Across the Vineyard, art galleries stand ready to start the summer with new shows and new ideas but seem united in anticipating a successful season. A sampling of gallery offerings reveals work from around the corner and around the world.

Perhaps the art that’s traveled the farthest to spend summer on the Vineyard is on State Road in Chilmark at Joan Merry’s Gossamer Gallery. Ms. Merry, known for years for her bridal flower business, has had a major career shift — she’s specializing in selling sculpture from Zimbabwe. Now occupying the building and grounds at the old Stanley Murphy Gallery, Ms. Merry’s collection is the result of several visits to Africa.

“I’d been on safari several times and then met an art authority who took me on a tour of Zimbabwe,” she said. “This art is used in yards in Zimbabwe and is made from a variety of stone like cobalt, opal stone, serpentine and springstone.”

Her gallery also includes work by artists David Geiger, Paul Brissette, Sandy Turner and Gordon Melbye.

At the Granary Gallery in West Tisbury, Robin Nagle expects a good season and says the gallery plans the same number of exhibits as last year. “We’ve asked our artists for fresh new paintings,” she said, and she is pleased with the response. She says some artists are trying to compensate for the state of the economy by doing smaller pieces. “But nothing is missing,” Ms. Nagle said while holding a new work by landscape artist Kenneth Vincent that measures 8 inches by 10 inches. His usual work can be four or five times that size. “Look how vibrant it is, and it’s still a Ken Vincent.”

Their first exhibit opens June 28 with an afternoon reception for photographer David Fokos, watercolor and acrylic artist Jack Goldsmith, and portrait artist Barry Rockwell. McAdoo Rugs will also have a display of hand-hooked heirloom rugs.

Their sister galleries, North Water Gallery in Edgartown and the Field Gallery in West Tisbury, also plan the same number of exhibits as last year. The Field Gallery opens its first exhibit with an afternoon reception on June 21 for photographer Jhenn Watts, landscape painter Jeff Hoerle, and jewelry designer Kenneth Pillsworth. The North Water Gallery will host Thursday evening receptions for their four summer shows beginning July 2 with works by Suzanne Crocker, Carrie Gustafson and Deborah Bays.

Also in West Tisbury, Saltwater Gallery owner Ashley Medowski opens this weekend with a quirky mixed media show incorporating Island history. “This year my work includes a series of constellations made out of rhinestones and set in wood, a monarch butterfly that’s like a puppet that you can make fly, and some antique lace stitched into canvas with jewelry and sea glass.” She also has her own personal take on the West Tisbury Congregational Church, the Mill Pond, the Islander, and a two-seater outhouse.

The Louisa Gould Gallery in Vineyard Haven is hosting a group show of new work of eight artists with a reception Saturday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. Artists include Ovid Ward, Maya Farber, John Holladay and Ellen Liman. “I’m seeing brighter colors in the work,” said gallery owner and photographer Louisa Gould, who is expecting a good season. “But the work is also tranquil; maybe not less complicated but just not as realistic. I think it’s all because of what’s going on in the world.” She notes that some of her photographs that sold recently were simple geometric landscapes and seascapes.

Ms. Gould’s next-door gallery is Simon Gallery, showing Peter Simon’s photography and Ronni Simon’s beaded jewlry; the gallery has reopened after water damage forced its closure this winter.

The Carol Craven Gallery opens for the season in Vineyard Haven today with new work by 18 artists including Kitty Cloud, John Neville, Gretchen Dow Simpson and Jules Worthington. Throughout the summer, the gallery hosts Sunday evening receptions for new exhibitions with the music of the jazz trio The CC3.

Featherstone Center for the Arts in Oak Bluffs has evolved into a year-round cultural center with not just art exhibits and courses but in summer an evening lecture series, a series of poetry readings, weekly musical events, and a popular children’s arts camp. The diversity extends to their gallery exhibits. “We’re having more special shows this season, like Putting the Art Before the Horse in August,” said director Francine Kelly. In this show, a group of painters, sculptors and photographers present their visions of how woodcarvers might have created carousel horses. Talks by carousel historian Barbara Charles and author and artist Murray Zimiles are part of the show.

Ms. Kelly also notes the July opening of a retrospective exhibit of the works of African American printmaker and painter Ann Tanksley, whose work includes a portfolio of monoprints based on the writings of Zora Neale Hurston. Their next show featuring Vineyard artists opens May 31 with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m.

In the Oak Bluffs Arts District on Dukes County avenue, new owners Don McKillop and Susan Davy are displaying art by Jill Shwaiko Bentz, Irma Cerese, and Carole LaRoche in a show called Beginnings that opened this week. They’ll host a reception to meet the artists tomorrow from 5 to 7 p.m. Another seven shows are planned through August with introductory artists’ receptions. PikNik shows their collection of art surrounded by some eclectic boutique offerings. Their first gallery show is oil paintings by Max Decker, which will open with an afternoon reception on June 20. Across the street, the Alison Shaw Gallery will open on Saturday with new and old works.

The stalwart on Circuit avenue, Cousen Rose Gallery, opens Saturday, with a group show including works by Deborah T. Colter, John Breckenridge, Robert Fitzgerald and Glenn Tunstull, plus fine art jewelry by M Allen Designs and Zelda Designs by Adrienne Childs. There also will be “wearable art” by Steve London and Myrna Morris.

In Edgartown, at least nine art galleries will again sponsor gallery strolls on two summer evenings; the galleries will stay open late the evenings of July 16 and August 13. Director Christina Cook of the Christina Gallery believes this is the fifth or sixth year for the event, which takes in such galleries as Willoughby Fine Art, Carlin, and Debra Gaines. “I think it’s going to be a pretty good season,” she said. “We’re getting positive feedback and we’ve been selling now.” She will show a number of new landscape artists this year and is pleased to have Vineyard landscape artist Marjorie Mason return. Her first opening is for John Traynor and John Powell with a reception the evening of July 9.

To help celebrate the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation’s 50th year, Ms. Cook is hosting a fundraiser July 25 and 26, where gallery artists and some unaffiliated artists will have a joint show and donate part of their proceeds to the foundation.

Eisenhauer Gallery owner Elizabeth Eisenhauer says she asked her artists to paint smaller pieces this year but as she unpacks new work, she’s noticed something else. “I think artists are spending more time on their work and it results in more thoughtful and complete work; there’s more going on in each piece,” she said. “I think artists are trying harder to make their work stand strong — it’s very emotionally satisfying.”

The gallery has put together several partnerships for the season; this weekend’s show with works by Cheri Christensen begins an association with the Farm Institute. Ms. Christensen frequently features farm animals in her work and has agreed to donate a portion of the proceeds from sales of her exhibit When Pigs Fly to the teaching farm. By cross-promoting to their separate constituents, the gallery and the farm hope to co-mingle support of the arts with support of the farm.

To mix in the musical arts, this Saturday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. Jeremy Berlin and Eric Johnson will be playing jazz for the show’s opening. Music continues in the courtyard with Mike Benjamin every Thursday evening from June through August to coincide with their Thursday evening receptions. Neighbors Chesca’s and the Colonial Inn are co-sponsors of this event.

The Old Sculpin Gallery on Dock street opens this weekend with a new show of old works. With the support of the Martha’s Vineyard Cultural Council and the Martha’s Vineyard Permanent Endowment Fund, the gallery has been able to reframe — or in many cases frame for the first time — works that have been in their permanent collection. “Some of these pieces date back to 1897 and have never been hung,” gallery manager Melissa Breese said. Now framed with proper archival materials, a mix of these works fills one gallery. One painting by Ruth Appledorn Mead titled Manuel’s Last Boat depicts the interior of the gallery when it was Manuel Swartz’s boat shop in the 19th century.

The Belushi Pisano Gallery has moved from Vineyard Haven to the corner of Kelley and Dock streets in Edgartown. Gallery assistant Veronica Modini said, “The space is smaller but brighter and has more foot traffic.” They will show many of the same artists from their old location and have a small collection of handbags, belts, and jewelry.

The Vineyard does not lack variety in its art offerings but Elizabeth Eisenhauer says she read some interesting advice in an arts trade magazine for this changed economy: don’t expect one customer to spend $10,000 but rather that four customers will spend $2,500 each.

For those with even less to spend, the annual All-Island Art show will fill the Tabernacle in the Camp Ground again, promising new discoveries and old favorites for sale and show, and the next day, the junior art show and its stick-on stars allow the youngest wielders of a paintbrush the discovery of their own promise.

And, Vineyard Artisans this weekend begin their summer-long festival of arts at the Grange in West Tisbury, offering bargains and works of beauty, a tradition combining arts, food and community.

All the while, Olga Hirshhorn and her team of thrift shop sleuths will be storing away items for that most Vineyard of arts events, the Chicken Alley Art Show.

There’ll be no excuse for a blank wall, after all.