December 2020
The arts and support are here!
The time is here to look back at a tumultuous year that left no one untouched. Patience was crucial. The name of the game was innovate! Working together, supporting others, we can rebuild and come back better than before. This fitting quote comes from "Getting Outside", one of the Redfern Arts Center’s podcasts this summer:
“Use the element of time. Don’t try to make it everything you want it to be on day one. Let it BECOME based on every day that passes and what happens in the space. The pieces will get added one by one.”
A pandemic didn't dampen artistic spirits. If anything, it unleashed them and the creativity brewed all year! Stay-at-home orders and social distancing dictated new life patterns. With more time home, people had more time to listen, watch, learn to make or play - and they turned to the arts because arts bring joy and comfort!
Arts organizations throughout the Monadnock region innovated so folks could continue to access the arts and art-making - all in new ways. They continue to serve the community by bringing that joy and comfort to everyone in our community. We worked to share their news!
Read on to see what we brought to the Monadnock Region's arts community this year.
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1.Give to Arts Alive!
Be part of the wave of generosity: give what you can. Join with Arts Alive! and help us work to keep the arts and culture of this region strong. Read below about our current annual appeal to save the arts!
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2.Discover Monadnock & Get Listed
Artists and Organizations: share news of your events - virtual or live - it's easy to do!
Arts lovers: make sure you subscribe to our twice monthly Discover Monadnock newsletter to see highlights of happenings!
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3.Join our team!
Teach, lead and inspire fellow creatives: Arts Alive! is excited to announce an opportutunity to earn some extra cash!
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4.Sign up for coaching and connecting
Coaching is a successful program we continued from previous years. It just became a virtual conversation beginning in March. This year we met with 42 independent artists or people working at arts organizations. Coaching is a helpful 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!
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free the arts!:
paying the ransom is a group effort!
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Maybe you feel like Covid-19 has held much of your life for ransom the last 8 months. The Arts are held hostage too!
Join us in the work of supporting and expanding the role of art in our community, particularly in our new reality. Arts Alive! has the tools, connections, experience, and programs to help arts and culture thrive in our region. Your gift helps us get our resources to artists and arts organizations and communities to make a difference. Let's do this together; the arts need us both!
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A Gift to Arts Alive! is a Gift to the Art Table |
For every donation of $25 or more to Arts Alive! we will send $5 to support a project called The Art Table, run by Erin Sweeney. Our goal is to raise $1,000 for The Art Table by the year's end to enable the project to expand beyond Peterborough to other tables across the region. |
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strategic plans
a goal without a plan is just a wish*
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Despite the disruption of the pandemic in our lives and in the arts, the Arts Alive! Board of Directors worked through the year on a new Strategic Plan to carry the organization from 2021 through 2023. We proudly announce that in September, the Board accepted the new Strategic Plan and mission statement:
to support, grow, and connect a sustainable arts landscape in the Monadnock Region.
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*Antoine de Saint-Exupery |
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discover monadnock
one stop shopping for regional events
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At Arts Alive!, we continued to focus energy on promoting the great cultural events - live and virtual - happening around our region! This year it became even more crucial to utilize our platforms - newsletter, social media, and websites - to host your events, ideas, resources, stories, and more.
Our Discover Monadnock Happenings e-newsletter is our primary vehicle to to get the good news out to the general public. When people had to stay home or distance themselves, we were there with a second issue each month with safe and inspiring activity. Each issue highlights live streams, events, and online resources, from the Discover Monadnock Calendar. You want to subscribe to learn about the wealth of creative activity this region offers!
Our Discover Monadnock Calendar is the Region's centralized promotion tool to spread the word about events and it's seen by an ever-growing audience. With your help, we are making it the go to place to learn of arts and community events. Add your event to the calendar today so others may discover it! We might just select your event for the Discover Monadnock e-newsletter seen by hundreds of local residents!
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fiscal sponsorship
launching nonprofit arts organizations
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Ashuelot Concerts, which had been in our fiscal sponsorship/arts incubation program for a little over 2 years, was granted 501(c)3 status as of March 1 and launched on its own as an independent nonprofit. Despite the pandemic shutting down live music, they have persevered with online streaming. Be sure to take a listen and support them with a donation, ticket contribution, or by sharing their work! They are making classical music accessible to children and adults all over our region - and now the world!
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Learn more about the Fiscal Sponsorship program at Arts Alive! |
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launching ambassadors
connecting students to business
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Arts Alive! is excited to be pairing with three Southern New Hampshire University students this year. They will be helping us design and launch our “Ambassadors” program - which will be a way to formally bring in partners and supporters and engage them in the work we do - from promoting the arts to lifting up creative businesses by sharing skills and resources. The students are in the Bradley Honors Program for Business Administration and are all excited about the arts!
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plugging into the arts:
let's all make arts accessible
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Arts Alive! has embarked on a research project with the stewardship of Antioch University's Tomoyo Kawano, Dance/Movement Therapy program director. 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.
The Center for Public Health is partnering with us to share the study and review the data.
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A survey is our first step. The time feels really ripe for this as we go into an uncertain winter - how will we emerge from the pandemic and reconnect with our communities? The arts can and need to play a key role!
Will you participate in this worthy cause by sending this survey to your community’s email list?
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artist to artist:
artists helping artists
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Arts Alive! works in partnership with The Hannah Grimes Center to present Artist to Artist workshops. Presenters share tips and tricks to improve creative industry business practices - from marketing and social media to selling platforms and copyright law, these workshops cover what artists need to know to run successful businesses.
Last winter we ran well attended sessions on taxes and grants and offered a follow-up potluck! This summer we went remote and offered Digital Engagement with Alison Wilder and Gateless Writing with Becky Karush. You can still watch Digital Engagement!
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ewing arts awards:
see the local talent we celebrated!
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The first Virtual Ewing Awards program went off with nary a hitch. We introduced, interviewed and applauded 16 incredible creators and presenters in the Monadnock region!
If you missed the evening's show, it is still available to watch. See if you aren't inspired by the winners' messages and the outstanding performances sprinkled throughout the show!
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.
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sharing arts:
a story of resilience
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“Our passions are the true phoenixes; when the old one is burnt out, a new one rises from its ashes.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |
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Over the year, with help from many, Sharing Arts rose from the closure of the Sharon Arts Center. Read about the new home and future plans of this group effort.
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radically rural remote:
best practices for rural communities
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Radically Rural Remote on September 24 was a huge success! Thanks go to the Hannah Grimes Center, The Keene Sentinel, and our sponsors for their support, both technical and financial, for this event.
Sessions in the Arts & Culture Track were:
- Equity in Arts Funding
- Community Connection Starts with the Arts
- The Essential Arts
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arts spotlights:
morphed to stories from the pandemic
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These are unusual times and artists are finding strength in community and creativity. We collected stories full of innovation and inspiration. |
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Taryn Fisher's Stories -
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Peterborough Players stories-
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And last but not least ... |
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and that wasn't all:
the rest of the story
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details that rounded out the year: |
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We:
- made news of state and federal resources available to region artists and arts nonprofits.
- began a bi-monthly virtual support group for regional arts nonprofits.
- partnered with Halvorson New Media for member benefits.
- co-hosted a virtual Business-After-Hours with the Monadnock Conservancy for the Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce.
- joined local programs with news of the arts - Sound off with Chris Coates, the Park Theatre's Monadnock Tonight, and the Redfern Arts Center’s podcast "Getting Outside".
- received a multi-year grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation!
- welcomed five new Board members: Georgia Cassimatis, Robin Cherof, April Claggett, Jennifer Paone, & Alison Wilder. We'll tell you more about each of them in the New Year!
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discover monadnock arts:
is your event on the calendar?
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Make your event stand out -
share the news and be found!
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Discover Monadnock's calendar is your centralized promotion tool to spread the word about your event. With your help we are making it the go to place to see what great cultural events are happening around our region - the live events AND the virtual ones! Add your event to the calendar today so others may discover it!
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Photo: Cardinal Couple in Winter by 2018 Ewing Award winner Robert Seaman
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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!
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