Martha’s Vineyard was well represented this past Sunday on Channel 5’s City Line program. The television host and award-winning commentator Karen Holmes Ward is an Oak Bluffs resident. Her special guests were Heather Seger, newly-minted executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, and Olivia Baxter, the indefatigable president of The Cottagers. Much of the program was devoted to the history and the new five-year strategic plan of The Cottagers. This summer will mark the 65th year of The Cottagers, a venerable organization of African-American women driven by a rich legacy of community service to the Island, and public forums and events focusing on the African diaspora.

The museum has worked hard to diversify its exhibits and events and will be partnering with The Cottagers this summer. You can visit their exhibit at the museum and see memorabilia, pictures, programs and other historic items documenting this organization’s long thread of service to the Vineyard. In addition, this August, the organization’s membership will convene under a tent on the museum grounds to celebrate their anniversary, enjoying a sprawling array of foods contributed by some favorite Island restaurants.

Here is wishing the partnership between these two transformative Island institutions all the very best.

Those who attended the arts stroll this past Saturday on Dukes County Road in the Arts District were treated to some terrific art work, refreshments and music to surround this two blocks of creative community.

Ralph Groce and wife Valerie Francis own the Knowhere Gallery in two locations. The Figuratively Seeing exhibit in their Dukes County space featured Andrea Grillo, Brian Booth Craig and Daryl Alexander, among others. Their works explore identity and remembrance through figurative work. Mediums include painting, sculpture and mixed media. The art work ranges from realistic, abstract, tangible, surreal and ethereal. It is a splendid display of artwork well worth the stroll.

Judith Drew Schubert takes the time to not only show you her Vineyard landscape paintings but shares her personal journey, ups and downs, as a farm hand, cleaning lady, kitchen sales representative and textile designer on her way to concluding that her real passion was being an artist. Please stop by and see her work.

Alison Shaw is a very creative artist as she decides on specific subjects to photograph. Aviation enthusiasts will love her photo of a vintage red two-seater bi-plane sitting in front of an old airplane hanger at Katama Airfield. Established in 1924, this landing facility has retained its original look and utility. Speaking of vintage, Alison has a series of large rowboat shots that depict chipped and fading paint on interior or exterior bottoms. These pictures were taken by hanging over the edge of the docks with special cameras and the underbelly shots caught the boats leaning on the side of a wall. A new edition to her gallery is a continuous video screen facing the entrance to the gallery that now permits her to show many art pieces at once.

The Union Chapel forum series will be off to an exciting start this season with a conversation with Professor Nikole Hannah-Jones and Professor Michael Eric Dyson responding to the old query posed by the late Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On. Fifty years later. Professor Nikole is the brilliant MacArthur Fellow who won the Pulitzer Prize for her transformative work on the 1619 Project. She has recently become the inaugural Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University. Dyson, no stranger to the Vineyard, is a professor in the College of Arts and Science and in the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University. The discussion will be held on July 29 at 4 p.m. at Union Chapel. You will not want to miss this historic meeting.

Paradise on earth is living the Vineyard experience. Enjoy it as life is fleeting.