learning
workshops, coaching, summit

No Artist to Artist Workshops this summer: we'll be back in the fall!

Ongoing Coaching Sessions: 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!
Radically Rural Summit: The Arts Track of Radically Rural, designed by Arts Alive!, will touch on sharing projects that increase access to the arts, that support community-based practice, and that activate creative placemaking in a community!
discover monadnock
so many cultural events CONTINUE to happen
This corner of NH continues to open back up to "normal." With that comes activity! Discover Monadnock Calendar is the Region's centralized tool to spread the word about arts and culture events. With an ever-growing audience, it's becoming the go to place to learn of arts and community events. Add your event today!
The Discover Monadnock Happenings  e-newsletter highlights live and virtual events from the Discover Monadnock Calendar. Subscribe to learn about the wealth of creative activity this region offers!
On the Discover Monadnock site, we have over 5,000 page views per month, and our calendar is our most popular page. It's totally worth the time to plug your events into this beautiful calendar! Did you know we've been running the Discover Monadnock website and calendar since its launch in 2015?
nominations reviewed:
the winners are...
We received a flood of nominations for this year's Ewing Awards so the selections were especially difficult. The judges have chosen the following at this year's winners. Congratulations to each of them!

Al Brogdon - Performing Arts
Randy Miller - Arts Advocate
Wendy Klemperer - Visual Arts
John Hughes - Folk/Traditional Arts
Walt Sayre - Lifetime Achievement
Jayna Leach - Student Artist Award
Laina Barakat - Interdisciplinary Arts
Ernie Hebert - Lifetime Achievement
Craig Altobello - Folk/Traditional Arts
Cailin Marcel Manson - Performing Arts
Ann Putnam - Community Engagement
Lenny Matczynski - Lifetime Achievement
Theatre Adventure - Community Engagement
Peterborough Poetry Project - Literary Curation
Andy's Summer Playhouse - Presenter of the Arts
Raylynmor Opera / Benjamin Robinson - Presenter of the Arts

Join us virtually: We will celebrate the winners at a ceremony on July 28th at 6pm at the Showroom, The Colonial Performing Arts Center's new venue in the Commercial St. Lot in downtown Keene. The event will be livestreamed from the Arts Alive! and Keene Sentinel Facebook pages as well as the Keene Sentinel homepage. We hope you'll tune in!
sharing arts:
pottery center to open!

Arts Alive! is proud to have been part of this process of bringing community members and organizations together to tackle this challenge collaboratively. Learn more about our facilitation process.
MAxT Makerspace is pleased to announce that the pottery group of the transformed Sharing Arts has just completed fundraising for a $100,000 pottery studio/community ceramic center studio in Dublin! Huge thanks go to all who helped fundraise, donated pottery, cheered us on and made this next step possible!

Sharing Arts is offering classes outdoors this summer. The new center is currently planned to open in late summer/early fall 2021, and will provide members with a space to work in a supportive community environment. It will provide affordable access to pottery equipment. It will also provide the community a space to take classes with some of the region’s most accomplished ceramicists.
Call for Volunteers! Getting Sharing Arts up and running needs you! Could you volunteer to help on the team? Or maybe you’d like to jump in and help build out the studio later in the summer. We’re also going to be setting up studio policies, so if there’s something that you really want to see happen in the studio, please let us know. 

If you’d like to just jump in and become a member, you can do that too! Also, if you have ideas for classes, would like to teach one yourself, or know of someone who would like to teach one, please reach out and let us know. 
Founding Memberships are available until September 1st!
With the Pottery Center now a reality, you can be a founding member!
arts corridor update
the dream is still alive!

Arts Alive! is thrilled to announce that we are the recipient of a Design and Technical Assistance grant from the national Citizens Institute on Rural Design.
“The City of Keene is supportive of integrating arts into the planned infrastructure projects on  Main Street, Gilbo Avenue, and Wilson Street. An arts-inspired design throughout this new arts  corridor will unite the growing number of creative businesses developing property on the West  side of Main Street.  We believe a unified design in an arts corridor will help Keene market itself as a cultural  destination and bring our growing arts community to life. Arts Alive! has been a valuable community partner for the past 10 years. Their success is anchored in strong community partnerships, and capacity in the community through hundreds of volunteers/supporters.” - Excerpt from Letter of Support by Keene Mayor George Hansel
We are immensely grateful to our steering committee: artist and musician Jim Murphy, Friends of Public Art director and 17 Rox owner Georgia Cassimatis, artist and musician April Claggett, Rick Swanson from Monadnock Travel Council and the Historical Society of Cheshire County, Jack Dugan, Architect Dan Scully, artist Craig Stockwell, and dancer and MacDowell employee Robin Cherof. We're also grateful to the stakeholders who are contributing to our conversations: Todd Horner of SWRPC; Elizabeth Dragon, Med Kopczynski, and Mayor George Hansel from the City of Keene; building owners Patti Moreno, Rob Spruill, and Mitch Greenwald; Kathy Burke from the Keene Skatepark project; Taryn Fisher of New Leaf Gallery; Alec Doyle, Heidi Halford, and Katie Folts from The Colonial Theatre & The Showroom; Jeff Murphy from Brewbakers and NOVA Arts, and many more!

We look forward to conversations with the Keene Farmers Market, the Downtown Group, and how we can continue to advance the fantastic and creative development across downtown Keene. If you want to be on our list of folks to connect with on this project, send an email to our director Jessica Gelter.
radically rural arts:
3 amazing sessions
With big ideas, big dreams, and radical innovation - we'll be leading 3 sessions during Radically Rural focused on arts and culture in rural communities.

In the first session, we'll look at access to the arts through data, programs, and partnerships with three different projects from rural communities.

In the second session, we'll dig into social and community practice for artists. What does it mean to add community as one of your materials? Collaboration becomes part of the process and creative journey. What can it mean for a community to be a partner in artistic creation? We'll explore stories and ideas!

In the final session, we'll do a round up of creative placemaking stories and projects from around the country. We'll explore and celebrate all the innovation, craftiness, and resourcefulness that are needed when doing creative placemaking in a rural location.
Free Ticket Opportunity: Submit your creative placemaking project for a chance to present and receive a free ticket to Radically Rural. All submitted projects will be shared on a virtual project board during the conference.
arts alive! is supported by:

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