The Island’s ‘Barbara Walters’

Ann Bassett just completed her 450th episode of “The Grapevine.”

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To be interviewed by Ann Bassett is a pure pleasure. I know, having been on her show, “Vineyard View,” which is aired on MVTV Wednesdays at 7 pm. Gracious and with extensive experience and knowledge, Bassett is the perfect person to produce and host the show.

I decided to turn the tables and learn more about her.

Bassett is an Islander through and through. She grew up in Edgartown, where she went to school through junior year, then became part of the first graduating class of the then-new Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. This first graduating class just had its 64th reunion.

“I feel I grew up at the right time in the right place,” Bassett says. “The Vineyard was such a wonderful community. It was small. You knew everybody. You knew their jobs and what church they went to. You knew generations of the summer people who would sometimes become members of the community when they retired here.”

Bassett recalls her childhood: “It was the best place to grow up. You could go anywhere and do anything. It was complete freedom. I could leave the house after breakfast and didn’t have to be home until dinner. I could walk to Waller Farm in Katama, help with the cows, walk to Eel Pond to make rafts, or ride the horses.”

Bassett has had a dizzying number of professional pursuits. She worked in public and private libraries, was a seamstress and manager for a band, ran Misty Meadows, started a boutique designing her own clothes, and was a Realtor for some 20 years — to name just a few endeavors.

No matter where she went and what she did, Bassett was always interested in getting to know people, which became a great asset around 1980. “I had the remarkable chance to work for Community Services under Sherman Goldstein. He put me in charge of women’s programs. He said, ‘You know the community, so tell me what women need, and we’ll try to fill it.’”

Bassett instinctively knew the power of people speaking about their lives long before creating “Vineyard View,” so she began a weekly women’s group: “One night a month, a woman would come to speak at a potluck. There’s nothing more powerful than a woman telling her story.” She also organized a women’s art show, theater group, and poetry readings — all powerful modes of self-expression.

While there, Bassett also became a rape and domestic abuse counselor, and organized a shelter system for battered women: “I learned to be an advocate. I would go with them if they had a court date. It was an old boys’ club at that time, and women could get battered again just going through the experience. I could also be an advocate when I went with them to their doctor.”

In 1999, Bassett began a 10-year run at Bunch of Grapes as the event coordinator, organizing author talks with up to as many as two to three a day in the summertime. While there, she heard about this new television station, MVTV, and that they were hungry for programming.

So began her long relationship with the station, where she is vice-chair of the board. Bassett discovered that MVTV’s thrust is all about teaching you how to edit and be the producer of your show. The result was “The Grapevine,” which she did through 2007, featuring author interviews at Bunch of Grapes.

Bassett started “Vineyard View” the next year, and has just completed her 450th episode.

Asked how she selects whom to feature, she says, “Some are recommended to me. Some I’ve known all my life. I’m always meeting people, because the Island is constantly growing. The phrase I often use is, you can’t walk down a block of any street on Martha’s Vineyard and not see 10 people you wish you knew more about.”

Bassett will sometimes prepare for an interview by reading articles from the paper, but knows that the process is often organic once she asks her initial questions. “My job is to give people a platform so they can tell me what they do, why they do it, and where their passion is. I tell them, ‘I will ask you questions, but you don’t have to answer them, or you can take the answer in any direction you want.’ That’s fine with me. I have no preconceived ideas of where we’re going to go.”

Bassett has interviewed hundreds of creative individuals, and those involved in countless careers, including mariners, environmentalists, teachers, and genealogists, among many others.

Once the interview is complete, she begins editing: “There’s an arc to an interview, but we all jump around a lot. Sometimes I have to take a clip from further down and bring it forward. I edit for five hours, by and large, every night. Sometimes I’m working at one in the morning, and I have to make myself stop. It really is such fun. It’s riveting to constantly try to improve the video and audio.”

Bassett reflects, “I’ve lived in other places and done other things. But I feel my story is, first of all, one of gratitude. This Island can be limiting for people. Young people growing up here need to get a taste of the world. I was lucky I got to do that and come back. I’ve been blessed. This Island has given me a chance to work in all the areas my heart led me.”

Watch episodes of “Vineyard View” at bit.ly/MVTV_VineyardViewEpisodes