Curators and the simply curious will enjoy the annual Arts District Stroll in Oak Bluffs tomorrow, August 10, from 4 to 7 p.m. All along Dukes County avenue, galleries will open their doors to visitors and offer a look at new work while providing refreshments and entertainment. Each gallery will serve up its own welcome.

Tonight the drums will beat in Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs — calling all dancers and lovers of dance to the 17th annual Built on Stilts festival.

Built on Stilts is a celebration of dance in all its forms. It runs from August 8 to 11 and again from August 17 to 20, and every night is free.

Peter Koszuta of Edgartown and Glastonbury, Conn., was recently awarded the rank of Eagle Scout. For his Eagle service project, Peter constructed a museum display showcasing the 100th anniversary of Eagle Scouts. In addition, he finished a display case and led troop members in constructing sandwich boards for the Historical Society of Glastonbury.

Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche leads a dharma talk on meditation tonight, August 9, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Yoga Barn, located on South Road in Chilmark. The talk focuses on creating space in daily life.

Rinpoche is one of the heads of the Taklung Kagyu Lineage. He is abbot of several monasteries in Nepal, assists monasteries and practice centers in Tibet and heads dharma centers in North America and Asia. His teachings are nonsectarian, combining the teachings of the Vajrayana, Mahayana and Theravada.

A thin crescent moon appears under the bright planet Venus tonight. Take a look about a half hour after sunset. The two appear just above the glow of where the sun has set and it is a pretty scene.

More and more observers will see the crescent moon in the nights ahead when it is higher in the sky. The moon is to the left of Venus tomorrow night. Both are about the same height above the horizon.

The western sky gets prettier on Sunday night when the moon is even higher in the southwestern sky, but it is also close to the ringed-planet Saturn.

Family Dance-O-Bama, a special edition all-ages disco party at 4 to 6 p.m. at Flatbread Company next to the airport in Edgartown. Free admission. Call 508-693-1137.

Has the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard been listed in the Best of the Vineyard? From the number of visitors walking through the doors lately, the shelter is the place to visit while on-Island. All the pets have been thriving on the human attention. Even Michael, the most reclusive of cats, has emerged from his hidey-hole to be admired. He has been joined in the cat room by Genevieve, a three-year-old tabby who has been an indoor cat throughout her life.

The town of Oak Bluffs has re-opened two Lagoon Pond beaches Monday morning to swimming. Medeiros Cove off the Sailing Camp Park and the drawbridge beach at Eastville were closed last week when water samples revealed high counts of enterococci, a bacteria that can indicate the presence of fecal contamination. Follow-up tests this week confirmed that water quality now meets state standards.

For her 60th birthday, Margot Datz gifted herself the ultimate luxury.

“I gave myself the time to paint 12 hearts,” Ms. Datz said of her new collection, The Illuminated Heart.

“It was a personal project 10 years in the yearning,” she said. “Not 10 years in the making, because I painted them this summer, 10 years in the yearning, because the ideas have been in my head for years.”

A dozen detailed hearts make up The Illuminated Heart, which will be on display for one night only at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury on August 10.

For Stephanie Yakely Danforth art is her second career.  She was a pediatric nurse practitioner for 20 years. In 2000, she traveled to Kenya and had an epiphany.

“My soul was touched forever by my experience there,” she said. “Since then, every dollar I make with my art goes directly to help provide education for children in need. My years in pediatrics and art blend together to make the purpose of my creating art even more profound to me. I love creating my art but my art allows me to help change lives.”