HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

This cute Pennsylvania town is brimming with artistic and cultural energy.

- Jackie Caradonio

FOR A TOWN OF just 2,600, New Hope has an outsize reputation. The Pennsylvania hamlet, which sits on the Delaware River, is the birthplace of early-20th-century Pennsylvania Impressionism, and it's where stage and screen stars including Liza Minnelli and Robert Redford got their start. George Nakashima, the founding father of the American Studio Craft movement, opened his workshop there; it still operates on the outskirts of town. And both New York City and Philadelphia are close by, so it's a destination for weekend culture seekers. Read on for a few favorite spots, old and new.

BUCKS COUNTY PLAYHOUSE