Provincetown Public Art Foundation: Creativity in the Open Air

On the tip of Cape Cod, where the land ends and the Atlantic begins, Provincetown has always drawn artists, dreamers, and free spirits. In 2020, a new chapter in that creative legacy began. The Provincetown Public Art Foundation (PPAF)was formed with one bold mission: to bring art out of galleries and into public spaces.

The Foundation was co-founded by sculptor Romolo Del Deo and curator Samuel Tager, along with a team of local cultural leaders. They believed that Provincetown’s creative energy—so visible in its people and history—deserved to be seen in the open air. By 2022, the nonprofit was officially recognized, and its vision began to take shape around town.

The Foundation’s first major work was a mural by Esteban del Valle in 2021, titled Time and the Town. Painted on the side of Marine Specialties, it featured a playful community of foxes, each one representing local artists, workers, and characters. It was bold, bright, and uniquely Provincetown.

In 2023, the Foundation installed Tempest Prognosticator by artist Andrew Mowbray—a wind-powered sculpture that created abstract drawings in real time. Set by the water, it was both poetic and scientific, a perfect fit for Provincetown’s blend of beauty and brains.

Then came Summer 2024, when the PPAF curated its first full public art season. Murals and sculptures by ten regional artists were placed all across town—from Commercial Street to MacMillan Pier. The festival invited locals and visitors to see Provincetown differently. Sidewalks became galleries, and everyday spaces turned into sites of imagination and meaning.

Current and upcoming works continue to honor Provincetown’s legacy. Marine artist Mark Adams is creating Extreme High Tides of the Gulf of Maine, suggests a focus on the impact of tides and potentially rising sea levels, a relevant issue for coastal communities like Provincetown. Provincetown artist, Jerome Greene, for leading off the PPAF’s Provincetown Public Art Summer 2025 with his evocative mural, “Musicians, Muses and Mentors,” which features Captain Jacks wharf in the background with pages from Jerome’s sketchbook drawings of local figures in his life, speared across the foreground as if caught in a gust of wind.

Through its work, the Provincetown Public Art Foundation isn’t just decorating the town. It’s telling Provincetown’s story—layer by layer, piece by piece. The art it brings to life is grounded in history, rooted in place, and made for everyone.

In Provincetown, art doesn’t stay inside. It moves with the wind. It walks the streets. It invites us all to see more clearly—because here, art doesn’t just hang—it happens..