After two years of schedule changes, Free Comic Book Day returns to its first Saturday in May spot on the calendar this year with several local shops participating in the May 7 event.
The event, which began in 2002, has handed out millions of copies of special issues of comics created for Free Comic Book Day to people looking to find new stories or rediscover old favorites. Each shop has individual policies regarding how many releases one may take, and which books are available. (This year, there are more than 45 different issues scheduled to be available for Free Comic Book Day, according to freecomicbookday.com, where you can see covers and previews for 2022 comics.)
The day is intended to commemorate each shop and celebrate small businesses and their love for the art of comic books.
Double Midnight Comics, with stores in both Concord and Manchester, is hosting a couple of well-recognized guests to help celebrate this day and intrigue enthusiasts statewide. Its Manchester store will celebrate 20 years in business this July; the Concord store opened eight years ago, relocating from Main Street to Loudon Road this past October.
“[For] our Manchester store, we bill it as a big … extravaganza,” store owner Chris Proulx said. “We had people, pre-Covid, who would line up on Wednesday. There’s people [who] will camp out for a few days ahead of time. … It almost turns into a block party in our parking lot.”
Proulx has high hopes that this FCBD will enter back into the realm of normalcy, as the pandemic forced its cancellation in 2020 and rescheduling to the summer last year. Unfortunately, this led to a much smaller turnout compared to previous years. Proulx said that the Concord location will be for customers looking to simply stop by and look around at their own pace. It is more of an ideal location for younger kids in need of more of a relaxed browsing scene. Proulx looks forward to the release of The Electric Black, which was produced by New Englanders Joseph Schmalke and Rich Woodall, both of whom will appear at the Manchester store that day.
Comics for… Five comics for kids • Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra • The Best Archie Comic Ever! (limited-edition issue) • Disney Masters: Donald Duck & Co. (special-edition issue) • Pokemon Journeys and Pokemon Adventures XY • Sonic the Hedgehog Three comics for Marvel lovers • The Amazing Spider-Man/Venom (issue No. 1) • Avengers/X-Men (issue No. 1) • Marvel’s Voices (issue No. 1) Three comics with action • Tex in The Land of the Seminoles • The Year of the Valiant • Bloodborne (issue No. 1)
Jetpack Comics & Games in Rochester is another local shop anticipating a substantial turnout for FCBD this year. Store manager Rich Brunelle described the event as a citywide attraction, saying that they look to help promote other small businesses by hiding comics at various locations.
Double Midnight Comics in Manchester and Concord. Photos by Jack Walsh.
“We have a ton of businesses around town that are involved in it as well,” Brunelle said. “We basically treat it like a scavenger hunt, where you can go to each one of the businesses, and at each one they give you more free comics.”
Brunelle said those who take part in the scavenger hunt and pick up a comic from each business are eligible for special prizes once the search is complete. In addition to this day-long scavenger hunt, there is a cosplay contest, a mini convention hall at Governor’s Inn, food trucks and more. A couple of guests include legends Steve Lavigne and Jim Lawson, best-known for their work in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics. Brunelle added that this particular location once held the largest FCBD in the country.
After battling some hardships FCBD is back, and fans statewide should plan on attending fun events with no limitations on any of the festivities planned throughout the day.
Free Comic Book Day
When: Saturday, May 7 Where: Various participating stores statewide More info: Visit freecomicbookday.com
Participating local stores See freecomicbookday.com for a look at the 2022 line up of comics.
• Chris’s Comics (919 Lafayette Road, Seabrook, 474-2283, chriscardscomics.com) Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Free Comic Book Day.
• Double Midnight Comics (245 Maple St., Manchester, 669-9636; 341 Loudon Road, Concord, 715-2683; dmcomics.com) Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Manchester and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Concord on Free Comic Book Day. The Manchester store will host its annual “Free Comic Book Day Extravaganza,” featuring a tent sale, a costume contest, comic creator signings, door prizes and more.
• Escape Hatch Books (27 Main St., Jaffrey, find them on Facebook @escapehatchbooks)
• Jetpack Comics & Games (37 N. Main St., Rochester, 330-9636, jetpackcomics.com) Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Free Comic Book Day. The shop is the nexus of a citywide festival featuring a comic scavenger hunt, a cosplay contest, a mini convention hall at Governor’s Inn, door prizes, food trucks and more.
• Merrymac Games and Comics (550 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack, 420-8161, merrymacgc.com) Open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Free Comic Book Day, featuring appearances from a variety of local, independent comic creators.
• Stairway to Heaven Comics (105 Gosling Road, Newington, 319-6134, stairwaytoheavencomics.com) Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Free Comic Book Day, featuring sales on bagged and boarded comics, creator signings and more.
Featured photo: Double Midnight Comics in Manchester and Concord. Photos by Jack Walsh.
How the Currier used the pandemic pause to revamp its galleries and make art more accessible
With a new focus on global art and a stronger emphasis on immersive experiences and community outreach, the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester has spent the past couple years revamping its galleries, enhancing its programming and planning for the future.
“Our new goal is to make sure that people know we have more than just art on the wall,” Currier Director Alan Chong said. “We have two Frank Lloyd Wright houses which are worth visiting, we have art classes … [along with] the permanent collections and exhibitions.”
The museum was able to continue running in some capacity even in the beginning of the pandemic, Chong said, and has continued to add back old programs and start new ones since then.
“We’ve had very strong support from the community,” Chong said. “The government has kept us going [with funding]. … We really depend on a whole network of support.”
PPE funds meant the Currier staff could keep working, and other grants helped support online programming and expanded museum offerings.
“Our audience has responded well,” Chong said. “Our numbers are pretty much recovered. We’ve been close to full capacity for a couple of months.”
Here’s a look at the Currier’s new mission, latest exhibitions and current efforts to make art more accessible to the entire community.
Going global
Though the Currier Museum of Art had to shut down during the pandemic, museum staff solved the immediate problem of accessing the community with online programming. The museum’s curators, in the meantime, saw their scope of work change a bit — instead of traveling the globe to acquire work, they looked inward at what they already had.
“In some ways when we were closed it gave us a lot of time to focus on the collection and reimagine [what it could look like],” Senior Curator of Collections Kurt Sundstrom said. “We all sat around on a Zoom call and talked about how we could use this opportunity.”
The Currier’s mission, he said, is to become more global, to visually show the connections between America and Asia, Europe and other parts of the world. For the Currier, that meant shifting around some of its collections. The second floor of the museum was reinstalled and looks completely different, Sundstrom said, with works from around the world paired together.
“We broke down those walls,” he said. “You can come to the museum now and see American art in the European gallery. … You look at things differently depending on where they’re hanging.”
For example, a Dutch painting that features a rug now hangs with Persian rugs from the museum’s collection, allowing for a new perspective.
“It was interesting to reinterpret how the collection could [work together],” Sundstrom said.
The Currier is also acquiring new pieces and planning exhibitions that will help it tell more of a story of global art, Sundstrom said, like an Islamic rug show, and the current exhibition that features the work of Iranian artist Arghavan Khosravi.
“When I first came here 25 years ago, there wasn’t any work here from African American artists, and there was very little from women,” Sundstrom said. “I think audiences, when they come in now, they’ll see themselves represented. You’ll have Asian art and Mexican art and works by women and everything that you would expect in a multicultural community.”
You can visit a museum many times and still never see the extent of its collection. Sundstrom said that museums typically have 2 to 7 percent of their collections on view at any given time. Paintings and sculptures can stay out longer, but photographs and watercolors will deteriorate over time when exposed to light. Because of this, a visit to the museum one year could be an entirely different experience than a visit the next. And with the pandemic giving the Currier time to make more significant changes, the overall vibe is different too.
“I think it’s much more fun,” Sundstrom said. “It’s not so static anymore. It’s not what you would expect — it’s not stuffy.”
Community connections
Programming at the Currier made strides during the pandemic too, with strong efforts to make art more accessible to the community — something it had been doing in recent years anyway.
“We do a lot more online,” Chong said. “We were already moving in that direction. … We had designed a new website in late 2019, so we were ready to launch a more user-friendly experience.”
Chong said that government grants were key in helping the Currier stay connected to the community and provide an online museum experience when it had shut down, and even after, when its hours and programs were limited.
The Currier already had its entire collection online — most museums had been looking at the digital world very intently, Chong said — but a National Endowment for the Humanities grant allowed the museum to put its two Frank Lloyd Wright homes online, including photo galleries, drawings and plans, 3D tours and historic documents.
Grants also allowed the museum to pass out kits to do art projects and enhance some of its supportive arts programs.
“Our curators and educators really worked hard on how we can respond to [the pandemic] and the racial tension,” Chong said. “[For example], a lot of people were feeling that hybrid learning wasn’t a very good way of going to school, so we formed a teen anxiety group.”
Sundstrom runs that group, using art to initiate conversations, like looking at a painting made after World War II, another difficult time in history.
“We talked about how to get through those anxious moments,” Sundstrom said.
Those groups started back in person last semester, which Sundstrom said has been an even better experience.
Chong said the museum was also able to hire an art therapist.
“I think we’ve been able to develop core strengths to support the community,” he said, noting that the Currier was the first museum in the country to offer an art therapy group for families of people suffering from opioid use disorder.
The Currier also launched a new veterans program during the pandemic, expanding what had been a small program with war photography to supportive art groups in new classrooms.
Diverse exhibitions
The Currier’s newest exhibition, Arghavan Khosravi, opened April 15 and will be on view through Sept. 5. The show features more than 20 works from Iranian artist Arghavan Khosravi, whose techniques range from using printed textiles from Iran as a canvas to creating three-dimensional components on painted surfaces, with a focus on depth and texture.
“We’re really committed to showing global contemporary artists, artwork that is innovative and interesting and sparks conversations,” said Samantha Cataldo, senior curator of contemporary art. “Her work is surrealism. … There’s almost always a woman at the center of the work and then the images themselves kind of capture memories or dreams. … She paints in a way that when you’re looking at it you can’t really tell if something is real.”
The images explore themes like exile, suppression and empowerment, which Cataldo said is drawn from the duality that Khosravi has experienced in her life, having lived in both Iran and the United States.
“The culture where she grew up, you were allowed to be a little more free with your family, but in public [you were] more restricted,” Cataldo said. “A lot of the themes [in the exhibition] are a form of restriction, [like] people being boxed in or existing on two different planes of reality. … The works don’t have a specific narrative, but there’s a symbolism and there’s clues and ideas. … [They] are really approachable and acceptable.”
A duality also exists between the works’ first impressions and their more closely scrutinized images.
“At first glance, things are colorful [and] and really inviting because they feel warm and happy,” Cataldo said. “But [what’s happening] in the scene is not so bright and cheery.”
She said the exhibition so far has been well-received, both in its themes and in its visual appeal.
“[The paintings] are exquisitely made,” she said. “They’re also quite poetic in terms of how they look and how they’re composed.”
Also on view now (through July 3) is Warhol Screen Tests, which features 20 of Andy Warhol’s black-and-white short films that he made in the mid-’60s of his friends — some famous, like Bob Dylan and Salvador Dali, and others who came to his studio in New York City.
“He filmed essentially a moving portrait,” Cataldo said. “A single subject would sit in a chair and he would run the camera on them until the film ran out, [about] 4 minutes. … You have people who are extremely aware of the camera, some who try to be totally still, some [who act] playful.”
The films are unscripted and played in a loop in slow motion, and they’re projected large-scale, which Cataldo said can be a bit unsettling.
“It feels too close to a Zoom meeting,” she said,” watching people feel like they have to present themselves in a certain way.”
Warhol’s prediction that “everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes” seems to have come to fruition to some degree, with regular people becoming TikTok or YouTube famous. And his repetitive screen prints that feature the same face over and over are reminiscent of today’s selfies.
“Everything he was doing was so far ahead of his time, so the idea of a selfie wasn’t a thing,” Cataldo said. “But the exhaustion of looking at a screen and looking at yourself — people can [now understand] that scrutiny.”
Looking ahead
While the Currier is mostly back to its pre-pandemic level of offerings, Chong said they’re proceeding with caution.
The first floor of the Chandler house. Photo courtesy of Currier Director Alan Chong.
“We feel a responsibility to the public, so we’re cautious,” he said. “History has taught us that it’s not over. We need to be flexible; we’re not going to pretend it doesn’t exist. There’s been a recent surge, so we follow all that.”
One of the upcoming projects that Chong is looking forward to is the renovation of a “new” old building.
“We took over the Chandler House during the pandemic,” he said. “It was a historic house … and it has the most beautiful interior in Manchester.”
Chong said the Currier had been looking to buy the building from the Catholic Diocese for years but hadn’t been able to make a deal because it was too expensive.
“I suspect that the pandemic pushed along that whole process,” he said.
Now the Currier will be working on finding funding to turn the building into a community center that will include offices for museum staff as well as classrooms for public programming, with the hopes of having it open by the fall of 2023.
In the more immediate future, the museum is planning to bring back its annual block party on a to-be-determined Saturday in July after a two-year absence. Chong called the day of free fun the museum’s signature event.
ARTSY OPPORTUNITIES
The Currier offers all kinds of classes and programs, both in person and online. Here are some of the offerings, according to currier.org. Visit the website for more details and the latest classes and events.
Ongoing programs
Making Art Accessible
This program is for teens and adults with developmental disabilities. The multimedia studio art class allows students to make works of art inspired by the Currier’s collections, and to visit the Currier’s galleries. The Currier regularly holds Making Art Accessible classes, and it is open to the public. Email CLyford@currier.org for more information.
Creative Connections for Teens
This program supports students suffering with anxieties related to the pandemic and related stressors. Each session provides students opportunities to connect through art-viewing, art-making and social time, and they’re led by Currier educators and curators with the support of a school counselor.
The Art of Awareness
Strangers from different backgrounds gather for a 30-minute awareness exercise and discussion to build connections with each other and art. Each week features one piece of art, chosen based on a theme. General admission is free on Thursdays from 5 to 8 p.m., and this program starts at 6:30 p.m. Upcoming classes are May 5, with the discussion centered on Arghavan Khosravi’s “The Black Pool,” and May 19, featuring John Marin’s “Movement in Red.” Register online.
Art of Hope
An in-person support group for loved ones whose family members suffer from substance use disorder. It takes place on Mondays from 6 to 8 p.m., with the next groups meeting May 9, May 16, May 23, June 20 and July 18.
Art for Vets
This art-focused program offers free opportunities for veterans, active service members and their families to enjoy the Currier. Veteran Creative Cohorts allows veterans to connect through art-viewing, activities and guided conversations, with an emphasis on personal development, respite and mindfulness. Studio Art Tutorials has professional teaching artists launching online or in person art tutorials for veterans and active service members, including drawing, watercolor painting and bookmaking. The classes are for all skill levels and focus on the therapeutic nature of art. Art for Vets Family Days are offered on the third Saturday of the month, with free access to the galleries, art activities and a complimentary lunch. Veterans, active service members and their families get free admission every day, and the Currier also offers all of its art classes and vacation camps free of charge.
Immigrant and refugee programs
The Currier provides after-school art instruction for children of immigrant and refugee families during the school year and extends their learning into vacation weeks by offering free enrollment in art camps. During camps, children are given 30 hours of instruction each week and are provided free breakfast and lunch each day.
Looking Together
Explore one work of art in detail for 15 minutes with a Currier docent. Sessions are informal, interactive and focused on a different object each day. It’s offered every Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. and noon.
Art After Work Tours
Every Thursday, enjoy free admission, live music and drink specials in the Winter Garden Café (open until 8 p.m.). The 30-minute adult tour is free of charge. Participants meet in the lobby.
Art Conversations from Home
Join the Currier Museum of Art’s education team for a live facilitated conversation over Zoom about the Currier’s collection and exhibitions. Sessions are informal, interactive and focused on a different work each week. Open to all, these free 30-minute adult programs run every Wednesday at 1 p.m. Register online.
Frank Lloyd Wright house tours
The Currier is the only art museum in the world with two Frank Lloyd Wright homes, and the only Wright buildings open to the public in New England. The Usonian Automatic and the Zimmerman House were both built in the 1950s. The two-bedroom Zimmerman House showcases Wright’s Usonian architectural concepts, with a compact design that contrasts narrow passages with dramatic, open spaces. It includes its original furniture and garden, both designed by Wright. The Kalil House, which was acquired by the Currier in 2019, is one of only seven Usonian Automatics constructed, dubbed “automatics” by Wright because they were easily and quickly built. Public tours of the Wright houses last two hours and are offered Thursdays through Sundays at 10:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., as well as an evening tour on Thursdays at 6 p.m. (spring and summer only). To schedule a private tour, email tours@currier.org or call 603-518-4956.
Classes
The Currier regularly offers art classes for all ages and abilities. Here are some of the museum’s upcoming offerings.
Drawing from Presence with Norma Hendrix (Adult)
Online five-week class, Tuesdays, May 10 through June 7, 1 to 3 p.m.
Painting with Pastels: Finding Beauty in the Urban World with Janet Schwartz (Adult)
Online five-week class, Fridays, May 13, through June 10, 2 to 4 p.m.
Learn to Draw: Structure and Volume with Shading with Martin Geiger (Adult)
Online five-week class, Thursdays, May 26 through June 23, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Earn and Learn Teen Program
Teen volunteers will be involved in classroom assistance, art-making activities, mentoring younger students, facilitating museum visits and other organizational tasks, and they will receive tuition remission for classes at the Currier. Admission to the program is based on a review process. Each applicant must be willing to commit to two weeks minimum of summer camp. Camps run Monday through Friday from 8:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Apply by May 14; for more information, email Lauren Steele at lsteele@currier.org.
Vacation camps
The Currier offers camps throughout the summer: Art Camp for ages 6 to 10 and Art Ventures for ages 11 to 14. The camps include classes in drawing, painting, collage, printmaking and sculpture. Every Wednesday, an inspirational tour of the museum is conducted to discover the works of art in the galleries. Weekly full-day programs run Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. All art-making materials are provided. Camps have a maximum capacity of eight to 10 students, and students, instructors and camp assistants are required to wear masks. The schedule is as follows; see currier.org for prices, updates and other information.
June 27 to July 1
Art Camp: Down the Rabbit Hole (ages 6 to 10)
Art Ventures: Fun with Fibers (ages 11 to 14)
July 11 to July 15
Art Camp: Music Makers (ages 6 to 10)
Art Ventures: Drawing Outside the Box (ages 11 to 14)
July 25 to July 29
Art Camp: The Moody Currier School of Magic (ages 6 to 10)
Art Ventures: Drawing and Painting exploration (ages 11 to 14)
Aug. 8 to Aug. 12
Art Camp: Space is the Place (ages 6 to 10)
Art Ventures: Mixed Media Painting & Printmaking (ages 11 to 14)
Aug. 15 to Aug. 19
Creatures Large and Small (ages 6 to 10)
Art Ventures: The Moving Picture (ages 11 to 14)
Events
Gregory Pierce, curator of the Warhol Museum, will be at the Currier for an ARTalk to complement the “Warhol Screen Tests” exhibition. He will discuss the impetus for Screen Tests and how they’re relevant almost 60 years later and take a deeper dive into Warhol’s creative process. The talk will be held Sunday, May 8, from 2 to 2:45 p.m. in the auditorium. The cost is $20 and includes museum admission.
Featured photo: Arghavan Khosravi. Photo by Andrew T. White
If you love your local bookstore, this Saturday, April 30, is your chance to support it — and get some good deals, exclusive merchandise and prizes — during national Independent Bookstore Day.
“Independent bookstores are the hearts of the communities they serve,” Michael Herrmann of Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord said. “We’re glad for this opportunity to thank everyone who makes it possible for us to be here.”
At Gibson’s, thank-yous will come in the form of raffle prizes and the chance to earn discounts and a tote bag of Advanced Reader Copies.
The Bookery in Manchester is celebrating the day with games, contests and giveaways.
“I think there’s been more of an awareness even in the past few years about the importance of local businesses,” Bookery events coordinator Lily Foss said. “People think we’re a dying breed but we’re still very much vibrant. … We have the pleasure of bringing in authors and [hosting] other special events.”
Saturday will bring a performance from magician DaSean Greene at 11:30 a.m., and Foss said they’re thrilled that he’s coming back.
“The kids absolutely loved him,” she said. “They were all crowded around him.”
The Bookery will also have a special Indie Bookstore Day tote bag and special merchandise for sale, and they’ll be giving away small prizes with the “very popular prize wheel,” which people can spin if they purchase a certain amount, Foss said.
“People get so excited,” she laughed. “No one has ever refused to spin.”
Toward the end of the day, Foss — a former Jeopardy! contestant — will be hosting a literary trivia event that she said is a combination of Jeopardy! and pub trivia, with people playing on teams. She said she went through the online “J-Archive” and compiled an entire game’s worth of literary trivia from various shows throughout the years.
“It has been tested by customers and booksellers to make sure the questions aren’t too hard or too easy,” she said.
Foss is also including one question from her own stint on Jeopardy!. She said she was the youngest contestant that night by at least 10 years, and she was at a disadvantage with categories like “90s Pop Culture.” But it was worth the experience: “It was my 15 minutes. … And I got $1,000.”
“I’ve been wanting to bring trivia here for a while,” she said, “so I’m really looking forward to that. And we do serve libations … coffee, tea, beer, wine and canned cocktails, so it will have that pub trivia [atmosphere].”
Independent Bookstore Day is one of the biggest days of the year for local booksellers, as they thank their customers and their customers thank them for offering a bookstore experience that you can’t get at chain stores.
“As we struggle to return to something that looks like normalcy, it’s more important than ever to celebrate community,” Herrmann said.
“It’s such a fun day,” Foss said. “It’s just a big party, celebrating our customers [and] thanking them for choosing us.”
Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day
The Bookery, 844 Elm St. in Manchester, will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. with prizes, games and exclusive Independent Bookstore Day merchandise. Magician DeSean Greene will perform at 11:30 a.m., and Literary Trivia will be held at the end of the day.
Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., Concord, will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It will be doing double stamps all day (two stamps for every $10 on your Frequent Buyer Stamp Card), a tote bag of Advanced Reader Copies for every $100 spent, and a raffle ticket for every book purchased, with raffle items that include a Gibson’s Bookstore merchandise bundle, a Personalized Shopping Experience and an Indie Bookstore Day merchandise bundle. Bonus: If you wear any Gibson’s Bookstore merch (shirts, hats, pins, etc.) now through April 30, you will get a full stamp card, good for 20 percent off an entire transaction.
Toadstool Bookshop, 375 Amherst St., Nashua, will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and will be celebrating with cake and refreshments, according to the store’s Facebook page. There will also be an Advanced Reader Book Table set up for people to browse and select books for $1 each, which will be donated to the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter.
Featured photo: This aluminum shovel is lightweight and good for cleanup. Courtesy photo.
When Tracey Dahle Carrier of Bedford created her first illustrations for a kids’ booklet for Bedford Presbyterian Church, it never occurred to her that two decades later those illustrations would be back at the church for a whole different purpose — raising money for Families in Transition via an art auction.
The auction is being held online and in person now through April 30, featuring nearly 50 of Carrier’s original illustrations and artist proofs from her children’s books — she’s illustrated five, including Digby in Disguise.
But the project that started it all was the small booklet she created for the church at the request of her friend and co-author, Ruth Boling.
Copyright and courtesy of Tracey Dahle Carrier.
“The Bedford Presbyterian Church was merging their church service to include children [and the church wanted to create] a booklet to help kids understand the service and what to expect,” said Carrier, who at the time was working from home doing freelance work, illustrating for different companies. “I ended up donating the illustrations and the design.”
Carrier said she wanted to make the booklet attractive to kids, and relatable.
“Kids are squirmy and they’re wiggling around in their seats and making noises,” she said. “I wanted to take the child’s perspective into account.”
So she created characters that have similar qualities: mice.
“Mice are seldom welcome and are squirmy and hard to manage,” Carrier said. “They were the perfect spokespeople for this job.”
The booklet was picked up by Geneva Press, and after it was published, John Knox Press asked for more, similar children’s books from Carrier and Boling.
“It was quite a successful little venture,” Carrier said.
The pair decided that when the first JKP book was released, all proceeds would go to Families in Transition, an organization that the church as well as Carrier and her husband support.
Copyright and courtesy of Tracey Dahle Carrier.
Fast forward 20 years to when Covid hit. Carrier — who is the membership manager at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester — started working from home.
“We had to work extra hard to stay connected to the art-loving community,” she said.
During her lunch breaks, she and her husband would talk about how there were so many in the community who were devastated by Covid, some even unable to pay their rent.
“When I was thinking about what to do [to help], it was hard to know because I couldn’t really get out and about,” she said.
But then she thought back to the donations that she and Boling had made to Families in Transition so many years ago and figured it wouldn’t hurt to approach the church to see if there was a way to help FIT with support from Bedford Presbyterian.
“There are people who might still have some feelings for these mice,” Carrier thought.
The church agreed and suggested they include some of Carrier’s other pieces that she’s illustrated over the years. There’s a poster that she created for the NH Reading Program when its theme was “treasure reading,” so it features mice scrambling off a pirate ship to find books. There are also pieces from Digby in Disguise and Digby Finds a Friend; those books feature a little bear.
There are other animal illustrations too: “There’s a lot of fur in these drawings,” she laughed.
One is a drawing of a black lab, and as with all of her animals, Carrier said she tried to capture its personality and spirit.
“I had a Bernese mountain dog for 12 years, and I was asked by Silent Moon Press to illustrate a book about Bernese mountain dogs,” Carrier said. “I knew [my dog] wasn’t going to be around much longer, so it was a tribute to her.”
Carrier stopped illustrating in 2012, as she was juggling work at the Currier — part-time, at that point — and doing commissioned work for McGowan Fine Arts Gallery in Concord, and teaching at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. When the Currier offered her a full-time position, she took it, and she has been there ever since. She’s thinking about retiring soon, though, and might go back to doing some artwork.
For now, the best chance to see Carrier’s work is at the church or online. One hundred percent of the proceeds of the auction will go to Families in Transition.
“If anyone wants to take a look at the art and see if there’s anything that appeals to them … or if they don’t have a lot of wall space and just want to make a donation, that would be great,” Carrier said.
Art Auction Bidding for Tracey Dahle Carrier’s artwork runs through April 30. All items are on display and can be viewed in person at Bedford Presbyterian Church (4 Church Road in Bedford) during regular office hours Monday through Friday, or find the auction link online at bedfordpresbyterian.org. Call ahead at 472-5841 to arrange viewing times. There is a “Buy Now” option for all pieces to bypass the bidding process, and 100 percent of proceeds will benefit Families in Transition.
Featured photo: Copyright and courtesy of Tracey Dahle Carrier. Courtesy photo.
Powerful works on display at ‘Impact! Abstract’ exhibition
Twiggs Gallery in Boscawen has opened its 2022 season with “Impact! Abstract!” featuring the work of six local artists and on display through May 28.
“It showcases artists boldly approaching abstraction in completely different ways with a wide variety of media,” Twiggs Gallery Director Laura Morrison said. “Most of the artwork in this exhibit is on the smaller side, yet each piece really stands out on its own. It’s very powerful work.”
Each of the six artists answered a few questions via email about their inspiration and techniques.
Ann Saunderson
Acrylic, mixed media, oil & cold wax, monotype
What draws you to abstract art?
At first abstraction was just a challenge after having been a landscape and narrative painter all my life.
What was your artistic process in creating pieces for this exhibition?
It was surprisingly difficult to switch over and loosen up enough to enjoy the process. Once I accepted that I could paint over layers it was easier. And oil and cold wax helped and added the possibility of texture. Most of my work is really quite accidental. I may start with a theme, a concept, and then halfway through there’s a moment where the paint and I change directions and truly I’m just along for the ride.
How does your work in this exhibition make an impact?
My work is pretty dynamic. It doesn’t have answers and leaves a great deal up to the viewer. I love color and texture and I think those factors also give my paintings impact.
Daniela Wenzel
Oil painting, assemblage, ink drawing, driftwood pyrography and improvised quilt making
What draws you to abstract art?
What excites me about abstraction are the endless possibilities to depict facets of everyday life and the environment, without portraying clearly recognizable subject matter. An abstract work of art can mean many things to different viewers. I am specifically drawn to the emotional capacity in abstract art and its utter unpredictability. I rarely have a definite vision in mind when I start a new piece.
A low relief abstract sculptures by Daniela Wenzel.
What inspired your choice of materials?
I enjoy free experimentation with color and techniques, pushing boundaries and being resourceful with my materials.
What was your artistic process in creating pieces for this exhibition?
While time stood still at the height of Covid-19 in the spring of 2020, I found myself home with my kids on the days I wasn’t working at Elliot Hospital. My three Lego assemblages were created due to lack of time to paint in the studio. A lover of any kind of colorful visual vocabulary, I improvised my art making and created simple color abstractions. I specifically enjoyed playing with color theory and depth by layering different shapes and hues. Legos are an incredibly fun and abundant art supply and after repeatedly stepping on them I realized they could be more than nagging booby traps. For the two oil paintings included in the ‘Impact! Abstract’ exhibition I also used pigment sticks, which are basically solidified oil paint in the shape of a thumb-sized crayon. The use of these is more immediate and less deliberate and the marks noticeably different than from a paint brush.
How does your work in this exhibition make an impact?
The paintings both reflect and resonate the same playfulness and positivity as the Lego assemblages. They contain colorful pattern work, evocative shapes and a variety of paint application techniques to carry a sense of spontaneity.
Kate Higley
Printmaking
What draws you to abstract art?
I was a painting major as an undergrad, discovered printmaking in my early 30s, and fell in love with the way it has to be done step by step. The focus on process slows me down in a good way.
Printmaker Kate Higley’s “Spinning World.”
What inspired your choice of materials?
These particular prints are intaglio drypoints. This means that the ink is snagged inside the lines rather than flowing across the surface. I use an expanded plastic material for the plate and all kinds of sharp objects to make an image. It is then inked, wiped, and put through a press onto dampened paper.
What was your artistic process in creating pieces for this exhibition?
The gallery inquired if I could submit some black and white images. With three older plates on hand, I printed those, became engrossed and created four more plates specifically for this exhibit. The incentive was the invitation and I think Laura Morrison, the curator, used the absence of color to break up the other more vibrant work in a lovely installation.
How does your work in this exhibition make an impact?
My interest is inventing small organisms swimming or tangled in imagined aquatic or marine environments. The concerns are ecological and environmental. As an abstract artist, my aims are quite different from those who work toward realism. Texture, movement and repetition are all used to create a mysterious and engaging space where the viewer can consider not just what is present, but what might be happening outside the picture place.
Ethel Hills
Acrylic
What draws you to abstract art?
I started in abstract art almost accidentally. I was working in watercolor and started using a wet in wet technique to drop unusual colors into my landscapes. That led me to being more experimental and more colorful, letting go of realism in favor of design and color. The bottom line is that I’d much rather have a luscious crazy colorful painting than one that looks like a photograph.
Ethel Hills – Signs of Spring – Acrylic on Panel – 8″ x 8″
What was your artistic process in creating pieces for this exhibition?
The pieces in this exhibit were painted with lots of play and experimentation. I put shapes and marks on the panel or canvas and then keep playing and experimenting, looking for surprises, and looking for what speaks to me. At some point in the process I start to see what the painting is about. At that point the refining, rearranging and adjusting are a bit easier, because I have an emotional direction for the painting.
What inspired your choice of materials?
Acrylic is a great medium for this type of playing around, trying things out and changing things.
How does your work in this exhibition make an impact?
Hopefully these paintings make people think and make them smile. In general, I think that abstract art asks more of the viewer. The artwork isn’t always a quick read. It’s an invitation to look and think and feel. My paintings are kind of two sides of a coin. The ‘Mud Season’ ones are dark and rich, but with strong lights. They’re the contrast between the dark and messy parts of life and the brighter things, such as hope and joy. The brightly colored ones, from the ‘Early Spring’ series, are joyful and reminiscent of the contrast between snow and the coming spring. But that’s just my read on them. Everyone gets to bring their experience to the work and make their own judgments and their own stories.
Grace Mattern
Mixed media collage
What draws you to abstract art?
I’ve been a writer since I was young and have published two books of poetry. … Poetry is an abstraction of sorts, using as few words as possible to express the meaning of moments and events in our lives. Ten years ago I began to make image-based collages, layering figures and backgrounds to reflect multiple dimensions. That led me to an interest in combining image and text to create an additional layer of meaning. From there I began to make abstract collages because I was intrigued by the process of creating meaning without representational images. I enrolled in an online course in abstract collage in the spring of 2021. Through that class I learned different techniques for mark-making and printing collage papers and committed to a regular practice of collage-making. I’ve been regularly making abstract collages since.
Grace Mattern’s “Mending.”
What was your artistic process in creating pieces for this exhibition?
The pieces in the exhibit were created using techniques I’ve learned over the past year. The pieces arose from experimentation with techniques and materials and building trust in my instincts regarding composition and how to create meaning through abstraction.
What inspired your choice of materials?
I’m intrigued by meaning that can arise from unexpected combinations of materials. Sewing on paper, then painting the paper and cutting out shapes is included in three of the collages in the exhibit. I’m also drawn to the effects of layering transparent paper with varied prints, and what can emerge from that process. That’s reflected in the pieces in the show also.
How does your work in this exhibition make an impact?
As a longtime writer and somewhat beginner visual artist, I’ve always struggled with the question of how art has an impact in the world. I’m a lifelong social justice advocate, and worked for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence for 30 years. The current focus of my activism is racial justice and land conservation, which overlaps with recognizing the ongoing contributions of indigenous peoples who have stewarded this land for thousands of years. I believe that the act of creation itself is activism, as it’s a gift to the world to express ourselves through art, music, poetry, etc. I hope the impact of my work in the exhibition is to create excitement in people to find whatever creative expression is meaningful to them and put it out into the world.
Becky Barsi (Artsy Barsi)
Interdisciplinary with a focus on mixed media assemblage
What draws you to abstract art?
The element of experimentation, chance, and the unknown draw me to create abstract compositions.
From Becky Barsi’s “Texture in Motion” series.
What was your artistic process in creating pieces for this exhibition?
It all started by deconstructing a bullet and playing with the gunpowder inside. After a few singed fingertips I learned how to safely control this mild explosive. Following these experiments I considered the broader significance of this media and how it could be juxtaposed with traditional art media.
What inspired your choice of materials?
So much of my life is lived in motion. Going, going, going. I often forget to stop and observe the subtle details of the life around me. … ‘Texture in Motion’ is a response to the chaos of a life that had intended to be more reflective and aware. Developed over the past year, this mixed media work was created as a meditative process and bridges three unique media. The work plays with the physical properties of a fluid medium, bending and twisting, sometimes colliding with colors (acrylic ink). It is balanced by the varied, yet structured, textures that are interacted with on a daily basis (security envelopes) and are tied together by the contrasting unpredictability of a volatile explosive (black powder). This work is a reflection and metaphor of a life.
How does your work in this exhibition make an impact?
There is a visceral reaction to working with gunpowder that can’t be avoided. The anticipation of the ignition, when the flame touches the volatile grain, adds an extra beat to the rhythm of my heart. The chance, the unknown result of this material instantly impacting the surface and surrounding materials, adds to the anticipation and impact of this process.
A poet’s perspective New Hampshire poet laureate Alice B. Fogel (2014-2019) will be at Twiggs Gallery On Saturday, April 16, from 1 to 3 p.m. She will be reading from her new book of poems inspired by abstract expressionist art, Nothing But: a series of indirect considerations on art & consciousness. There will be a book signing opportunity after. The event is free but seating is limited; reserve a ticket at twiggsgallery.wordpress.com.
How did you use abstract art to inspire your writing? What I wanted to do was to start with abstract expressionist artworks — without describing or explaining them — and bring to language those same disruptions to our stream of consciousness that occur when we encounter the unexplainable. … I’m so grateful for the opportunity to transcend mundane logic by means of nonrepresentational material — mineral, color, form, texture, light, shadow — I hoped the poems would create a conversation about reality, illusion, embodiment, perception and thought itself.
Was there any piece in particular that originally made you think, ‘This could be the basis for a poem’? The very first poem I think I wrote for this series was based on my response to a painting called ‘Field Notes, No. 59,’ by Andrew Moore, that I saw in a gallery in Asheville, North Carolina, Blue Spiral. (The poem is ‘Notes for 59,’ which opens the book.) I was so taken with it that I began to contemplate how abstract art, while not representing recognizable, ordered figures from our daily lives, can still represent a great and necessary part of our primal or archetypal human experience. I wondered if language could confound and re-orient us the same way.I took off from there.
How did you find the artwork that you drew your inspiration from? Local galleries? Online? Some of it was from galleries, and a very few from artists whose work I already knew. But because I was injured and immobile at the time, I found most of it online through websites. Not the best way to view art, but it was a life-saver that I could view it at all.
Why abstract as opposed to representational art? If I saw a painting and I could say, ‘That looks like a tree/house/river/anything!’ then I wouldn’t use it for this project. I didn’t even like using a totally abstract painting if it had a title that was too directive, like ‘Loneliness’ or ‘Rain in Winter.’ … I wanted to be affected in my heart or my gut or my skin while being clueless in my mind. I’m basically examining consciousness itself, building up a first-person plural, collective conversation, poem by poem, about reality and illusion, embodiment and spirit, perception and thought, as well as about art itself. Whether my response was infused with humor or wonder or ache, the art became … akin to a religion — a way to access the transcendent by means of pure material.
Explain the subtitle of your new book. Thank you for asking about this.The book starts with an epigraph from William James’s The Stream of Consciousness, written in 1892: ‘Consciousness is in constant change … a series of indirect considerations…. The only breaches that can well be conceived to occur within the limits of a single mind would … be interruptions, time-gaps during which the consciousness went out….’ The book’s subtitle reflects that concept. … It’s probably no surprise … that these poems are not narratives or linear lyrics. So I also hoped that by providing a pretty concrete hint of what the poems are after, the subtitle would help people know what they were getting themselves into.
Twiggs is calling this exhibition “bold and powerful.” Do your poems fit that description as well? That’s not for me to say, but that’s definitely how I think of the art that inspired the poems in this collection.
Featured photo: “If only…” by Ann Saunderson. Courtesy photo.
Nashua exhibition represents faces from around the globe
Kavitha Chandrasekaran has painted every single day since she moved to Nashua three years ago, and now she’s sharing the products of that devotion in a solo exhibition at the Nashua Public Library.
“This is my first [show],” Chandrasekaran said. “I can’t believe I’ve created so many paintings.”
“Faces in Watercolors,” on display through April 30, features portraits of people from Africa, Vietnam, Thailand and India; the latter is Chandrasekaran’s homeland. She moved to the U.S. in 2013, first to Atlanta, then New York, finally landing in Nashua due to her husband’s job change.
Chandrasekaran said it was boredom that prompted her to pick up a paintbrush.
“When I came to Nashua my kids were very small, so I couldn’t get a full-time job,” said Chandrasekaran, who has a master’s in human physiology. “But when they napped I had some time.”
“Those Eyes.” Watercolor by Kavitha Chandrasekaran.
It was the first time Chandrasekaran had tried painting; previously the only art she’d done was drawing back in her early school days. She started by teaching herself how to paint with acrylics.
“[Then] I started exploring watercolor [and spent] hours scrolling on Instagram — Instagram made me try watercolor,” she laughed.
Chandrasekaran said she loves the way you can’t predict exactly how the watercolor effect is going to look when she’s working on the backgrounds for her portraits, but there’s a more practical reason why she’s stuck with watercolors.
“I don’t need lots of supplies, so when my kids wake up I can just pack up and put things away,” she laughed.
People’s faces resonate with Chandrasekaran in a way that landscape painting hasn’t; she’s tried the latter, but she said that after 10 or 15 paintings, she still didn’t like how they turned out.
Her desire to create a custom calendar with images of her children drew her into portraiture. She didn’t know how to draw figures, so she studied and taught herself the basics, then started to learn how to tell a story through the faces she paints.
“The eyes are very important to me because that is the most expressive part of a face,” she said.
For this exhibition, some of the portraits are based on photos she found on Instagram and was given permission to paint. Some she picks as a reference to start with and changes a little bit so they have their own unique look. The photos of Indigenous people in particular caught her eye.
“These photos were very expressive, and I got very attracted to their jewelry and [accessories],” Chandrasekaran said.
During this time when she hasn’t been able to travel to India, or anywhere really, for a couple of years, Chandrasekaran said immersing herself in the faces of people from around the globe has been a comfort. She is hoping, though, that she will be able to introduce her kids, who are 6 and 4, to India this summer. But for now, she’s embracing the cultures of Nashua.
“This is a foreign land to me, but I made it my home,” she said.
Chandrasekaran plans to keep painting and wants to try to submit some of her work to more galleries and become more familiar with the local art scene.
“The painting is what now keeps me going every day,” she said. “This is something that I enjoy and want to [continue to] explore.”
“Faces in Watercolors” Where: The gallery at Nashua Public Library, 2 Court St. When: Now through April 30 any time the library is open Meet the artist: There will be an artist’s reception on Thursday, April 14, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Visit: nashualibrary.org
Featured photo: “Akha.” Watercolor by Kavitha Chandrasekaran. Courtesy photo.
Meet four Concord-area writers at “An Evening to Remember”
Concord author Paul Brogan is on a mission to show locals that the Capital City area is home to talented writers of all genres — in fact, he’s using all of the royalties from his recently published book, The Concord Theatre, to pay for what he hopes will be an ongoing free series of talks that spotlight these local authors.
The first event will bring four of those writers — Brogan included — to the Bank of NH Stage for “An Evening to Remember: Conversations with Concord Area Authors” on Wednesday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m.
“There are lots of people in this area who write, who love to write, who express themselves beautifully in all genres,” Brogan said. “I want to do something that makes the people of the area understand that we have some really talented people who are writers. We know we have really talented performers [like] Seth Meyers, Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman, and there are [well-known] writers like Dan Brown and Jodi Picoult, but I want to showcase some of the people who aren’t selling books at that same level but who are writing passionately … [and] writing because they have something they want to say.”
“An Evening to Remember” will be led by former longtime NHPR host Laura Knoy and feature Brogan as well as authors Margaret Porter, Virginia Macgregor (who writes as Nina Monroe) and Mark Okrant.
“Laura will talk with each of us and let us tell a little bit of our story, ask questions and encourage people in the audience to ask questions [about things like] why do we do it, how we get inspired,” Brogan said.
Brogan’s writing story began relatively recently.
“I went to Catholic schools and writing was one of those things nuns instilled in you … but I never did anything with my writing for a long, long time,” Brogan said. “I was past 50 when I finally sat down and wrote my first book.”
That book, Was That A Name I Dropped?, was published in 2011, and Brogan didn’t get the writing bug again until several years later, when he was inspired by the old Concord Theatre being converted into the Bank of NH Stage. He had worked at the Concord Theatre for 27 years, starting when he was 14.
“I had such affection for the [Concord Theatre], so I wrote a book three years ago about the theater’s history and Concord’s history with movies,” he said.
The feedback he got after his latest book came out showed him how few people are aware of what New Hampshire authors have to offer, with people saying things like, “I didn’t know anyone around here could write,” and assuming that you have to be in a more metropolitan area “to have the muse hit you,” Brogan said. But that’s because most people aren’t taking advantage of local resources; Brogan calls Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, for example, “a writer’s best friend,” with owner Michael Herrmann hosting book launches for local writers and displaying their books in a special section. He also said the NH Writers’ Project is a great resource, but “would wager that a lot of people don’t click on that website.”
So Brogan started thinking about putting on an event to spotlight local authors and spoke with fellow author Margaret Porter at Gibson’s one day, asking her what she thought about it. She was all in, and the two approached Monroe and Okrant to see if they’d be interested as well. They were on board, and Porter suggested they ask Knoy to moderate the discussion.
“I said, ‘If you can get her, she would be amazing.’ … And she jumped at it,” Brogan said.
Knoy met with Brogan and Porter recently to check out the venue.
“Within an hour I felt like we’d been friends for years, and I think she’s the perfect person to put us all on stage at ease, and put the audience at ease,” Brogan said.
They want to make sure the whole atmosphere is comfortable too.
“We want it to be [like] the audience is looking at people in a living room having a conversation and then have the audience become involved and then stay around and mingle,” Brogan said.
Porter said she’s looking forward to sharing a small sample of the creativity within the Concord region, as well as their experiences of writing and publication.
“We hope to provide helpful information, maybe even some inspiration, to anyone aspiring to write fiction or nonfiction, or has questions about pursuing a writing career,” she said.
Brogan said he wanted to make the event free so that people can check it out without making any kind of financial commitment.
“They can come see the Bank of NH Stage — now there’s no excuse not to check the place out — and meet Laura in real life. … There’s a number of reasons for someone to give it a try,” he said.
Both Porter and Brogan hope the audience will come away with new notions and ideas and a curiosity to read one of their books or to check out the section of local authors at Gibson’s.
“New Hampshire has long been noted for its literary associations, a legacy that we’re privileged and excited to continue,” Porter said.
“We hope, if it really goes nicely, we’ll do a second one next year with different area authors,” Brogan said.
“An Evening to Remember: Conversations with Concord Area Authors” When: Wednesday, April 6, 7:30 p.m. Where: Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord Cost: visit ccanh.com to register
Featured photo: Laura Knoy, Margaret Porter, Paul E Brogan. Courtesy photo.
NH Jewish Film Fest offers in-theater & virtual screenings
This year’s New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival is combining the benefits of virtual screenings — reaching more people in more places, for example — and hosting in-person screenings too, to bring back that festival vibe that’s been missing for the past two years.
“It’s been a journey, that is for sure,” festival co-chair Pat Kalik said of holding the event during the pandemic. “We did get some benefits from going virtual, but we missed, of course, the community feeling of seeing a movie in the theater and then having the discussion after.”
This year’s festival, which runs March 31 to April 10, will feature five in-theater screenings, two of which will have post-screening discussions. Virtual attendees will have a 48-hour window to watch each movie any time during the festival, and there will be virtual screenings of four of the in-theater films as well after the festival ends.
The festival features independent and foreign films from 12 countries. Kalik said they start screening films in July and view about 50 before picking their final lineup. She said they try to pick different kinds of films, from dramas to documentaries, to appeal to all tastes.
“Our goal is to bring these films to the community, films that would not come to the independent theaters in New Hampshire,” Kalik said. “Some of the films are subtitled — some people won’t go to subtitled films, but we try to get a mix. … My hope is that everyone will give these types of films a try.”
One of her favorites is the documentary that’s going to open the festival at Rex Theatre.
“I thought The Automat was a fascinating film, and that’s going to be our opening night at the Rex in Manchester,” Kalik said. “[At Automat restaurants] you would put money into a wall of windows, and behind each window was the food you wanted to buy. This is a film about the history of the Automat.”
The closing film is Cabaret at Red River Theatres in Concord. Typically the festival features newer films; in this case, it’s celebrating Cabaret’s 50th anniversary. The screening will be followed by a discussion with film buff Zachary Camenker of Concord.
“The film kind of broke the glass ceiling 50 years ago in ways that people weren’t expecting,” Camenker said.
Cabaret, which is about Berlin nightlife during the Nazi rise to power, won eight Academy Awards. Camenker said it’s the winningest film that did not win best picture in Oscar history; it lost that award to The Godfather.
Still, “It’s one of those musicals that has stood the test of time,” he said. “It’s a good reminder of where things were a century ago as opposed to where they are now.”
Another film that looks back at a difficult time in history is “Upheaval: The Journey of Menachem Begin.” The documentary explores the life of the Israeli prime minister.
Director Jonathan Gruber of Black Eye Productions in New York said he didn’t know much about Begin before he started working on this project.
“I didn’t realize how instrumental he was in Israel’s becoming a state,” Gruber said. “I was just impressed with him as a leader. He never enriched himself through his position.”
Begin was a controversial leader, though, which Gruber saw firsthand in his interviews. He said he heard some criticism that the film is slanted favorably toward Begin, while others have thought the opposite.
“Begin does not get a free pass in the film,” Gruber said. “We annoy everybody.”
Gruber, who was born in Israel, was able to get all of his interviews done in person overseas just before the pandemic started. He used a third-camera angle for some of the film.
“The content is so powerful but I also visually wanted to make it arresting,” he said.
Gruber will discuss the documentary via Zoom on Tuesday, April 5, at 7 p.m.
With the exception of Cabaret, Zoom will be used for all film discussions.
“I think we’ve learned a lot because of [the pandemic], and we’re going to take advantage of it in the future, but it’s not going to replace the traditional film festival where you can go to the theater and bond and eat and drink,” Kalik said.
New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival When: March 31 through April 10 Where: Various locations in the state and online Cost: $12 per in-theater ticket or per virtual household ticket More info: For festival pass information, movie trailers and more, visit nhjewishfilmfestival.com.
Here are the films according to festival descriptions.
In-theater screenings
The Automat
Thursday, March 31, 7 p.m. at The Rex, Manchester
Documentary, 2021, U.S., English. Before fast food, one American restaurant empire was unstoppable. Experience the untold story of the Automat with this documentary film starring Mel Brooks about the popular 1950s restaurant chain that served its meals in vending machines.
Following the screening, director Lisa Hurwitz will discuss her film via Zoom, and Automat collector Steve Stollman will join the conversation.
Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen
Sunday, April 3, 1 p.m. at 3S Art Space (Portsmouth), The Rex (Manchester) and Showroom (Keene)
Documentary, 2022, U.S., English. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen captures the humor and drama of film director Norman Jewison’s quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic.
The Un-Word
Thursday, April 7, 7 p.m., Red River Theatres, Concord
Narrative, 2020, Germany, German with English subtitles. In this German satire, tempers flare after a Jewish student is goaded by Muslim classmates into a schoolyard brawl, injuring an Iranian and a Palestinian student. A hopelessly naive teacher arranges a summit with the fuming parents and spineless principal. But her do-gooder attempts at peacemaking, complete with Palestinian and Israeli flags decorating the snacks, expose her own misguided beliefs.
Tiger Within
Sunday, April 10, 1 p.m., Red River Theatres, Concord
Drama, 2020, USA, English. Multiple Academy-Award-winner Ed Asner, in one of his last performances, stars in this tender story of the unlikely friendship between Samuel, a Holocaust survivor, and Casey, a skinhead teen runaway. Despite their respective traumas and initial mistrust of one another, they form a powerful bond that yields a sense of family and mutual support.
Cabaret
Celebrating Cabaret’s 50th Anniversary!
Sunday, April 10, 3:30 p.m., Red River Theatres, Concord
Musical/Romance, 1972, U.S., English
Starring Liza Minelli, the musical about Berlin nightlife during the Nazi rise to power won eight Academy Awards.
Following the screening, New Hampshire educator and film enthusiast Zachary Camenker will lead a discussion about the history and impact of the film a half century later. (This screening is in-person only and does not have a virtual option.)
Virtual-only screenings
200 Meters
Drama, 2020, Palestine, Jordan, Qatar, Italy, Sweden (Arabic, Hebrew, English with subtitles). Mustafa and his wife live 200 meters apart in villages separated by the Israeli border wall. One day he gets a call every parent dreads: His son has been injured in an accident. Rushing to cross the Israeli checkpoint, Mustafa is denied on a technicality. But a father’s love won’t give up, and he will do anything to reach his son.
Apples and Oranges
Documentary, 2021, Israel (Hebrew, English with subtitles). A wave of foreign volunteers came to Israel in the 1960s through 1980s to work on a kibbutz, a communal village centered around agriculture. During the ’80s, the war in Lebanon and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict forced volunteers to decide whether supporting the kibbutz meant supporting the state of Israel.
On Monday, April 4, at 7 p.m., Director Yoav Brill will discuss his film and reflect on the changing nature of the volunteers as Israel’s geopolitical situation evolved.
Greener Pastures
Drama, 2020, Israel (Hebrew, English with subtitles). Dov, a widower, is forced by his family to move to a nursing home. He’s broke since he lost his pension, and he blames the state. When Dov notices that all his fellow residents smoke legal medical cannabis, he realizes that weed can be his salvation — selling it, not smoking it.
Neighbors
Drama, 2021, Switzerland, France (Kurdish with English subtitles). In a little village on the Syrian-Turkish border in the early ’80s, a 6-year-old Kurdish boy experiences his first year in an Arab school and sees how his little world is radically changed by absurd nationalism.
Persian Lessons
Narrative Feature, 2020, Russia, Germany, Belarus (German, French, Italian, English and Persian with English subtitles). Occupied France, 1942. Gilles is arrested by Nazi SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He avoids execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach the Farsi language to Koch, the head of camp, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over.
Upheaval: The Journey of Menachem Begin
Documentary, 2020, USA (English) Prime Minister Menachem Begin was a tireless fighter for the Jewish people. He was, at the same time, a controversial leader.
On Tuesday, April 5, at 7 p.m. Director Jonathan Gruber will discuss his documentary on the life of Menachem Begin.
Short films (virtual only)
Beefies
Comedy Short, 2021, U.S. (10 minutes, English). Josh wants to find his late mother’s “beefies” recipe for Passover but must reconnect with his estranged brother to do so.
Ganef
Short, 2020, U.K. (14 minutes, English with Yiddish phrases), London, 1962. 6-year-old Ruthie discovers Lynn, the cleaner, is a thief.
Masel Tov Cocktail
Short, 2020, Germany (30 minutes, German, Russian with English subtitles). A Russian-Jewish teen in Germany offers a comic take on modern Jewish life.
The Shabbos Goy
Comedy Short, 2019, U.S. (7 minutes, English). God literally forbids Chana to turn off her vibrator gone rogue.
The Tattooed Torah
Animated Short, 2021, U.S. (21 minutes, English, Hebrew). True story of the rescue and restoration of a Torah from Czechoslovakia.
On stage and off, Kathryn and Erik Hodges are in love, and the married Penacook couple brings that real-life emotion to Love Letters, a two-person show that explores the relationship of Andrew and Melissa through letter writing over the course of 50-plus years.
“It’s an unconventional love story,” said Lauren Shelby Douglas, who’s directing the piece for Hatbox Theatre. “It’s not high-energy, it’s not anxiety-driven — it’s a very kind show.”
Love Letters was written by A. R. Gurney and nominated in 1990 for a Pulitzer Prize in drama. The Hodges first performed it to limited, socially distanced audiences in September 2020 at Hatbox, during the brief period when the venue was allowed to reopen after being shut down due to Covid, only to be shut down again shortly after.
“Love Letters was very well-received critically, but it was lightly attended,” Hatbox Theatre founder Andrew Pinard said. “[I brought it back because] I thought the work was really strong, and it’s a powerful piece about keeping people together when they’re apart. … I’m not so concerned about ticket sales. This level of work deserved more eyes.”
This is Douglas’s directorial debut, replacing the previous director and offering a new perspective.
“Everybody comes in with their own insight, which is what you want — even though our previous director did a wonderful job,” Kathryn Hodges said. “She’s a youngster, and she does have her own vision.”
Douglas said she had never seen or read the play before, so she really came into it with fresh eyes.
She said it’s a subtle, understated play, with no grand drama — just a conversation between two people that starts in grade school and continues through war, the Great Depression, marriages and more, with ups and downs throughout the years.
“It’s not your average play in the fact that the actors don’t memorize their lines — they read from the script right on the stage,” Douglas said. “Gurney strictly had instructions not to memorize lines, [because he] wanted it to be like they were really reading these letters.”
There are no costume or scene changes either, which allows the actors to focus on how they’re emoting through their words.
“You don’t have to sweat the small stuff — you don’t have to learn the blocking [for example],” Kathryn Hodges said. “The lights come up and you start reading these lovely snapshots of these bygone times.”
The real-life couple has been together for 36 years, and Kathryn Hodges said they really relate to the relationship between Andrew and Melissa.
“They are very fond of each other, they are very much each other’s best friend, and that’s us in a nutshell,” she said.
Andrew and Melissa’s relationship, though, evolved during a very different time period, so understanding their characters was a process.
“As a warm-up for this production we did a little exercise where we reversed roles,” Erik Hodges said. “This play is very much written from the analogous male point of view [and] seeing the character from her point of view was an eye-opener. While the male just sails through [life] … [Melissa], because she’s a little eccentric and different, she’s penalized.”
The Hodges have been part of the local theater scene for decades; Erik Hodges started performing with the Community Players of Concord when he was 10, and Kathryn Hodges joined the Players when she was 20.
“Even though both Erik and I have a long history with community theater, we don’t often appear in the same show, or if we are in the same show our characters have nothing to do with each other,” Kathryn Hodges said.
Love Letters has been a special opportunity for them as actors, and it’s a unique play for audiences to experience as well.
“The show seems very, very simple, but it’s so much more,” Kathryn Hodges said.
Love Letters Where: Hatbox Theatre, 270 Loudon Road, Concord When: Friday, March 18, and Saturday, March 19, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 20 at 2 p.m. Tickets: $22 for adults, $19 for members, seniors and students and $16 for senior members. Tickets may be reserved by calling 715-2315 or visiting hatboxnh.com.
The future of Hatbox Theatre
It’s been a tumultuous month for Hatbox Theatre founder Andrew Pinard. The venue was unexpectedly served with an eviction notice from Steeplegate Mall Realty on Feb. 11; that notice was rescinded shortly thereafter. Pinard said in a phone interview on March 9 that he couldn’t imagine how he would have packed everything up and gotten out of there in 30 days.
Now, Pinard has faith that the verbal agreement that Hatbox made with the mall to stay put — and to extend the amount of eviction notification time — will be honored.
“We’re waiting for the mall to provide written confirmation. We expect that will be the case,” he said.
And while the news that Hatbox could stay came as a relief, it also served as a wake-up call.
“It was a very alarming moment in time,” Pinard said. “[We realized] we need to be thinking of our future and forever homes. We hope to stay in our current location for a long time, but we have to be pragmatic and look into other options.”
Even if the mall allows Hatbox to stay indefinitely, the theater company itself has been struggling since the pandemic started, which might force some changes anyway.
“The numbers are still not what they ought to be,” he said. “Things where people congregate — sports, concerts … are still not attended in the way that people expect.”
Pinard recently attended a meeting with fellow performing arts groups, and the general consensus is that most are not expecting to get back to even 70 percent of their typical audience numbers until summer 2023.
“From an artistic perspective … even though we’re starting to reconnect in person, there’s still a lot of concern,” he said.
Along with less income from ticket sales, venues are also dealing with increased costs. Pinard said he had about $7,500 worth of utility bills in two months, when revenue was “maybe $800, maybe $1,000.”
“We can only continue to operate a deficit for so long,” he said. “We’re in the hole, and every weekend we do performances, if we don’t meet a certain number of attendees, we continue to be in the hole.”
Pinard said he’s “cautiously optimistic that we’re going to make it through this,” and they’ve invested heavily in protective measures like UV filters to make sure patrons are safe and feel comfortable returning. But things are going to need to start improving fairly quickly.
“If this doesn’t come back within a year, we may not be able to afford to stay open,” Pinard said.
New space and new equipment for Beaver Brook Maple
Curiosity — that’s essentially how Andrew Mattiace ended up with the brand new sugarhouse on his property in Bow. After his grandmother’s funeral in 2017, Mattiace and his family visited her favorite sugarhouse in Charlestown; at one point, Mattiace looked at the evaporator and thought, “This thing just boils water? I can do this.”
So, being a “curious engineer,” he built his own evaporator, tapped some maple trees in his backyard, and in 2018 produced maple syrup for the first time — a whopping 5 gallons.
“The first year was horrendous,” he laughed.
Mattiace learned mostly by scouring the internet, and then through trial and error — and there were a lot of errors, he said. But what he produced in the end was good stuff, worthy of bottling and selling.
“It was like, OK, I can make syrup now, but how do I sell it?” he said.
He decided to build a self-serve farmstand on his property and named his business Beaver Brook Maple. Once he started selling, the demand quickly outpaced how much he was producing, even after he started to get the hang of it.
Andrew Mattiace’s sugarhouse at Beaver Brook Maple. Photos by Meghan Siegler.
Mattiace now has plenty of sap, tapping into some of his neighbors’ trees too. On a recent Friday 13-year-old Miles Miller and his dad Joe dropped off almost 130 gallons of sap from their own trees. It was their second run of the week; a few days earlier, they’d brought 80. Miles, who does the majority of the tree tapping and sap collecting, walked away Friday with $55 for that day’s delivery. He said they’ve lucked out with the maple trees on their property.
“They have a pretty high sugar content,” he said.
With neighbors selling him sap and plenty of people buying his syrup, the sugarhouse was the next logical step for Mattiace. He wanted to upsize his tank to produce more syrup in a shorter period of time.
Plus, he said, “I got tired of freezing my a** off. It’s very laborious and time consuming, and I wanted to get out of the outdoor process.”
His old evaporator processed eight gallons of sap in an hour, while the new one can process 35 gallons. His goal for this year is to produce 50 gallons of syrup, up from 23 last year, which will be much easier with the new equipment and warmer space, he said.
Mattiace isn’t in this for the money. In fact, if he sells those 50 gallons, he’ll just about break even.
“If I count my labor, I’m completely in the red,” he said.
Mattiace doesn’t want to grow Beaver Brook Maple into a big business. He has a full-time job that pays the bills, and this “hobby” already takes a lot of time.
“I want to make it worthwhile, but I never want to exceed 100 gallons a year,” he said.
Mattiace’s main goal has always been to create a sense of community, a place where friends and family come to hang out.
“That’s a real driving factor for me,” he said. “Everybody loves sweet, sugary things.”
Featured photo: Andrew Mattiace and his new sugarhouse at Beaver Brook Maple. Photos by Meghan Siegler.
