and Post Office Café.  He also teaches band, keyboard lab, and co-teaches Italian at the Provincetown School. Flanagan recounts his path from Brockton to Boston and New York, his early inspirations, and how drag performer Liza Lott helped connect him to Provincetown gigs.  He discusses managing rowdy piano-bar crowds, taking requests, and memorable audience moments, plus collaborating with singers and producing tribute and cabaret shows. He highlights Billboard-charting releases, a John Lennon Songwriting Competition win, and a 1M+ view YouTube video, and previews his Bear Week Town Hall concert “Bear Hug” on July 16.

This week, we welcome 20 Summers program director Alice Gong to discuss the Provincetown arts organization and its spring festival. She shares her path to the Outer Cape and explains that 20 Summers was founded about 15 years ago to honor and activate the historic Hawthorne Barn, built in 1906 by Charles Hawthorne as an art school and later used by generations of artists. Privately owned today, the barn is programmed by 20 Summers for five weeks a year with mostly free or suggested-donation conversations, concerts, workshops, installations, and a residency. The episode previews May–June 2026 highlights including Ecosystems and Imagination with Mark Adams, concerts, a Hawthorne-style painting class with John Clayton, residents’ events and installations, and new partnerships, while also describing year-round programming at the Stanley space, including the Media Diet installation through Memorial Day.

This week, we welcome artist, educator, curator, and arts administrator Burt Yarborough to discuss his six-decade relationship with Provincetown and the Fine Arts Work Center (FAWC). Yarborough recounts coming to Provincetown in 1976 after studies in architecture and photography, his FAWC fellowship, and how the center’s early, unrenovated lumber-yard facilities and local visual committee shaped artists through time, space, and support. He describes making site-specific work in the dunes, later shifting from photography and abstraction toward more figurative, emotionally driven painting, and a Fulbright year in Nigeria studying Yoruba carving that influenced his materials and imagery. Yarborough explains his current process using reactive dyes, acrylics, inks, and occasional bleach, previews a mural commission, notes exhibitions and a PAAM studio visit, and shares memories of living three summers in a dune shack.

The Drag Philanthropist with Mackenzie

Gaston welcomes multifaceted percussionist, singer, and innkeeper Brian Calhoun to discuss music in Provincetown and Brian’s path to the marimba. Brian describes his musical family, early piano and drum set lessons, and discovering marimba.

The Art Colony Podcast welcome Cherie Mittenthal, artist and Executive Director of the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill. We take a journey through the long history of Castle Hill, and talk about the myriad offerings of classes at the center. We also discuss Cherie’s art, especially her passion for welding, pottery and encaustic. And this leads us to review the annual International Encaustic Conference happening in Provincetown and Truro this May for its 19th year. 

Gaston invites PJ Kierans, a PTown chocolatier, on this week to discuss the mastery and artistry of chocolate making. PJ, who hails from London and trained in culinary arts in the UK and the Netherlands, explains his journey from a busy restaurant kitchen to becoming a full-time chocolatier in Provincetown. He delves into the intricacies of chocolate production, from the fermentation of cocoa beans to creative flavor combinations like thyme and tangerine or cranberry cabernet. The episode also touches on the impact of climate change on cocoa supply and the future of chocolate. PJ shares his unique experiences and innovative creations, including his viral lobster-flavored chocolate bar.

Artist at Work - Trevor Mikula

Phil Jimenez, a celebrated comic book artist, shares his artistic journey and the influence of Provincetown on his work. Phil discusses his early inspirations from TV shows, comic books, and his dedication to breaking into the industry through comic conventions and persistent networking. He highlights major projects, including working on iconic characters like Wonder Woman and the X-Men, and transitioning to digital art for improved detail. 

Action, Activism, and Performance with Jay Critchley

Gaston interviews Sian Robertson, a distinct artist known for her unique style of cutting intricate designs out of maps. 

This week, Gaston talks to musician, singer, actor, all-around great guy, Jonathan Richardson. We more learn about his journey toward becoming a musician, and his arrival in Provincetown in the 2010s. In the second half of the interview, they talk at length about Jonathan’s new musical, “The Jack of Hearts Club,” which premiered to great acclaim at the Provincetown Theater in the fall of 2025, and will return for the summer of 2026.

Grace Hopkins discusses the history and proliferation of art galleries in Provincetown. She shares insights about her father, an abstract expressionist painter and his unconventional methods in curating art shows. She recounts memorable incidents at HCE Gallery, including controversial exhibitions and humorous anecdotes such as an artist cutting out all works but his own. The discussion also touches on art pricing and the dynamics of gallery operations.