Soup Kitchen to Open with New Chef

The Soup Kitchen in Provincetown (SKIP) will begin its 2021-22 season on Monday, November 1, with a new executive chef and initiatives focused on volunteer operations and community outreach. If current COVID regulations remain unchanged, indoor dining will resume at SKIP’s home in the Provincetown United Methodist Church (PUMC) on Shank Painter Road. Bagged “to-go” meals will once again be available for those who choose to forego indoor dining.

The SKIP Board of Directors has named Peter Fisher its new executive chef. After visiting Provincetown for more than 30 years, Fisher became a full-time resident some two years ago, drawn to the community’s openness and diversity. As part of his culinary career, Fisher, a former teacher, worked in the kitchens of prominent restaurants in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His posts have included sous chef and banquet chef, overseeing multiple meals for weddings and parties. At a Portsmouth trattoria, he devised menus inspired by various Tuscany villages.

Fisher also owned and operated a New York State deli, preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The catering work he began there continued in Boston, where he became acquainted with Julia Child and worked with several celebrated New England chefs. Locally, Fisher cooked for 100 guests as part of an event held at the Provincetown Monument and Museum. Among other contributions to the community, he has been a regular volunteer for the thrift shop of the PUMC, where SKIP is located.

“In my role at SKIP, I get to do something I’ve always been passionate about: bringing people and food together,” said Fisher. “I’m delighted to work with a dedicated team of volunteers and staff.”

Besides the appointment of a new chef, SKIP is revamping its scheduling system to bring greater efficiency to daily volunteer staffing. The plan will be detailed at SKIP’s volunteer orientation meeting on October 19, 11a.m., at the PUMC. Those seeking volunteer information or who wish to sign up prior to the meeting are asked to visit skipfood.org.

New initiatives also include an email newsletter, SKIP SCOOP, for better communication among guests and those interested in learning more about SKIP programs.  Anyone wishing to receive this publication may add their email address to the newsletter list on the organization’s website.

“The entire board of SKIP, its staff, and volunteers are looking forward to another season of serving the Outer Cape community,” 
said Board Chairperson Philip Franchini. “We believe we’re 
well-positioned to maintain our goals of being both a source of nutritious meals and community engagement during the long 
off-season.”

From a few dozen meals a day when it was founded in 1992, SKIP now serves more than 15,000 meals per season. Prior to COVID-imposed restrictions, SKIP’s weekday lunches had become a popular meeting place for Outer Cape residents from November through April.

2021-2022 FAWC Fellows Have Arrived

The Fine Arts Work Center (FAWC) is pleased to announce its incoming 2021-2022 Fellows, an exceptional group of emerging artists and writers selected from a pool of more than 1300 applicants from across the globe. It is an honor to share the names of the 2021-2022 Fellows.

The 2021-2022 Fiction Fellowships were awarded to Shastri Akella of Amherst, Mass.; Sterling HolyWhiteMountain of Blackfeet Reservation Vedran Husić of Tampa, Fla. (returning, second-year Fellow); Gothataone Moen of Serowe, Botswana; and Zeynep Özakat of Istanbul, Turkey.

The 2021-2022 Poetry Fellowships were awarded to Laura Cresté of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Tracy Fuad of Berlin, Germany; Eduardo Martinez-Leyva of Washington, D.C.; Samyak Shertok of Salt Lake City, Utah; and H.R. Webster of Ypsilanti, Mich. (returning, second-year Fellow).

The 2021-2022 Visual Arts Fellowships were awarded to Kevin Brisco Jr. of Memphis, Tenn.; Widline Cadet of New York, N.Y.; Sara Emsaki of New Haven, Conn.; Nick Fagan of Richmond, Va.; Elizabeth Flood of Hamilton, N.Y.; Lavaughan Jenkins of Boston, Mass.; Peter Pothoven of Amsterdam, Netherlands (returning, second-year Fellow); Tinja Ruusuvuori of Glasgow, U.K.; and Sichong Xie of Pasadena, Calif.

The Work Center is also pleased to welcome painter and master printer Andrew Mockler as incoming Chair of the Visual Arts Committee and poet Mark Wunderlich as Chair of the Writing Committee. The Visual Arts and Writing Committees are vital to the successful administration of the Work Center’s signature Fellowship.

Mockler is a painter and master printer living in Brooklyn, N.Y. At his printmaking workshop, Jungle Press Editions, Andrew collaborates with artists in lithography, etching, woodcut, and monoprint. He has taught at Yale School of Art, RISD, Columbia University, and Hunter College. He has lectured at Cornell University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Christie’s New York, and The Baltimore Museum of Art. He had a fellowship at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown in 1990-91. His works in painting and printmaking have been exhibited in galleries and museums, including The Addison Gallery of American Art, The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, George Billis Gallery (New York and Los Angeles), and Metaphor Gallery (Brooklyn).

Wunderlich is the author of four books of poems, the most recent of which is God of Nothingness, published earlier this year by Graywolf Press. He is the director of the Bennington Writing Seminars graduate writing program and was named a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in poetry. He has twice been a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center.   

For over 50 years, the Work Center has annually welcomed 20 Fellows to its historic grounds in Provincetown, the nation’s oldest art community, for seven months, from October 1 through April 30, providing these artists and writers with uninterrupted time and space in which to make their work.

Fellows are selected in a blind, multi-round jury process purely based on the merits and promise of their submissions; while living in Provincetown, they receive housing, workspace, and a modest monthly stipend. The current financial value of an individual fellowship is approximately $55,000.

Past Fellows include artists Elliott Hundley, Jennifer Packer, Jacolby Satterwhite, and Lisa Yuskavage; poets Louise Glück, Major Jackson, Tyehimba Jess, and Yusef Komunyakaa; and fiction writers Michael Cunningham, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ann Patchett, and Jacqueline Woodson.

Like so many arts and cultural institutions, the Work Center has had to temporarily close its grounds due to public health concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The original start date for this year’s fellowship of October 1, 2020, has been postponed to October 1, 2021; the fellowship will conclude on April 30, 2022.

During the time the Work Center’s grounds were closed, the organization moved forward with an ambitious renovation of its campus, as part of a long-term facilities master plan. This phase of the project includes the transformation of the Stanley Kunitz Common Room, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, and courtyard. This transformation will make these spaces more accessible and welcoming to the public as well as the incoming Fellow class.

In the words of 2019 National Book Award winner and past Fellow Susan Choi: “Before I came to the Fine Arts Work Center, I hadn’t realized how much I longed for a homeland and a people and a folkways.” The Fine Arts Work Center continues to strengthen both its physical location and its institutional culture, in service of a vibrant and incomparable creative community for the next generation of artists and writers.

Deadline for Brewster Cultural Council is October 15

The deadline for grant applications to the Brewster Cultural Council (BCC) is October 15. BCC welcomes grant proposals from artists, nonprofits, and community groups for interesting, innovative, educational, creative, or entertaining projects that will serve members of our community or the Lower / Outer Cape as a whole. Projects may be of an artistic, historical, scientific, or cultural nature. Help with grant applications is available from the Massachusetts Cultural Council help desk at 617-858-2721 and at mass-culture.org.

This year the BCC has approximately $7000 to distribute. Typical allocations are between $200 and $700. Besides the intrinsic merit of the project, the Brewster Cultural Council takes into consideration whether the applicant is from Brewster, whether the project involves Brewster residents, whether the project takes place in Brewster or is easily accessible to Brewster residents, and if the project is of benefit to underserved members of our community.

For more information about the Brewster Cultural Council and the grant application process, visit massculturalcouncil.org/local-council/brewster.