Sign up for coaching and connecting
Coaching is a great way to learn about the resources Arts Alive! has and the connections we can help you make in the community. 45 minutes sessions are free and open to anyone!
Save the date for upcoming Arts Alive! events:
  • Artist to Artist (August 31)
  • Online Coaching (September 4 & 21)
  • Virtual arts organization meetups (September 1, 15 & 29)
  • Radically Rural Remote (September 24)
  • Virtual artist meetup (September 28)
volunteer with Arts Alive!:
participate for the arts in our region!
We seek volunteers both for the Board of Directors and committees in 2021! Arts Alive! has a working Board of 10-15 members and a handful of committees which steer projects and get work done. We seek creatives, leaders, visionaries, audience members, arts supporters, organizers, and doers. Our goal in all of this is to support the arts community through this challenging time and make sure we open doors to the arts for those who want to be welcomed in.

You can get involved with marketing, fundraising, business coaching, creative events, social media engagement and more! While committee members are the worker bees of this organization, board members lead with ideas, strategy, and keep us accountable to our mission - enhancing quality of life in the Monadnock region by advancing arts and culture in the area. How can you help?
artist to artist:
use the power of your words!
Gateless Writing is a neuroscience-based method of writing that helps quiet the inner critic so you can tap into your most potent ideas with ease, whether you’re writing a writing product descriptions, an artist statement, or a journal entry. (Or a bio or a novel or a blog or a grant application!)

Gateless Writing is different from other writing workshops. It doesn’t “fix” or deconstruct your work. Criticism-based teaching is opinion dressed up in power, and it limits parts of your brain associated with innovation and creativity.

In this supportive, focused workshop, you will learn where your writing has momentum, where it's masterful or unique, where your words have power, and how to use writing as a tool to support your art. We will then explore how to take your writing and pour it into shapes that support your work, such as product descriptions, artist statements, and grant applications.

Plan to join us on August 31 at 5pm for a virtual Artist to Artist session with Becky Karush of READ TO ME, and certified in the Gateless Writing teaching method, will lead the workshop.
Thank you to Alison Wilder and Ginnie Lupi for their part in the inspiring July Artist to Artist sessions on Digital Engagement! If you missed all or any of the sessions, or you want to review part of it, you can still view the videos!
ewing arts awards:
see for yourself the local talent we celebrated!
July 29 we held a live virtual event!
The first, and hopefully only, Virtual Ewing Awards program went off with nary a hitch. We had the opportunity to introduce, interview and applaud 16 incredible creators and presenters in the Monadnock region! If you missed the evening's show, it is still available to watch (click on a photo here) or on our Facebook page. See if you aren't inspired by the winners' messages and the outstanding performances sprinkled throughout the show! Keep your eyes peeled for the Keene Sentinel's ELF weekly publication over upcoming weeks. It will feature one of the winners each week.
A huge thank you to to the Colonial Theatre in Keene, in which we filmed interviews in advance of the event! Also, we thank the Keene Sentinel and our production partners, AMT Productions and the Courtyard Marriott, for their contributions and expertise.
stay connected:
regular engagement

Regional Arts Nonprofits Virtual Meetup & Listserv!
Arts Alive! continues to host a virtual meetup every other Tuesday at 2pm, September 1, 15, and 29 - with nonprofit arts staff in the Monadnock Region.

The three ongoing open topics are:
  1. how does your organization continue to navigate the pandemic?
  2. what work and discussions are being had around creating a more inclusive and equitable arts community in the monadnock region?
  3. what big ideas for change excite you - are you seeing or getting inspired by any innovations in the arts world post-pandemic - what could they mean for you?

This meetup is open to anyone who works at or serves on a board/volunteer committee for an arts organization. It is a place to offer and receive peer support in navigating the challenges of running a business during the pandemic and sustaining beyond it. The listserv offers a venue to share resources, articles and ideas.

Want your organization to be included on the listserv or to receive meetup invites? - Please email office@monadnockartsalive.org
The Peterborough Arts Collective Monthly Meetup meets virtually!
Arts Alive! is happy to support the Peterborough Arts Collective with a virtual gathering space at the usual meeting time. Bring your self, your creative joy, your pandemic stories, and something you'd like to share.  The next meeting of the group will be combined with our Artist to Artist Gateless Writing workshop on August 31st (see above). September's virtual meetup will be at 5pm on 9/28.
radically rural:
save the september date!

Radically Rural is coming up September 24! We're excited to be working with NH Artist Laureate Amanda Whitworth and Lisa Burke McCoy to produce the day's lineup of art and culture webinars. The day will feature three sessions specifically about the arts:

  1. Race and Place - Equity in Arts Funding
  2. Community Connection Starts with the Arts
  3. The Essential Arts: Let's Debate

Check them out and shop around for other great offerings during this radical online event. (If you register you can participate in any sessions live - 9am-6pm on 9/24 - or watch recordings of them in your own time).
Wonder who attends Radically Rural? *Artists and Curators, *Municipal and City Leaders, *Local arts agencies, *Arts organization leaders, *Philantropists, *Nonprofit/Business Grantmakers and Evaluators, *Programming Directors and *Development Officers. *And you!
research project:
who benefits from arts and culture?
The arts are an important part of a community's toolkit to build social cohesion, civic engagement, and to eradicate a very real health threat - loneliness.

Arts Alive! is embarking on a research project with the stewardship of Tomoyo Kawano, Dance/Movement Therapy program director at Antioch University. The project will investigate:
  • who is participating in the arts in the Monadnock region and how
  • what are the barriers to participating in the arts
  • how is community built through arts and culture activities and in arts and culture spaces.

We will be seeking partners arts and non-arts institutions, businesses, communities) to help distribute survey materials. Sign up to participate!
sharing arts update:
a new future in Dublin
A year ago, Arts Alive! partnered with MAxT Makerspace and community members hoping to recreate a community arts space after the abrupt closing of Sharon Arts Center. The group met several times and reached out to the community for input and feedback in several ways over the past year. Goals identified were to host workshops to keep the community connected, create shared workspace for artists, preserve the special woodfire kiln on the Sharon Arts campus, and establish a gallery and sales space for local artists.

Even through the pandemic, work on this project has moved forward. Community arts classes began in January and continue to run in a virtual and/or socially distanced manner.
Almost $100,000 has been raised for creating a shared workspace - it will open this winter in a space on Rt 101 in Dublin. Under MAxT Makerspace's leadership, the project was awarded $62,000 in tax credits from the NH CDFA to purchase equipment and outfit the building for makers! Read more from the Ledger Transcript...

The group is still seeking founding members at a one time $100 contribution. The first element to this space will be a shared ceramics studio. Read more from MAxT...

Several community members have stepped forward with offers of space, equipment, and building/construction service to help relocate the Fushigigama kiln. One of the designers/builders of the kiln at Sharon is working closely with us on this project. Read more...

The group had identified the Putnam Gallery at Dublin School as a key partner in hosting gallery space and art sales for this community. However, due to the pandemic, the school cannot welcome public visitors to this space. The possibility of incorporating gallery space into the building on Rt 101 in Dublin is being explored.

It has been an incredible process and so many hands have helped us lift it off of the ground!
discover monadnock arts:
we've increased our reach & updated our calendar!
Spread the news of your event!
We're focusing our energy on promoting the great cultural events happening around our region - the live events AND the virtual ones!
statewide assists:
be a voice from the Monadnock Region!
Steering Committee Members -

New Hampshire Creative Communities Network (NHCCN) is a statewide, cross-sector union of organizations and municipal agencies working to educate community leaders/members and others about the creative economy, and how arts and culture and the creative industries that comprise it enrich our New Hampshire communities. 

Our work is broadening in scope to include several projects. NHCCN looks to expand and shape its Steering Committee to oversee and effectively guide these projects to successful conclusions.
Arts4NH - Be a voice for the arts! -

The Arts4NH Arts Action Initiative is a collaboration of creative organizations from around the Granite State that urges continued federal investment in New Hampshire’s arts sector. Created out of a collective need for future change due to the effects of COVID-19, this effort will be vital in creating a collective voice before our government officials. Participation in the Arts Action Initiative is FREE and includes periodic e-mailed updates about issues impacting the arts sector in New Hampshire.
arts alive! is supported by:

New Hampshire State Council on the Arts
New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
Hoffman Family Foundation
Eppes Jefferson Foundation
Savings Bank of Walpole
C&S Wholesale Grocers
Carl & Ruth Jacobs
The Keene Sentinel
The City of Keene, NH
Tom & Babs Putnam
The Arts Alive! Board of Directors
Arts Alive! Members & Creative Businesses
And our greater community of donors!