Artistic Quality

Art without the attitude

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t’s not much to look at from the outside, hidden as it is in its modern building on a side street just off Wellfleet’s picturesque main drag, but the Blue Heron Gallery makes up for this on the inside with a large and spellbinding selection of contemporary American art in mediums including acrylic, pastel, watercolor, and photography shown in a bright, welcoming, and relaxed two-level gallery that goes out of its way to make the experience of browsing unintimidating—exactly the opposite of what many other galleries seem designed to do.

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While you’re feeling artsy, check out the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, known for staging world premieres and other works by playwrights including David Mamet, Sam Shepard, David Rabe, and Frank Speiser, in its $6.8 million, state-of-the-art theater dedicated by the actress Julie Harris, who lived (and died) in Chatham and for whom one of its stages is named. WHAT’s artistic director is Jeff Zinn, son of the historian Howard Zinn.