End of the world

Between dunes and sky, between art and disco, Provincetown performs its lovely balancing act

by Loren King

Surrounded by sea, dunes, and sky, at the tip of Massachusetts, Provincetown is the quintessential end-of-the-world destination, a magnet for seekers, escapees, and eccentrics of all kinds.

They come for the isolation and the freedom, for Provincetown's natural beauty and its diversity. Right now, though, there's more diversity than isolation -- because August is high season, the busiest and most colorful month in a colorful town. The tourism slows a little after Labor Day, but Provincetown remains bustling through October, as the beautiful fall weekends bring visitors from Boston, from New York, and from the hinterlands.

A town whose independent roots date to the Mayflower (Provincetown, not Plymouth, was the first landing place for the Pilgrims), Provincetown has always served as a refuge. Since the turn of the century, artists and writers have flocked to this tiny fishing village. Charles Hawthorne arrived in 1899 and for 30 summers taught painting to hundreds of students. Others -- most notably Hans Hofmann -- later established their own schools. Provincetown's reputation as a haven for artists and writers endures to this day, with the Fine Arts Work Center awarding fellowships and nurturing talent, and galleries both prestigious and funky, showcasing art that ranges from traditional landscapes to sculptures fashioned from plastic dolls (see "Where the Art Is").

As with any locale that draws artists and performers, Provincetown has long attracted gays and lesbians, many of whom settled in and made Provincetown their home. The 1960s and 1970s brought hordes of hippies. And the 1980s, as many will lament, brought real-estate developers who saw dollar signs in Provincetown's limited housing stock. (Though stricter building regulations have since regulated the rate of growth, Provincetown is still recovering from the condominium and subdivision boom.)

All of these influences and changes have lent a schizophrenic feel to the place. But that's not always a bad thing; in its best moments Provincetown represents an idyllic mingling of disparate communities. It's a town where fourth-generation fishermen, their skin leathery from the salt and sand, attend AIDS fundraisers; where the cashier at the A&P is likely to have a PhD; where former corporate executives happily run guesthouses. The streets in summer are dotted with kids with nose rings, six-foot-tall drag queens in sequined dresses, scantily clad muscle boys on rollerblades, women with shaved heads, and elderly tourists aiming their camcorders at it all as they wait for their chartered bus. It is a town where a springtime ritual for all residents is the Provincetown High School senior prom. Young, old, gay, straight, native, and "washashore" gather in front of Town Hall to watch the local kids in gowns and tuxes pile out of limos, waving and beaming to the assembled congregation.

---

Where the art is
P-town after dark
Where to stay
Getting (further) away from it all
P-town dining roundup
On the cheap
P-town links

---