Look west for Americana. Look south for adventurous theater. Look out for creativity bursting all over.

From the Berkshires to the Cape and in between, arts lovers can look forward to a summer of innovation and tradition all at once. There's a fine crop of new creative works, of rediscovered or reexamined older ones, and of art that at once pays homage to the past and peers toward the future.

In a pioneering spirit, start by heading west. Out in the Berkshires, more than two dozen arts venues have come together to create something they're calling the ''Berkshires American Traditions Festival." Sure, it's partly a marketing device, but it's also a real attempt to make connections among a rich array of performances, exhibits, and artworks that reflect on both historical and contemporary aspects of the nation's heritage.

You can find plenty of details at www.berkshiresarts.org, but let's hit a few of the high points. Mark Morris's ''Cargo," his first commission by the Tanglewood Music Center, premieres June 26 and 27 at Tanglewood. James Taylor is also playing there, July 4 and 5 -- you can't get much more American than that -- and the music center will celebrate the 75th birthday of an American icon, the composer Stephen Sondheim, with a Boston Pops concert on July 13. In addition, American conductor Marin Alsop, one of the most prominent women in the field, makes her Tanglewood debut Aug. 20.

Elsewhere, Savion Glover dances at Jacob's Pillow, June 21 to June 26. The Mount, the former home of Edith Wharton, celebrates the 100th anniversary of her novel ''The House of Mirth." There's more Wharton at Shakespeare & Company, which presents stage adaptations of her work in ''The Mission of Jane" and ''The Promise," June 25 to Sept. 4, as well as the regional premiere of a new play by Joan Ackermann set in Wharton's time, ''Ice Glen," now through Sept. 4.

There's plenty of visual Americana on display as well. You can see American quilts at Williams College, American folk-art portraits of children at the Clark Institute, and American weather vanes at the Norman Rockwell Museum. (For more urban tastes, the Rockwell Museum is also presenting a show featuring ''The Art of The New Yorker.") Or for an even purer hit of the red, white, and blue, Hancock Shaker Village is displaying a large selection of historic parade flags.

But the Berkshires aren't the only place to go for exciting art this summer.

The Cape Cod theater scene is bubbling with new work and new venues. The Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater is expanding, there's a full schedule in Provincetown, and Caryl Churchill's provocative play about cloning, ''A Number," makes its New England debut at the Payomet Performing Arts Center in Truro, July 21 to Aug. 14.

And speaking of provocative: ''Charlie Murphy and Friends From Chappelle's Show" bring their biting comedy to the Cape Cod Melody Tent Aug. 19 -- so if you're suffering withdrawal with Dave Chappelle's absence from Comedy Central, that's the place to be.

Closer to home, there's that all-American country heartthrob, Kenny Chesney. He'll be singing at Gillette Stadium July 23. And of course you know about the Rolling Stones at Fenway, Aug. 21 and 23, but of course you also know that both shows are sold out.

If you'd like something non-American for a change, Harvard is mounting a major exhibition of works by the French artist and sculptor Edgar Degas. It's up from Aug. 1 through Nov. 27. The French Library offers the chance to get even more international with its Bastille Day celebration July 15, with a host of world music stars. Flamenco fans can hear guitarist Juanito Pascual at the Museum of Fine Arts on July 13, part of its courtyard concert series.

Of course, there's no law that says you can't cross state lines for an arts event this summer. Newport, as always, merits a visit for its folk festival, its jazz festival, or both.

Folk's focus this year is on the 40th anniversary of Arlo Guthrie's ''Alice's Restaurant" -- believe it, boomers -- and the jazz festival welcomes Don Byron with his Ivey Divey project.

Of course, you can always stay in-state for jazz, too: The Tanglewood Jazz Festival goes on at summer's end, Sept. 2-4.

Traveling art aficionados will want to check out the major Rockwell Kent retrospective, featuring more than 150 paintings and other works, at the Portland Museum of Art from June 23 through Oct. 16. Or head south for the New Haven Festival of Arts and Ideas, which starts Friday and runs through June 25.

And there's good news for culture fans from all over: Discounted tickets for many of these events, as well as many others throughout New England, are now available online through Arts Boston. You can buy tickets at artsboston.org without ever getting up from your chair -- but then you should definitely get up, get out, and savor the joys of a summer filled with the arts and artists of New England.