A concert of food: I had a wonderful two-week vacation recently, during which I had the extremely fortunate opportunity of having dinner on the evening of June 20 at The Lost Kitchen in Freedom with my son, Benjamin, who was visiting from Germany.

Mural unveiling in Damariscotta: Well-known Edgecomb artist and educator Brady Nickerson popped in to the LCN recently to tell me about the new mural to be installed on the side of S. Fernald’s Country Store in downtown Damariscotta. It is the work of up-and-coming 23-year-old Bremen painter Katie Riley and is a wonderfully colorful and cartoony depiction of sandwich ingredients – bread, cheese, bacon, tomatoes – and all the other yumminess that Fernald’s sells, such as ice cream and candy.

Renaissance man (and fiddle-playing leprechaun): Damon Leibert has been the technical director at Lincoln Theater in Damariscotta since September 2017. As such, he is the go-to man for making sure the nuts and bolts of the building – lights, windows, toilets, and so on – are in order. He is also responsible for such things as creating the beautiful stained glass projections used in LCCT’s recent production of “Sister Act” at the theater.

Hangin’ with the Hulk’s mom: Last Friday, May 24, my colleague here at the LCN, Kathy Lizotte, tipped me off to the buzz going around Facebook, namely that abstract painter Marie Rose Ruffalo has an art exhibit on the walls of Red Cup Coffee House in Boothbay Harbor.

Art abounds in Lincoln County: As gallery season is about to really hit, it’s good to be reminded that in addition to the fabulous big visual-art venues in the area – for example, the four Bristol Road Galleries, Stable Gallery, and River Arts in Damariscotta, and Saltwater Artists Gallery and Pemaquid Art Gallery down the Bristol-Pemaquid peninsula – there are smaller, more unexpected places to view excellent art. The Bristol Area Library, located at 619 Old County Road in Pemaquid, is one such spot.  

The art of speaking, listening, imagining: “You may choose to listen as opposed to watch.” Those were the words of Griff Braley, Heartwood Regional Theater Company’s artistic director, when he introduced the dramatic staged reading of “Medea” about to begin on the afternoon of Saturday, May 11 in the Parker B. Poe Theater at Lincoln Academy.

Mother’s Day music: When I reached British singer-songwriter Callaghan by phone on Friday, May 3, she was on the road, fresh off of a gig the previous night at the Museum of Commerce in Pensacola, Fla. and soon to be performing at the Standard Deluxe in Waverly, Ala., on May 5. 

Fun, intimate community theater: I love going to River Company plays in Skidompha Library’s Porter Meeting Hall. I like to sit in the front row of the cozy, intimate space, basking in the feeling of being immersed in the story being played out mere feet away from me.

Art in the country: There’s an art show on the walls of the community room at Sheepscot General – that oasis of goodness smack-dab in the middle of the beautiful rolling farmland of Whitefield – that is really worth spending some time checking out. It’s an exhibit of work – lots of it – by the employees at the rural cafe, store, and farm, and it gives one insight into what makes those nice folks tick.

GSB advanced chorus sails on: I had another great arts tip fall into my lap this past week when Anne Plummer, who teaches fourth grade at Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta, wrote me an email about an impressive project recently completed by the advanced chorus at GSB.

Get up, get moving: One of my readers, Carol Teel, who serves as artistic director for local senior song-and-dance troupe Hearts Ever Young, among other things, suggested I check out the Conductorcise event on Saturday morning, April 6 at Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta.

More fine student art: Andrea Cough, who is the art teacher at Bristol Consolidated School, emailed me to say that she had read my recent “Artsbeat” column about the Lincoln Academy IDEAL art show at Rising Tide Co-op in Damariscotta and to let me know that some of her pre-K through eighth-grade art students have a show up at the Bristol Area Library.