Remarkable Women of the Arts
The greatest virtues of humanity — justice, wisdom, compassion — are usually depicted in art as women, and women intuitively appreciate the power of art to liberate, instruct and heal. This year our annual celebration of new hampshire women combines with a celebration of the arts that they cherish. Meet the 2007 Remarkable Women — creators, promoters and supporters of the Arts.
Pioneers
Marguerite Mathews
Founder and Co-Artistic Director, Pontine Theatre, Portsmouth
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you hope to achieve as an artist.
I’m very process oriented in my pursuits. Every day, I give thanks that I have the resources available to allow me to go into the studio and work. Each step in the process of making and presenting original theatre has its own reward. We’ll be celebrating Pontine’s 30th anniversary next season and I am so thankful to have had all these years to develop a workable process for making theatre. Over the years I have come to value work that connects me to the people and places where I live and work. By exploring the history, culture, and literature of New England, I have had the pleasure of working with some wonderful people who have guided my research and instructed me about the wonderful treasures that we find right in our own backyard.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
Pontine creates one new original production each season that we premiere in the spring at our Portsmouth venue. This season our project is “Wallace Nutting’s Old America.” This piece is a collaboration with the Wentworth-Gardner House Association, a museum property here in Portsmouth that was originally restored by Wallace Nutting in 1915. Portsmouth and, indeed the entire Piscataqua region, is known for its many beautiful historic homes. In addition to the story of Wallace Nutting and the Wentworth Gardner House, our production includes stories of the John Paul Jones House (operated by the Portsmouth Historical Society), the Thomas Bailey Aldrich Memorial (now part of Strawbery Banke), the Elizabeth Perkins House (part of Maine’s Old York Historical Society), and South Berwick Maine’s Hamilton House (operated by Historic New England, formerly The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities).
The subject of this piece helps to connect Pontine’s work to the community where we live and work. We’re grateful to the history organizations mentioned above (as well as the Portsmouth Public Library and the Framingham, MA Historical Society and Library) provided valuable guidance and assistance in our research. It also connects us intimately to the history, the culture, and the literature of the region.
The text for all of our pieces is drawn directly from historical documents such as letters, diaries and newspapers of the day. We find great satisfaction in bringing the voices of our ancestors to life onstage. As Sarah Orne Jewett says in her book “Country By-ways,” “There are some who would never know who it was who lived by my river unless it were told here.”
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
My teacher and mentor is Etienne Decroux. I had the privilege of studying with him in the early 1970’s at his studio in Paris France. He was a student and colleague of Jacques Copeau, Charles Dullin, Edward Gordon Craig, Antonin Artaud and many other outstanding theatre artists. All of my work is based on his vision of theatre and on the techniques he developed over his long and fruitful career.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
“The Country of the Pointed Firs” by Sarah Orne Jewett. (novel)
“Les Enfants du Paradis” (Children of Paradise) by Marcel Carne (film)
“The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milun Kundera (novel)
Cindy Pierce
Comical Storyteller of “Finding the Doorbell”
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you hope to achieve as an artist.
On the surface, my show makes people laugh and feel relief about their own experiences with sex and their bodies. I make people feel closer to normal because I have endless mishaps thanks to my special blend of incident magnetism.
On another level, I hope to inspire women, both through my stories and as an example, to be kinder to themselves — meaning more accepting of their bodies as they are — and find the power of the bodies they are in. What a different world it would be if women shifted the energy they spend on self loathing to celebrating the positive aspects of their bodies and selves. I feel grateful to have been raised with that strong message from my parents. Mary Pipher, author of “Reviving Ophelia” said, “Girls’ bodies should be valued for what they can do rather than what they look like.” My parents figured that out on their own raising seven kids. People ask me all the time how I have energy to be a mom, innkeeper, performer and author. I am grateful to my parents for inspiring me to use my brainspace in a positive way.
What I hear in my many conversations with men about sex is that they are most appreciative when a woman feels open and comfortable with her body however it is rather than cringing about her appearance. I also hope to inspire men and women to look at their experiences through a humorous lens rather than with shame — a bit more levity around sex can help us all. After my very first public show, a man said to my husband, “I am glad my wife is not doing a one-woman show about her vagina and our sex life, but I am sure glad your wife is.”
People respond to my delivery of these messages because I am not threatening. I am a normal looking woman with an average size normal body — I embrace my gray hair and wrinkles. Aging provides material. Bring it on! Someone called me “the girl next door.” I think of myself as more the girl next door’s little tomboy sister.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
My good friend and humor consultant (Edie Thys Morgan) convinced me to co-author a book with her based on the show to bring the message to a wider audience. She suggested this at 5:45 a.m. on one of our many runs in the pitch dark with headlamps. We made a proposal to Nomad Press and signed a contract several weeks ago. We have almost half the chapters written. Although we are similar in many ways, her take is that she represents the silent majority and I represent the vocal minority. We complement each other perfectly with our strengths, perspective and background to bring together this book of sexual stories from the trenches of everyday people. The title is: “Finding the Doorbell: Sexual Satisfaction for the Long Haul.”
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
Rusty Dewees (aka The Logger) has been a great mentor and friend through my whole first couple years with this. He will not let me pay him or even give him free tickets, yet he responds in great detail to every question I send him about promotion, story delivery, financing and all the nitty gritty parts of the life of doing a solo show. He is a believer who has been doing a lot of what I am starting to do before me and he gives back in a way that inspires me to help the next person I meet wondering how to make it happen. He is darn funny, too.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
The most inspiring one-person show I have seen is “Bridge and Tunnel” by Sarah Jones in New York City. I have watched many performers of solo shows, but she is in a league of her own. She portrays over twenty different characters. With the change of one piece of clothing — a hat, scarf or coat — she changes her race, gender, age and nationality. Brilliant.
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your work.
Friday, April 27th, Barre Opera House, Barre, VT
Saturday, April 28th Colonial Theatre, Keene, NH
Friday, May 11th Tupolo Theatre, Londonderry, NH
Jody Diamond
Director, American Gamelan Institute
Co-director, Frog Peak Music
Senior Lecturer in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Dartmouth College
Artist in Residence, Music Department, Harvard University
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you hope to achieve as an artist.
To create something that did not exist before, that can only exist if I create
it, something that arises from my own particular accumulated experience; and
then to believe it can exist. To support the work of others, to create a context
in the world for art to happen and evolve, to have that art make the world
better in some way. To show, through my art and my teaching, that source of art,
music and creativity exists equally in every human being.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly
proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
Teaching gamelan to neurologically and emotionally challenged children at the
Spaulding Youth Center in Tilton, and bringing the gamelan of Lou Harrison to
Harvard University to start a composers’ gamelan ensemble and workshop.
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the
arts.
Lou Harrison, an American composer, whose life demonstrated the universal human urge to be creative with whatever knowledge and resources are at hand; his friendship and support convinced me that when we find that ability in ourselves, we dare not turn away.
Larry Polansky, who has been with me what the Australians call a “music-maker:” one who not only composes, but creates the context for music-making by supporting, presenting, and distributing the work of others, thus increasing the possibilities of an artistic life for all artists in the world.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
Sol Lewitt’s process wall painting at the Hood Museum at Dartmouth. Larry Polansky’s “In the Beginning,” a piece for voice and computer that invokes the creation of the world. Any dance by Mark Morris.
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your work.
Concerts at Dartmouth College
Podcast on iTunes “Gongcast Gamelan”
Kathy Lowe
Multi-disciplinary Artist
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you hope to achieve as an artist.
Whenever I come up with a new idea, people always ask, “How did you ever think of that?” For me, however I’ve come up with new ideas, it’s just part of my normal process. So I hope to achieve continued delight in opening new ways of thinking in folks. In doing so, I hope I can be a catalyst for others to try new things and see the world from other perspectives.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
A year ago or so, I released a CD called, “Above Water.” This was a year-long project of singing into a huge water tank and recording my voice into it through an overflow valve. I went with my hunch here that I would be totally immersed in this amazing reverb experience, and that the overall result would be pleasing as well as healing to all who listened to it. I am proud that I pulled this off. It took a lot of persistence and discipline on my part to make this vision happen. The whole thing tickles me!!
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
My dad had this brother; Uncle Tom, we called him. He wrote many songs and plays. The plays were always musical comedies and he would direct them as well as build the sets and make the costumes. He expressed himself through many mediums. As a young girl, I worked alongside him, watching and listening to him create. So many threads of who I am come from this dear man. He has passed on now, though we still work along side each other.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
Earth
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your work.
In the summer, I can be found sharing music with children at an outdoor event somewhere. My “Petreflection” Photography can be continually found at the Indian Museum Store, Main Street, Warner. Mostly, summer is my quiet time, to reflect and get ready to manifest a new project.
Presenters
Mary McGowan
McGowan Fine Art
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you do as a presenter of the arts?
We connect original and talented artists of Northern New England with collectors, institutions and corporations. By purchasing the art of these artists they not only share their passion for the artists and culture of this area but they also make a statement of who they are. I hope that we help to spread the message that the visual arts are a vital part of our culture and help us to understand our community through different eyes.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
I have been working for almost 30 years at my job and I have come to realize that the gallery has become more important than any of us individually. McGowan Fine art has become an institution in its own right and I want it to continue for future generations. Over the last few years I have assembled a wonderful group of employees along with my partner Sarah Chaffee and we have set up a structure where we can nurture future art dealers and artists for many years to come. I hope my legacy will be to have started a high quality art outlet for the many talented artists in our area.
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
I was lucky to make two wonderful friends when I started out in 1980. One was a corporate art dealer, Joyce Paulson, in Boston and another is Phyllis Stibler an interior designer in Manchester. Joyce and I collaborated on many projects for about 10 years and we exposed each other to new artists, new ideas and she helped me hone my eye and judgment. Phyllis Stilber and I started our businesses at about the same time and we would have dinner or a walk together often. Our discussions covered everything from how art and design to manage employees to how to run an ethical and responsible business. Both of these wonderful friends made me think, and helped me to develop my gallery to what it is today.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
I am inspired by different work at different times. There are some pieces I want to live with, some I love to visit, some that stick in my mind long after I have seen them and many that have brought me to a new thought or understanding of my world. I am surrounded by pieces of art all the time and they never cease to move me.
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your own work or the works of artists you present/exhibit or support.
Molly Wensberg is showing at Wiggin and Nourie Law Firm on Commercial St. in Manchester through May. Wiggin and Nourie has a lovely gallery space on the fourth floor that is open to the public.
Nicole Gregg
New Hampshire Film Festival
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you do as a presenter of the arts?
My role as a presenter of the arts is to curate a program that inspires, enlightens, entertains and even at times pushes the envelope through our innovative and diverse films from artists around the world.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
Bringing the festival to a national and international level and presenting a world class program has been my major focus for the past year. Last year’s program represented seven countries and 20 states with films coming from major festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Nantucket, Tribeca, South by Southwest and IFP.
The countries represented are: United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and the United Sates.
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
My mother is a sculptor and formally studied art history while I was growing up, so I spent much of my adolescence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York while she worked on her school projects. She definitely shaped the foundation of my love of the Arts. After I moved to New Hampshire, I met Van McLeod, and he has not only become one of my closest friends, but he is without a doubt my biggest mentor.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
“The Trials of Darryl Hunt,” by Breakthrough Films is one of the most powerful documentaries I’ve ever seen. It inspires me to continue to do what I do, bring cutting edge powerful films to our community while most would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience such amazing stories.
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your own work or the works of artists you present/exhibit or support.
The 7th Annual New Hampshire Film Festival October 11th-14th, 2007
Patricia Lynch
Music Hall of Portsmouth
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you do as a presenter of the arts?
I have crafted a vision through active listening, partnerships and collaboration for The Music Hall’s future as a major performing arts center in New England. I serve as the head curator for all of The Music Hall live presentations, as well as our live signature series Writers on a New England Stage, Kids Rule and Intimately Yours. I am grateful to be in the leadership role alongside an incredibly talented team of staff, board and volunteers who make everything is this very happening place happen!
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
I think the creation of Writers on a New England Stage, our award-winning author’s series in collaboration with New Hampshire Public Radio and RiverRun Bookstore, is a great new signature series that celebrates the best of new literature in a rollicking live show format with author’s remarks, house band, and interview. We are now in our second season.
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
I have been richly blessed to work with so many gifted artists as a writer, producer and presenter. Maya Angelou touched me deeply a few years back when she told me in her majestic voice while we were backstage together at an event, “You, you, you, Persist!” I recall her encouragement when encountering challenges as an artist and presenter.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
Right now these things inspire me: The rock and roll adaptation of Spring Awakening currently on Broadway, my sister Rene’s “Gaze” series of paintings currently touring Germany; GrooveLilly’s Striking 12! A new holiday musical for people who don’t typically like holiday musicals that we’re bringing to The Music Hall next December; Keb Mo’ who just played the most dynamic blues show I have ever seen here at The Music Hall last week; Harbor Light Stage’s Bold Face Play Reading Series at the Kittery Art Association for doing so much with so little. Check back in a month, the list changes all time.
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your own work or the works of artists you present/exhibit or support.
Currently “Orphan Train” the musical for which I wrote the book is in a revival production through the end of March in St. Paul, MN and was just featured on National Public Radio’s Weekend America.
Tickets for the new season at The Music Hall go on sale June 1, at noon. This month of May please check out Writers on a New England Stage as we feature Elmore Leonard the bestselling author whose movies include “Get Shorty” and “Jackie Brown,” or catch Broadway legend Patti Lupone’s (fresh from her recent triumph in the Tony-winning “Sweeney Todd” on May 18th and on May 20th Dr. John will shake us to our soul with the Rebirth Brass Band and Henry Butler as they Celebrate New Orleans.
Frumie Selchen
Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you do as a presenter of the arts?
My job is to develop interesting programs and lasting networks. We try to discover what different communities, schools, arts and heritage organizations, artists, families, social-service and municipal agencies and hospitality sites in northern New Hampshire need and want in the way of cultural programs and services, and to find a way to help make those things happen.
We build partnerships, find support, and offer inspiration and training. There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing these connections click, and watching the arts become more a part of the lives of people of all ages who live in — and visit — our region. We’d like to see the North Country known as a center for both recreation and the arts.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
“Telling Our Story,” a 40-day residency with Becky Rule as storygatherer in residence in Berlin/Gorham, gathering, preserving and celebrating the stories of mill and logging life. It’s an amazing project created in collaboration with many groups and people, which we think has meaning and lasting value, will do a lot of community building — and will also be a lot of fun.
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
My passion was inspired by Sara Sommer, a stay-at-home mother who created what is now a nationally known folk dance troupe. In my first job out of college, I worked for Nora Ephron. Her confidence and clarity were inspiring.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
All the arts projects (Federal Writers’ Project, Federal Theatre Project, Federal Art Project, Federal Music Project) of the Works Progress Administration — not so much for their artistic greatness, although some really terrific work was done, but the idea that artists can work with, illuminate, and inspire communities, and that the government can play a role in making that connection. As a child, I was deeply inspired by regular attendance at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and as an adult I need to regularly re-read Jane Austen
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your own work or the works of artists you present/exhibit or support.
We have programs of all kinds going on year-round — both audience opportunities and hands-on and professional-development programs. Just check our website, www.aannh.org.
Suzanne Delle
Yellow Taxi Productions
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you do as a presenter of the arts?
As Artistic Director of a small theater company, I do everything from chose the plays we will present to sweep the stage before a performance. My main goal and the reason I started Yellow Taxi is to find interesting and little known contemporary plays and produce them. The reason I like doing this is that one — artistically my juices flow when I’m using theater as social protest or to work out an idea or theme that is extremely relevant to life in America right now and two — I enjoy watching an audience discover a new piece of theatre that speaks to them and touches them emotionally.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
I finished my second Masters degree in May last year. While running Yellow Taxi, I lived in Washington, DC and studied for a MFA in directing — long distance artistic directing isn’t the best way to accomplish oversee a company but expanding my own knowledge and skill set in directing was important to both myself and the company.
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
Anne Bogart is a New York City director who creates what is called Devised Theater. She has a company of actors (the SITI Company) that work together around a theme to create a play together — actors, director and designers all in the room from the beginning collaborating. I was lucky enough to raise money to bring Anne to the campus in Washington DC when I was there and take a day-long workshop with her and the friendship that developed led me to be allowed to witness her process in the rehearsal hall when she came to ART in September. Anne has created a place for artists to have an equal voice in the creation of new work and she inspires me to do the same.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
Besides Anne Bogart, another artist that works in the Devised theater mold is Canadian Robert LePage. Since he is publicly funded in his country he can take over a year to develop one play and they are always visually and emotionally stunning. I try to use his ideas of signifiers — using one object in many ways during a play to suggest different emotions — in my own work.
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your own work or the works of artists you present/exhibit or support.
Yellow Taxi Productions runs on a calendar year season. Our current production is running May 4-12 at the 14 Court Street Theatre in Nashua. It is a brand new play (still being written as I answer this question), written by a local writer about Keene native, Episcopalian priest and Civil Rights martyr Jonathan Daniels. “Six Nights in the Black Belt” is very important to us as it furthers many of YTP’s missions including supporting new work and using theater as a place to discuss ideas.
Patrons
Elizabeth Mayor of Hanover
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you hope to achieve as a patron of the arts.
The level of art creation and appreciation in this area has risen miraculously in recent years. I want to continue this transformation by spending my time making art and creating space and programs for others to make and see art.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
A monumental group effort has brought about the renovation of an historic building in Lebanon for AVA (Alliance for the Visual Arts). This assures that we will have fine art programs, classes for all ages, an art library and extraordinary exhibition spaces well into the future. On a personal note, I was proud and energized when the Currier and the Hood museums recently purchased my work.
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
My aunt, Elizabeth Fenner Milton, gave me my first paint box when I was nine, and several years later she arranged for my first exhibition in Washington Depot, CT. She was a true patron of the arts and when died she left me two small pieces by her neighbor, Alexander Calder.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
Right now I am looking at the prints of Sean Scully and Brice Marden.
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your own work or the works of artists you support.
I will be teaching a printmaking class at Two Rivers Printmaking Studio in May. This organization in White River Junction, VT presents exhibitions and classes by several New England printmakers. In addition, the studio creates a fine biennial portfolio for purchase featuring the work of many of its members.
Hilda W. Fleisher of Manchester
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you hope to achieve as a patron of the arts.
What I hope to achieve as a “patron of the arts,” is primarily to suit my own eye and surround myself with things I love. I create some parameters (one has to, you know) by stressing local artists, contemporary, for my own benefit and theirs.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
Nothing that I can think of.
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
Mary McGowan, McGowan Fine Art (Concord NH) – Mary Harding, George Marshall Store (York ME) – Arthur Dion, Gallery NAGA (Boston MA) – Bernie Pucker, Pucker Gallery (Boston MA) and Deb Thompson, Nahcotta (Portsmouth NH).
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
One way or another, they all do. For example, Michael Mazur’s work.
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your own work or the works of artists you support.
Gary Haven-Smith’s recent opening at McGowan Fine Arts is remarkable. The Furniture Masters of NH, whose current work will be displayed through the summer in NH and available at auction in the fall at Wentworth By The Sea is a truly wonderful opportunity for anyone to be thrilled by NH-based art and to bring it home. And Bob Eshoo’s current work is on display at Pucker’s on Newbury Street, Boston.
Sylvia B. Larsen
Senate President
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you hope to achieve as a patron of the arts.
The arts, in all forms open new pathways to expression of the human spirit. Whether you are a student in school or a student of life, the world of art encourages new ideas to flourish. I support opening those doors to artistic expression here in New Hampshire.
I hope to inspire others to help open the doors of a downtown theater, or strengthen the foundations of Strawberry Banke and Shaker Village, to support the joinery of a perfect highboy, to celebrate the colors of a hazy gold painting of Great Bay salt marshes or alpenglow on Mt Washington, and to invest in the creative spirit that uplifts both our economy and our lives here.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
Several years ago, I was the co-chair of the Capital Center for the Arts campaign and I continue to applaud the success of New Hampshire’s largest performing arts center.
More recently, together with my husband, we have supported downtown art galleries, Arts Concord, Concord Music School. the Currier Museum and Canterbury Shaker Village. In the statehouse for the past thirteen years, I have worked to support our state’s investment in such valuable programs as the State Arts Council’s Artists in the Schools and the state percentage for the arts in new public buildings.
My work to support the Land & Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP) supports the conservation of our architectural heritage and natural vistas which have inspired generations of New Hampshire artists. Since becoming Senate President, I have encouraged New Hampshire art to be displayed in the Statehouse. My office is honored to host a painting by the NH Artist Laureate, James Aponovich, as well as NH watercolors by Robert Larsen and 7-year-old Samantha Rotman, a resident of Bow and CHAD patient.
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
In my earliest years, my mother encouraged all forms of artistic expression in our home, promoting personal exploration as well as community support for the arts. Later, my 30-year marriage to Bob Larsen, a superb watercolor artist and talented lawyer, has fostered our mutual support for and appreciation of the art world in all its forms.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
As a collector of White Mountain Art, I am inspired by the Museum of New Hampshire’s massive paintings by Thomas Hill, Crawford Notch and Edward Hill’s Franconia Notch. These two paintings depict the breathtaking majesty of New Hampshire and serve to remind us and generations to come of our responsibility to cherish the special places and artists of this state.
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your own work or the works of artists you support.
Pam Tarbell, Millbrook Gallery: http://www.themillbrookgallery.com/
Trish Soule: http://www.anderson-soulegallery.com
James Aponovich: http://www.nh.gov/nharts/artsandartists/artistlaureate.html
Mary McGowan: mcgowanfineart.com/
NH Furniture Masters: http://www.furnituremasters.org/
Robert Larsen Gallery: http://www.sulloway.com
Joan Farrell of Concord
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you hope to achieve as a
patron of the arts.
To continue to support artisans that have inspired me and to bring awareness to the younger generation.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
I’m especially proud of my association with the Concord Community Music School and the continued support and pleasure they give back to me.
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
Hilary Cleveland inspired me to continue an interest in the many avenues of the arts in our fine state of New Hampshire.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
Melissa Miller and her work of Concord, New Hampshire of which I am a collector.
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your own work or the
works of artists you support.
In my 20-plus years of supporting the North Country Chamber Players, I look forward to their commitment each summer to their weekly performances in the North Country.
Marilyn Hoffman
N.H. Citizens for the Arts
1. Briefly, describe in your own words what you hope to achieve as a patron of the arts.
First, I work as a board member to enhance support of the arts, to call attention to the role of the arts in our lives and the economy, to educate about why the arts matter, and my husband and I also support the arts and humanities ourselves (for example, most recently with a pledge to the Currier’s capital campaign). I serve on the board for the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Manchester Region; the advisory board of the NH Humanities Council; and as President of NH Citizens for the Arts. Secondly, I try to have a national impact through the NH Primary. I have been attending candidate’s events for the last 3 NH Primaries and bringing the arts to their attention and even helping a couple of candidate’s write arts policies.
2. What is something related to your work in the arts that you are particularly proud of accomplishing or of beginning in the past year or so?
New Hampshire Citizens for the Arts is launching a project related to the New Hampshire Presidential Primary — to elevate the arts as an issue and educate candidates about how the arts should be part of the solution to so many of the nation’s “big” problems and issues.
3. Identify a mentor who has particularly helped shape your passion for the arts.
I already had a passion for the arts when I was in high school, but to be more effective in all I do, I turn to Elenore (Ellie) Freedman and (Mr.) Kimon (Kim) Zachos, both longtime trustees of the Currier and friends, for advice.
4. Identify a work of art that inspires you.
There are so many, from Whistler’s White Girl to Donald Hall’s poetry. I need a fix of art museums regularly, or I have withdrawal symptoms.
5. List any upcoming opportunities to experience your own work or the works of artists you support.
Besides the Currier and all the museums and galleries in Boston, there are many strong shows at the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery in Keene, the UNH Gallery in Durham, and the galleries at St. Paul’s School and Exeter Academy – all open to the public and I think all are free. There are also selective dealers who show contemporary artists, including Pam Tarbell’s Mill Brook Gallery and Mary McGowan’s Gallery, both in Concord, and Art 3 Gallery in Manchester. [these all have websites] I also collect crafts and every August I enjoy the Sunapee Craft fair, not to mention Antiques Week in Manchester- a huge national attraction.
