Making Light: A Conversation with Artists on Sustaining Creativity, Courage, and Connection in Difficult Times

I don’t have to tell you how frightening this time is. I’ve had to really force myself every day to move out of that fear and back into a space in which I can create. You may be experiencing something similar. I felt that we as creatives needed to have some conversations about it. To support each other. To find ways to carry on. And so I created a program called Making Light—because in dark times, artists make light.

We meet monthly at the Provincetown Commons (46 Bradford St., Provincetown, MA) and have a conversation together—visual artists, musicians, writers, poets, performers—to support our own practices as well as those of everyone in our community. Everyone is welcome to participate.

Dates are as follows; the time is 6:00pm:

Dec. 16
Cody Sullivan, Jon Richardson, & Sheryl Jaffee

Jan 20
Heidi Jon Schmidt, Jay Critchley, & Dinah Mellin

Other dates: Feb. 17, Mar. 17, Apr. 21, May 19, June 23

As I fill in topics and panelists, I’ll include that information here. I’m also updating this page regularly with resources; if there’s something you’d like to share, feel free to send it to me at jeannettedebeauvoir@gmail.com.

December 16, 6:00pm

Cody Sullivan is a playmaker based out of Provincetown. His community theater project CODY PLAYS runs weekly in the summer and monthly in the off season, Mondays at 7pm in the Wilde at the Gifford House. His work is supported by the Provincetown Cultural Council, The Commons Changemakers Grant Cycle 2025 and the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod. More information on his work can be found at codyplays.com.

Jon Richardson is a pianist, singer, and writer based in Provincetown. He holds a master’s degree from New England Conservatory and a bachelor’s in history from Grinnell College. Originally from the Twin Cities, he grew up immersed in musical theater from the age of eight. Since moving to Provincetown in 2017, Jon has released four albums of original music, has performed hundreds of shows annually, and is half of the "gay Simon and Garfunkel" duo of Donnelley and Richardson. His first musical, The Jack Of Hearts Club, recently played to sold-out shows and garnered enthusiastic critical acclaim.

Sheryl Jaffee has been exhibiting her artwork throughout New York and New England for over 30 years. She works with organic materials, handmade paper from local and exotic plant fibers, and found objects to create two- and three-dimensional works. She studied traditional hand papermaking in Japan and China and has taught papermaking worldwide. She has a Masters degree in Art Education and a BA in Multicultural Art Education, both from the University of Massachusetts. She volunteers in the community with the ArtPeace Makers, the MLK Action Team and in bringing Wampanoag Culture and Education to the Outer Cape.

January 20, 6:00pm

Heidi Jon Schmidt is the author of five novels and story collections, including The House on Oyster Creek and The Harbormasters Daughter, both set on the Outer Cape, where she has lived since 1982. She has also written for The Atlantic and the NYT among other publications. On Night Owl, her Substack column, she promotes a culture of empathy, hope, and truth— the antidotes to fascism with weekly essays and current news roundups. heidijonschmidt.com

Jay Critchley’s visual, conceptual, and performance work and environmental activism have traversed the globe, showing and/or performing in Argentina, Japan, England, Holland, Germany, Columbia and the United States. His social art practice includes running the Provincetown Community Compact, which works with artists and the environment and sponsors the annual Provincetown Harbor Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla, a fundraiser for AIDS and women’s health, founded in 1988.

Dinah Mellin was classically trained on violin, and has played with the Cape Cod Fiddlers and various other bands over the decades. She is the founder of Allegretto Outreach, a group that took music demo programs to Cape Cod schools. Brick Hill House Concerts, where folks can hear every note, take place regularly in Dinah’s living room. She is a host of The Fiddle and the Harp on community radio station WOMR.

Past Events

Check out past events on the Making Light: Past Events page.

Resources

  • “Seek joy in each dawn that breaks—let it be your daily practice, your sacred ritual, your intentional act of defiance against the weight of the world. Make it your healer, your compass, your quiet revolution against despair and all that would diminish the spark within you.” (Gurdeep Pandher)

  • “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair. No place for self-pity. No need for silence. No room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” (Toni Morrison)

  • “The promise of change drives creativity everywhere. Those happy with the world and the status quo don’t strive to make things anew, as they’re content with what exists.” (Hrag Vartanian)

  • Artists nationwide unite against the Trump administration. Discover these voices!

  • Listen to this new protest song as many times as you can, and whenever your heart hurts. And then listen to this one, written in the 1840s. They both are lifting my spirits.

  • How artists resisted fascism a century ago: links to a review of a new book by Andy Friend (the book title is Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism 1933-1943) “for a future worth the struggle.”

  • Maria Popova’s wonderfully uplifting newsletter mixes science with art; subscribe and read back issues here. (There are both free and paid versions.)

  • “I listen to the news and, when I get nauseous from the political games, escape into my novels: within their pages I find shelter from the bitterness of life. To keep a small light burning against the swallowing darkness, I also write. I hold the hand of the writer within me tightly because I believe that more than any politician, it is this writer who will be of more use to my homeland.” (Afghani author Maryam Mahjoba)

  • Here’s a moving essay on the dangers of dehumanizing others by Jake Norton—I found it very helpful.

  • In 1995, Italian novelist and critic Umberto Eco perceived a “ghost stalking Europe (not to speak of other parts of the world).” That ghost was fascism. This is an important read.

  • Some suggestions for staying creative no matter what.

  • Anne Sebba chronicles how the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz survived the death camps and considers the role of music amidst genocide.