Well into a career in television production, and without an art background, Isabella Rupp decided to try her hand at glass art, a leap that turned into a 20-year deep dive yielding exhibitions, prizes, and a wide-ranging body of work.

The Sag Harbor American Music Festival is back, with four days of music, much of it free, scattered throughout the village in restaurants, shops, Steinbeck Park, Bay Street Theater, and just about everywhere else.

“Lee Krasner: Portrait in Green” at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center focuses on an important year for the artist, when she created one monumental painting and a series of gouaches.

Immigration in New York State is the theme of three eclectic music programs and a film series at the Montauk Library.

Robert Wilson, the Watermill Center’s founder and artistic director, was honored with four other prominent artists by Jill Biden and Hillary Clinton at the White House.

Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor is featuring an exhibition of Peter Spacek’s scrimshawed drawings on fiberglass, surfboards repurposed as sea creatures, cartoons for The Star, and more.

Celebrating Bonac history and art at Duck Creek, Long Island Modernism talk at LongHouse, open calls from Bay Street and Center Stage, Alec Baldwin's live podcast, fund-raiser for Our Fabulous Variety Show, rock and jazz at the Masonic Temple.

Lauren West solo at Tripoli, seven watercolorists at Ashawagh Hall, Hiroyuki Hamada at the Parrish to discuss his Road Show, two painters at Keyes, mixed-media works at Lucore Gallery.

Tracy Stoloff’s Night Owl Baker triple-fermented sourdough loaf has convinced local nutritionists and international lifestyle gurus to come back to bread.

Almond’s Artists and Writers dinner with Georgette Grier-Key, wine classes back at Park Place, Springs Salt now ships, pizza pop-up in Southold, Wolffer rosé on sale, Ride and Wine benefit for I-Tri.

Just in time for the onset of colder weather and a greater number of indoor activities, free at-home Covid tests can once again be ordered for delivery starting on Monday.

Mandala Yoga and Center for Healing Arts in Amagansett will host a restorative yoga class with singing bowls to raise money for families experiencing loss in Maui on Friday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Scoville Hall. Gian Carlo Feleppa on sitar and Will Ryan on flute will join Brittni, the instructor, whose family has lived on Maui for more than 30 years. 

The East Hampton Library deserves a vote of confidence on Saturday.

On Tuesday afternoon, the United States Department of Education announced that the Amagansett School has been named a National Blue Ribbon School, a prestigious and difficult-to-obtain honor that is based largely on students’ academic performance. Though there was applause, the announcement did little to ease the tension in the room at a board meeting later in the day, as it quickly became apparent that parents and teachers had come prepared with pointed questions about how school operations have been running lately.

South Fork residents were among an estimated 75,000 people who participated in Sunday’s March to End Fossil Fuels in Manhattan, at the conclusion of the hottest summer since global record-keeping of temperatures began and amid multiple signals around the world that climate change is happening now and getting worse. “I’m here personally because my granddaughter is also here, and I want a livable planet for her and her generation, and, in fact, all living beings,” said Francesca Rheannon of Springs, who is on East Hampton Town’s Energy and Sustainability Advisory Committee.

After two years of silence, the Springs Fire Department has filed updated plans to build a cell tower at its headquarters at 179 Fort Pond Boulevard. It marks the beginning of a new chapter in what has been, at times, an acrimonious battle over the tower. A lot has changed since July 2020, when it was ordered that the previous application for a 185-foot tower, which required 30 variances, needed to undergo an extensive environmental review.

How busy was the summer of 2023 on the South Fork? There are some interesting metrics out there. Wastewater is one: The amount treated in Sag Harbor during June, July, and August was up roughly six percent over 2022 levels. On East Hampton Village beaches, lifeguards recorded 376 saves. But summer rentals were down on the real estate market, and certain restaurants experienced less traffic than they'd hoped.

When it arrives at the Bridgehampton Museum on Sunday for display, one particular car, a Lola T70 Eagle, will have come full circle, as race cars tend to do. Fifty-seven years ago, the legendary driver Dan Gurney drove it to win the 1966 Can Am race in Bridgehampton. On Sunday, the historically significant car will be on view for the public for two hours only — 9 to 11 a.m. — during the museum’s annual Cars and Coffee event.

The outside counsel representing East Hampton Town in its long-running dispute with Duryea’s Lobster Deck on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk asked a New York State Supreme Court justice last week to vacate a 2019 order allowing a certificate of occupancy for the restaurant. Recently posted photos showing indoor seating led to a charge that it has “illegally converted a limited outdoor food service establishment into a full-blown restaurant and event space.”

Every morning, thanks to a new policy enacted for the start of the academic year, pupils at Pierson Middle and High School slip their cellphones into pouches that are then magnetically sealed, preventing the students from using their phones during the school day. “Yondr appears to be cutting down on the number of distractions to learning,” said Anthony Chase Mallia, the president of the faculty union, the Teachers Association of Sag Harbor, during Monday's school board meeting. Students are “getting more done in groups” and are “actually talking to one another again in the hallways and lunch room.”