Art Town, 1958

This summer more tourists than ever before are jamming the narrow, sloping streets of sun-bleached, wind-bathed Provincetown, Mass. (pop. 3,600) on the tip of Cape Cod's hook. They shuffle barefooted and clop-clop in Japanese sandals; they peer at bronzed fishermen and pack swank souvenir shops; they fill the galleries, buy works of art. A town that has attracted art devotees for more than half a century, Provincetown has in 1958 become the U.S.'s undisputed summer art capital. The reasons: a new arts festival and a new art museum—both resulting from the aurous determination...