• Guitar man: Led by a Grammy-winning Country Music Hall of Famer, Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives return for an area show. The singer/guitarist joined Lester Flatts’ bluegrass band at age 13 and is an in-demand session player. His latest, Space Junk, is a double album of instrumentals released this year on Record Store Day, inspired by the Ventures and Tijuana Brass. Thursday, Oct. 16, 8 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $58 and up at tupelohall.com.
• Fusion band: Named after a friend’s boating mishap, Annie In The Water offers a contagious hybrid of rock, funk and rhythm infused with a feel-good reggae groove. It’s the kind of sound that kept Michael Franti bouncing around the globe for decades, done with capability and verve. Last summer’s EP Migration has the soulful tune “Tangled Up” and a trio of lovely, jazzy songs about birds. Friday, Oct. 17, 8 p.m., Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester, annieinthewater.com.
• Game time: A little bit comic con and a whole lot of bass heaviness, Video Game Rave is an evening of dance music with backdrops befitting the theme. DJs Synova and Groove Cube team up to blend pop hits and theme music from games like Mario Kart and Sonic the Hedgehog, with everything accompanied by projection video of classic games. Yes, cosplay is encouraged, so come as Luigi. Saturday, Oct. 18, 8 p.m., BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord, $24 and up at ccanh.com.
• Junk festival: A day of music, food trucks, vendors and other activities, Kindfest 2025 is capped by a closing set from Recycled Percussion. The outdoor show includes four bands leading into the America’s Got Talent stars: Sunapee singer-songwriter Chris Powers, rockers Five Button Fly, Runnin’ Down a Dream doing Tom Petty’s music, and the Eric Grant Band playing country. Saturday, Oct. 18, noon, Field of Dreams Park, 48 Geremonty Drive, Salem, $30 at eventbrite.com.
• Drum power: With a kinetic mix of jazz, rock and fusion, Cindy Blackman Santana brings her band to Portsmouth. Santana’s drumming is heard on the version of “In The Air Tonight” that opens Monday Night Football every week. Her set includes solo songs, Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter covers, and some from Coherence, a new LP due next year. Sunday, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m., Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club, 135 Congress St., Portsmouth, $20 and up at ticketmaster.com.
When the cast of Something Rotten! Jr. steps on stage at Concord Auditorium on Oct. 17, it will mark the beginning of the 30th season at Community Players of Concord’s Children’s Theatre Project. Karen Braz co-founded it in 1996 and has led the effort for most of its existence. Once a theater kid herself, she saw the need a few years after joining the company.
“Back then, there were not the plethora of programs that there are now,” Braz said in a recent phone interview. She wanted to launch something similar to a program her mother helped run in North Conway when she was young. “Peacock Players and Andy’s Playhouse were around, but nobody had youth theater. So we started ours.”
Looking back on her time at CTP, Braz hopes she’s given the many generations of participants a love for theater, both on stage and behind the scenes.
“There were a lot of kids that got to do a lot of things,” she said, like lighting and costumes. “Hopefully, they are now people who treasure the performing arts, and support them.”
Braz believes theater is about more than just providing entertainment to audiences.
“It is a microcosm of what life is going to be,” she said. “You put in the work … it’s not just theater, it’s everything.” The discipline needed to pull off a show, she continued, reflects the determination needed to achieve anything meaningful in life.
Braz has wanted to do the upcoming production, a musical comedy set in Shakespeare’s era about two down-on-their-luck playwrights who live in the shadow of the rock star Bard. The Bottom Brothers, Nick and Nigel, are told by a soothsayer that the next big thing in theater will be the musical. Though baffled — musicals don’t yet exist — they get to work.
She saw the musical comedy 10 years ago in New York City, when she attended a three-day Music Theater International workshop while celebrating her 60th birthday.
“They gave us tickets to four Broadway shows, and one was Something Rotten,” she recalled. “It had just come out, and I thought it was the most hilarious thing I’d ever seen.”
When the rights to perform it became available last spring, Braz pounced and began planning for the fall production.
“It might not have been the best-known choice for a 30th anniversary, but I loved the characters, the era, the jokes,” she said. “The way it references so many other musicals is just brilliant.”
The show’s meta-theatrical humor, clever references and reimagining of Shakespeare as Mick Jagger with a quill pen resonated with Braz.
“I love the way they contextualize it in the modern era,” she said. “It’s easily the most sophisticated junior production we’ve done.”
To that end, in recent years, CTP has moved to casting more older teens in its centerpiece productions, with a wider age range for its summer and winter vacation theater camps. This allows them to portray more complex relationships, such as the Bottom Brothers and their romantic subplots, with authenticity and nuance.
“To do justice to the [collective] visions for the shows … even on a junior level, I shy away from 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds,” Braz said. Raising the age limit, she continued, means experienced actors who “bring a level of maturity to the characters, and to the story, that wouldn’t ordinarily be at all possible with much younger kids.”
Last year the Concord Community Players created an annual award in Braz’s name, making her the first recipient. Such a tribute might signal the beginning of an end for the theater den mother and self-described “cat herder” of young actors. But 30 years on, she has no plans to exit the stage.
“I just want to keep on going, I don’t want to just shut it all down,” she said. “Eventually I guess I’ll have to, or I’ll pass the torch to somebody else if there’s anybody that wants to do it. But every milestone — the 10th, the 15th, the 20th — it’s always like, wow, this has been going for a while. This is a lot of shows.”
Something Rotten! Jr. When: Friday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 18, at 2 p.m. Where: Concord City Auditorium, 2 Prince St., Concord Tickets: $15 at communityplayersofconcord.org
Both Sides Now explores Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen
A tribute act that isn’t exactly, Both Sides Now looks at the music and lives of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. The two were briefly lovers, but remained lifetime friends and mutual muses. Robbie Schaefer plays Cohen, and Danielle Wertz is Mitchell. The cabaret-style concert was first performed last year at the Signature Theatre in Northern Virginia.
Wertz and Schaefer’s paths converged after he’d been asked to do a Mitchell cabaret show himself and declined.
“His response was, ‘That’s kind of a weird fit, and … a heavy vocal lift,” Wertz recalled from a solo tour stop in the Czech Republic. However, Schaefer had been reading up on Cohen, learning about the relationship between the two songwriters. He said, “I think that’s a much more interesting narrative,” and asked them to find him a Joni.
That turned out to be a hard request. The Signature went to its book and couldn’t find a fit, until their director was in New York City working on a new musical. He met Wertz, an old friend, for lunch, and mentioned the show, asking if she liked Mitchell. “I was like, ‘yeah, of course I love Joni Mitchell … she’s been my obsession for the last 10 years.’”
A quick phone call, some emailed links and a few weeks later the two were introduced in California, where both had solo tour stops.
“We met literally on the side of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean,” Wertz said. They played Mitchell’s “A Case of You” together. “Immediately we were like, ‘Yep, this is going to be a great fit, this all is going to work out.’”
Schaefer’s career began in the 1990s with Canadian indie folk band Eddie From Ohio, and he’s made several solo records. The singer, songwriter and guitarist is also a playwright, a recently ordained rabbi and founder of Lamplighters, described as “an online community that cultivates small-batch, relationship-driven, inclusive Judaism.”
Wertz is an accomplished jazz musician and composer who’d earned comparisons to Mitchell before the collaboration. In a review of her second album, 2020’s Other Side, Jazz Weekly writer George W. Harris praised the title song for its “Joni Mitchell’d tenderness.”
The decades-spanning show includes nine Mitchell and seven Cohen songs and opens with the tune that gave Schaeffer and Wertz their first click of musical recognition. The song underscores an idea that reverberates throughout the evening and is emphasized via the easy chairs and lit candles in the stage design.
“Joni and Leonard really did not write music that has tribute show energy; they wrote with such depth and vulnerability,” Wertz said. “I think ‘A Case of You’ does a good job of introducing to the audience what kind of show this is going to be, as opposed to starting with something like, ‘You Turn Me On I’m A Radio.’”
The show touches on interesting intersectionalities such as the fact that both began artistic careers outside of music, Cohen as a poet and novelist, Mitchell as a painter, something she was forced to do after leaving art school when she got pregnant and had to move to a home for unwed mothers. After the birth, the 18-year old new mother gave her baby up for adoption.
“What she had intended to do with the next chapter of her life was to continue being a very serious painter,” Wertz said, explaining that she was moved by the reasoning for Mitchell’s move into music. “After she had the baby, the only way that she knew she could make money was by singing covers of folk songs in coffee shops.”
Cohen’s faith is highlighted in the show. The two have recorded and plan to release “Who By Fire,” a song that includes pieces of the R’tzei prayer sung at high holidays, such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
“Leonard was raised in an Orthodox household and spent a lot of his life leaning into those traditions and then backing away,” Wertz said. “So much of his music asks, ‘Is this about God or is this about lust?’ It’s often both. We weave the prayer into that song, then pull it back out and let the lyrics … speak for themselves.”
Both Sides Now inevitably includes a rendition of the song that embodies Cohen to most of the world — a reluctant choice, according to Wertz.
“When we were putting the show together, we both rolled our eyes and went, well, we have to do ‘Hallelujah,’” she said. “But once we started playing it, really taking time, digging deeper and reading between the lines in the lyrics, we know it’s such a blessing to get to sing it every night.”
Both Sides Now When: Friday, Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m. Where: BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord Tickets: $51 at ccanh.com
• Song queen: A benefit for the NH Prostate Cancer Coalition, Celebrating Celine is singer Jenene Caramielo’s tribute to the French-Canadian chanteuse, featuring hits like “Because You Loved Me,” “I Drove All Night” and the meme-launcher “My Heart Will Go On.” The opera-trained Caramielo also does Broadway and Whitney Houston tributes. Thursday, Oct. 9, 7:30 p.m., Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., Manchester, $44 at palacetheatre.org.
• Twin bill: Led by a singularly energetic, and shoeless, singer-guitarist, Adam Ezra Group is a top draw at an Exeter listening room, so much that they’re doing early and late shows at their latest visit. Ezra has infectious energy, and is also quite munificent, each year hosting The Ramble, an all-day charity festival that helps veterans find housing, now in its 16th year. Friday, Oct. 10, 5 & 8 p.m., The Word Barn, 66 Newfields Road, Exeter, $49 at thewordbarn.com.
• Total emo: The Black Charade offers three different bands covering the best of the emo sound. Dangerous Nights performs as My Chemical Romance, Heely & the Moon Shoes assume the role of Taking Back Sunday, while A Blockbuster Summer does Jimmy Eat World, whose “The Middle” is arguably the genre’s pinnacle. Saturday, Oct. 11, 8 p.m., Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester, facebook.com/KineticCityEvents.
• Six strings: Between showcase concerts with his trio and jazz brunch at Jimmy’s in Portsmouth, Brad Myrick is a busy guy these days. The talented guitarist will head to France next month to mentor at a creativity retreat with former Suncook resident Vinx. For now, he’s doing lots of local shows, including a recurring one at a cidery that’s a stone’s throw from his home base. Sunday, Oct. 12, 1 p.m., Contoocook Cider Co., 656 Gould Hill Road, Contoocook, bradmyrick.com.
As the colors of autumn foliage begin to fade, the streets of downtown Nashua will brighten, as a community-wide effort will turn patches of sidewalk into the pages of a coloring book. On Oct. 11 the city’s Great American Downtown booster group will host Coloring Main Street, inviting artists and art lovers to fill in a life-size coloring book.
From Main Street Bridge to the public library and City Hall, chalk outline murals will be ready for coloring. The project was sparked by Great American Downtown Executive Director Alyssa O’Mara, who assumed the leadership role at the organization in June. She envisions the “inherently temporary” art form as a good way to unify the community for a day.
O’Mara talked about Coloring Main Street, and Great American Downtown’s future plans, in a recent email interview.
If the Coloring Main Street templates were a coloring book, how many pages would it be?
Fun question! I’d say at least 15 pages. We’ve given the artists creative freedom to design their sections of sidewalk however they’re inspired. Each will complete two to three separate pieces, with some areas intentionally left open so our attendees have room to kneel or sit while coloring them in. Students from the Nashua High School Art Honor Society will also be working in pairs on their sections.
What are some of the pictures that artists will fill in, and where are they located?
Each artist was asked to create something positive and family-friendly, with full freedom over the subject matter. Some designs include animals, spooky Halloween themes, flowers, and more. Styles range from simple, kid-friendly outlines to more intricate designs that older children and adults will enjoy coloring. The murals will be spread along Main Street, from the Pearl Street area down to the bridge and over by the Nashua Public Library.
What was the inspiration for doing this event?
When I started in this role in June, I was already attending meetings of the Downtown Business Roundtable, a group of local business owners working to promote each other. We often collaborate by providing outdoor music for their Third Thursday events. During one of my first meetings as Executive Director, we were brainstorming ideas for fun, unique, family-friendly programming. What began as a chalk walk suggestion from Liz Hannum, Director of Economic Development, quickly evolved into this coloring book concept. One of my favorite things about downtown Nashua is its public art, and this felt like a wonderful opportunity to create a new kind of canvas for the community.
How is the event funded?
When City Arts Nashua closed in 2024, they generously donated funds to Great American Downtown specifically for arts programming. From that donation, GAD is compensating the professional artists and covering supplies. Student artists are volunteering their time, and downtown businesses will also be putting out colorful chalk for attendees to use.
How does the event further Great American Downtown’s mission?
GAD’s mission is to provide coordination, collaboration, and partnerships that unify Nashua around a common vision for an attractive, vibrant downtown that truly reflects the character of our city. Downtown Nashua already showcases murals by Positive Street Art, sculptures from the International Sculpture Symposium, historic theaters like the Janice B. Streeter, and the new Center for the Arts with performances and gallery exhibits. This event adds to that legacy in an especially interactive way. Coloring Main Street invites our residents and visitors to become the artists themselves, while also bringing people together in celebration of creativity. Street art is inherently temporary, especially when created with chalk, but the experience lasts. That’s what we’re really working for.
Anything you’d like to add?
This is the first of five events we’ll be hosting between now and the end of November. Next up is the Main Street Monster Mash on Saturday, Oct. 25 … immediately following the library’s story time and Halloween celebration. Kids can enjoy trick-or-treating on Main Street, a Howl-oween Puppy Parade with prizes for the best costumes (in partnership with the Humane Society for Greater Nashua), and a special surprise performance by the ActorSingers. We’re thrilled to keep building on Downtown Nashua’s reputation as a hub of arts, culture and community fun.
Coloring Main Street When: Saturday, Oct. 11, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Where: City Hall, 229 Main St., Nashua More: linktr.ee/downtownnashua
And other ways to help keep the local arts scene afloat
Arts and cultural leaders from throughout the state recently gathered for the first annual Creative Culture Summit at the BNH Stage in Concord, a meetup organized in response to a devastating year that saw arts funding in the state all but wiped out. But it was a day to plan, not lament, said Sal Prizio, who runs the Capitol Center, leads advocacy group Arts4NH, and was a driving force behind the event.
“We got our butts kicked in May and June by this stuff. We didn’t get anything we asked for, and they more or less ignored us,” Prizio said one week after the conference. “So you have two choices. You can either wallow in sorrow and say ‘woe is me,’ or you get back in the ring.”
Arts4NH believes a bigger tent means greater chances for success, so a call went out to groups that are part of the creative economy but often aren’t included in discussions about the arts. This included craft brewers, librarians and a nonprofit devoted to recruiting and retaining young talent, Stay Work Play NH.
“What I do know matters to people is a sense of not feeling alone anymore,” Prizio said. “The argument I keep making to elected officials is that all of us in the creative economy, not just the arts but humanities, tourism, the brewers, you name it … is what makes New Hampshire uniquely New Hampshire.”
The energy shown at the Creative Culture Summit will, he hopes, mean a bigger megaphone to lobby with.
“We’re always operating at the margins just to get through the day, and there’s never enough time for collective action,” he said. “But we matter. We represent billions of dollars’ worth of revenue … hundreds of thousands of people in this state. You need to start listening to us.”
Michael Haley Golden, Executive Director of NH Humanities and a summit keynote speaker, said, “These feel like dark times, because things are hard. We must change the narrative … build a bridge between the arts and humanities. All kinds of areas that we don’t think of as exactly our work need to be exactly our work.”
In his opening remarks at the summit, Prizio was succinct. “Don’t try to change the world, change your world,” he said.
When she’s not preparing for a Theatre Kapow production — the next is What The Constitution Means To Me in February — Carey Cahoon, Arts4NH board member and a panel leader at the Creative Economy Summit, tries to experience as much of the local arts scene as she can. Here’s how she thinks individuals can make a difference: “There are so many different ways that folks can participate. You can go see a show, or a museum. But also think about your local library… go online or stop by and see what they have coming up — there’s undoubtedly a free program that you can participate in… We’re also entering the holiday craft fair season … call a friend and say, hey, there’s an awesome craft fair downtown. Do you want to go? Or, hey, there’s an open mic night at the bar we like to go to, let’s go see what’s up with local music. Or a slam poetry night. There are all these things that we don’t necessarily think of because you have to buy a ticket, reserve in advance. No, you don’t. There’s all kinds of things all around you … right in your backyard. And share what you’re doing. Talk about it.”
To that end, here are some ways for individuals to make a difference to the creative economy, from small acts like letter writing to grander gestures, like turning your apartment lobby into an art gallery.
Ways To Support The Creative Economy In Its Time Of Need
Donations help, large or small
The annual Mural Festival in Manchester was set for August, but it had to be postponed when a major donor pulled out. That’s not the only financial challenge the beloved event faces as it plans (hopefully) to return in the spring. Festival organizer James Chase said tariffs caused cans of spray paint historically ordered from a supplier in Canada to jump in cost. It’s all an uphill battle. “In order for the spring festival to really mirror the impact that we’ve had in the past, I’m still trying to raise $30,000 in the next eight months to be able to support artist pay stipend and raise funds, so financial support directly would help make this vision a reality,” he said. Any amount helps — go to artsbuildcommunity.com/donate.
Arts Build Community mural. Courtesy photo.
Chase’s organization is called Arts Build Community, and it lives the name as it seeks ways to bolster the local scene on a budget. In 2010, when empty storefronts dotted the downtown, he began asking proprietors to use them for art shows. The first event, called the Big Takeover, was supposed to last one day, but the response pushed it out. “We had 300 pieces of art by 100 different artists,” Chase said. “That was my way of seeing how art can have that transformative aspect.”
Chase urges folks to get involved. They can join ABC’s mailing list for early notice about their pop-up shows. “We have a drift gallery where we have a U-Haul that shows up at events unexpected. So you kind of have to be in the know to get a preview of where it’s going to be,” he said.
Attend an event
Get festivein the Lake Sunapee region at the Hay Day Fall Festival with live music, local vendors, old-timey games, wagon rides, food, fun activities for kids, and a strolling performance from magician Andrew Pinard. Before moving to magic full-time, Pinard had first-hand experience running an arts organization as the founder of Concord’s Hatbox Theatre. Following that venue’s closure, he ran the Claremont Opera House for two years, along with AVA Gallery in Lebanon.
The Hay Day festival will be held at the John Hay Estate at The Fells, 456 Route 103A, Newbury, on Sunday, Oct. 12, starting at 11 a.m.
Buy local
At the Manchester Craft Market, located in the Mall of New Hampshire (manchestercraftmarket.com), more than 250 sellers have consignment space in the store, even including regional writers, who have a book nook featuring a bevy of new titles. There’s an online component as well. Artisans “hand make all of their items,” MCM owner Jess Moores said. “I don’t let anyone bring in imported things or resell stuff, and no antiques. All handmade in New England.” For those looking to get craftier, there are classes, in things like weaving and illustration.
Find fine art
At the League of NH Craftsmen Gallery in Concord. Juried member works include ceramics, handblown glass, jewelry, prints, textiles, woodwork and more. Entry-level cost is surprisingly low, though demand can be high for items like the annual Christmas ornament, a pewter moose named Theodore. The League hosts a weeklong fair every August that showcases the best of the region’s creators. Many arts lovers plan the summer around the event. The gallery is at 36 N. Main St. in Concord, nhcrafts.org.
Sign up
Bang for buck comes with the purchase of a membership card from one of the four member Manchester Museums in the NH Museum Alliance: the Millyard Museum, the Currier Museum of Art, the SEE Science Center and the Aviation Museum of N.H. Members of any one of these museums can show their membership card at any of the others and receive half-price admission for up to four visitors. Visit manchestermuseums.org.
Appreciate architecture
The Kalil House. Courtesy photo.
The Currier is the only museum in the country to steward not one but two Frank Lloyd Wright houses. Both are open to the public for guided tours. The Zimmerman House was commissioned by Isadore and Lucille Zimmerman in 1949 and embodies Wright’s Usonian architectural concepts. The Kalil House is one of only seven easily constructed “automatic” homes and was recently added to the National Registry of Historic Places. Go to currier.org/frank-lloyd-wright to book a tour.
Turn a quiet night riotous
Comic Jody Sloane hosts Warner Comedy Underground every third Thursday in the downstairs room of Reed’s North restaurant in the bucolic town. Recently, a happy crowd enjoyed Kenny Rogerson and Rob Steen along with a buffet dinner. On Oct. 23 national headliner Rafi Gonzalez stops by (6:30 p.m. dinner, 8 p.m. show, simpletix.com), with support from Sloane and regional favorite Matt Barry. These nights help boost the local economy and mirth meter in a myriad of ways. For bonus points, folks can organize one in their town.
New comics get their start at places like the Laugh Attic open mic held every Thursday night at Strange Brew Tavern in Manchester. Show your support for these hopefuls by turning out. Equally important is enjoying a beverage and some food while you’re laughing. Ditto if you’re waiting for your three- to five- minute time slot. As one of the comics who launched the now eight-year-old get-together explained a while back, “Open mics exist to bring in people in the hopes that they buy something. That means you should support the venue even if that means only ordering a soda and giving the bartender a few bucks.” Strange Brew Tavern is at 88 Market St., Manchester; the Thursday Night Laugh Attic starts at 9 p.m. (8:15 signup).
Jam at an open mic
KC’s Rib Shack (837 Second St., Manchester, ribshack.net) has a popular open mic happening every Tuesday that also offers an extended set from a local performer. Pembroke City Limits (134 Main St., Pembroke, pembrokecitylimits.com) has an event every month on the first Wednesday hosted by Sharon McKinney. The village venue is a solid supporter of local music, with many original performers playing there, and owner Rob Azevedo is a tireless advocate for independent artists.
Want poetry, man?
Head over to Stark Brewing in Manchester for the weekly Slam Free or Die poetry open mic and slam on Thursday night at 8 p.m. in the venue’s back function room. Open mics are held at every event, while poetry slams are several times a month, with a $3-$5 sliding scale cover charge. In September the venerable event, which began at the Bridge Street Café before moving over to the Mill District, celebrated 20 years. Nationally known poets have been known to stop by for what’s usually an uplifting experience. Visit slamfreeordie.org.
Andrew Pinard on arts support at the state level, slashed to $150K/year “It’s been a struggle. I spent 13 hours one day at the Statehouse alone for the SB2 budget hearings, and it was a punch in the gut for most of us in the state. [Legislators would say,] ‘We’d really like to support this’ and then vote the opposite way to destroy the level of arts funding. An argument can be made, ‘oh, no, we support and we saved arts funding in New Hampshire,’ but $150,000 a year barely covers the cost of one employee … and losing the arts funding, meaning the matching funds at the federal level, has a significant impact, more so in rural and outlying communities [that] rely on getting 10, 12 or 15 thousand dollars a year.”
Give a vote of confidence
One of the talking points often heard from opponents of public funding for the arts is that it’s “a want, not a need.” Keith Coughlin, Executive Director at New London Barn Playhouse, finds that short-sighted.
“We are enriching our communities all over the state with what we’re able to offer,” he said. “We are driving the economy and tourism, and we’re also just making our state better, right? We talk about attracting and keeping young people, attracting employees to hospitals or the colleges…. They’re being driven by what their community has to offer them. If we’re not supporting the arts and culture, we’re just taking that away from our communities.”
New London Barn contributes in ways that aren’t as high-profile as, say, their summer stage series but are no less vital. Take for example the Caregiver Play Project, inspired by a program that gave caregivers the skills to work with dementia patients using improv. It’s grown into a production set to have a staged reading in the spring.
Unfortunately, earlier this year, the Barn received word that it lost its Improv for Caregivers funding, which put the effort in jeopardy. Fortunately, an avenue to appeal was available, and in August they received word that it was a success, though Coughlin noted, “we haven’t seen it yet officially.”
Coughlin had this to say about how individuals can help: “Participate in a way that shows this is an important fabric of the communities we live in.” That can mean giving money, or volunteering. “Support may be big or it may be small, but it very much impacts an organization, even like the Barn. We often say that ticket sales cover approximately 60 percent of our operating costs and the rest comes from donations and support, votes of confidence from our community that say, ‘We believe in what it is you’re doing and we want you to thrive.’”
Events ahead at New London Barn include a screening of Rocky Horry Picture Show on Halloween night, a night of comedy Friday, Nov. 7, starring Jim McCue of Boston Comedy Festival fame, along with Ryan Gartley and Greg Boggis, and an evening of folk tales with storyteller Simon Brooks on Nov. 14. Tickets are available at nlbarn.org/fleming.
A bit far-flung but definitely worth the trip is a performance of Romeo & Juliet by Amplified Arts in Plainfield, on Dec. 8 and Dec. 9 (tickets $10 and up at eventbrite.com). The reason it’s a good idea to go is that it’s happening in the tiny hamlet’s Town Hall, which has a three-dimensional stage backdrop that was painted by Maxfield Parrish in 1916, and restored during the 1990s following a vigorous fundraising effort.
Find art everywhere
Art galleries exist everywhere, even when they aren’t explicitly given that name. The halls of hospitals and the lobbies of apartment buildings are frequently filled with paintings, sculpture and the like. So here’s a thought for art activists: If there’s a space that could use some spice, advocate for a transformation.
Joni Taube of Art 3 Gallery in Manchester has contracted with institutional clients for more than four decades, and filled their walls with art by mostly regional creators.
“Art is the final thing,” Taube said. “When someone’s doing a space, it’s the art that warms it up and makes it a home or makes it a place of business where people want to come into. I go in as a consultant to help them figure out what’s the best way to, one, give exposure for artists, but also to make their space aesthetically the way they want it to be.”
Art 3 Gallery, at 44 W. Brook St. in Manchester, is open weekday afternoons from 12:30 to 4 p.m. A new show, “Shifting Lights,” will open in early November. The name was chosen because it “sort of suggests both the physical beauty of light and motion and the broader human experience of change, perception, transformation,” Taube said.
Gallery at the Block, located on Elm Street in Manchester in the lobby of the Bedford Block Apartments, takes the idea of using a semi-public space to bring attention to local artists and foster community. Recently, the gallery held an Urban Art Exhibit and invited a DJ to perform. “Through exhibitions and community gatherings, we aim to support creative expression, spark meaningful conversations, and promote the cultural vitality of our neighborhood and beyond,” they write on their website, galleryattheblock.com.
Talk to artists
The art world doesn’t have to be daunting. Glimpse Gallery, next to the Statehouse in Concord, is a friendly, warm space run by Meme Exum that hosts bimonthly shows. The next is Oct. 11 and features works from Mark Ruddy, Justin Smulski, Darren Taylor, Kevin Kintner, Sharon Boisvert, Benjamin Archibald and Robyn Whitney Fairclough. Glimpse offers good entry-level prices for novice collectors, but that’s not why Exum wants folks to come to an opening.
Banjo at Mosaic Gallery. Courtesy photo.
“Some people think, ‘I have to buy if I’m going to support the arts,’ but that’s not the case,” she said. With Glimpse, you’re supporting a community. Talking to the artist about their art is lifting them up and giving them an opportunity in itself. So it’s not, ‘Oh, just buy art.’ Come to the opening. Spend time with us. That’s all it is. And then if you want to buy art, that would be awesome.”
Galleries can also be great places to learn. Mosaic Art Collective, located next to the Palace Theatre in Manchester, hosts shows like the Halloween-themed “Exquisite Corpse” exhibition opening Oct. 11, but also offers classes in things like working in watercolors, acrylic painting, and art instruction for home-schoolers, all led by Mosaic staff members.
Walk around
Another good way to experience and support art is by taking it to the streets. Manchester offers a couple of art walks. One, launched recently by Mosaic Art Collective owner Liz Pieroni, focuses mainly around the theatre district. MHT Art Walk is more far-flung, with almost 40 locations stretching from the Factory on Willow to the Currier. For the latter, there’s an online map at orbitgroup.com/art-walk. Finally, a mural tour led by Arts Builds Community can be booked on their website.
Speaking of murals, Positive Street Arts in Nashua received kudos at the Creative Economy Summit for its work using urban art “to build strong communities through educational workshops, community events, and artistic services.”
The organization has an online store offering framed versions of their street creations, along with swag, and a Zeffy donation page. Those thinking big can commission a mural. Positive Street Arts has helpfully placed a price calculator on its web page, positivestreetart.org.
Have a beer and some art
Learn what your favorite craft brewery is doing to support the arts. This can include booking indie musicians, holding comedy nights, hanging works on walls for artists to sell or, in the case of To Share Brewing in Manchester, offering the premises to arts groups.
“To Share holds our artist talk when we do the mural festival,” James Chase said. “They’re so supportive, and they have a gallery right there too.”
Kate Saunders, Director, League of NH Craftsmen, talks about its early role in economic growth “A lot of people don’t know that the League was formed as we were coming out of the Great Depression, and the League actually worked with the state. It was one of the first programs that was created to be a stimulus to help the state reemerge out of a really difficult financial time. So it was actually in partnership with that state support. It’s a different era now, but it’s a legacy that’s 92 years old.”
Look at the library
Walking the walk is Symphony New Hampshire, which has a number of outreach programs in addition to the classical music performances it offers in Nashua at Keefe Auditorium and the city’s Center for the Arts, the BNH Stage in Concord and Manchester’s Rex Theatre. Symphony NH’s Executive Director Deanna Hoying sees local libraries as vital touchstones.
“Not every city or town has an opera house or a theater, but they almost always have libraries as cultural gathering places because they do a lot of programming,” she said. “Symphony New Hampshire has done performances for small ensembles for the Nashua Public Library, and we provide discounts for library patrons across the state.”
Hoying also considers the New Hampshire defunding of the arts as short-sighted.
“I think it is an uninformed statement when they say it’s a want, not a need, because they obviously are missing the economic part of this, and we have certainly presented all that,” she said. “I think there’s still … this idea of arts being charities, that we’re not businesses. This is not unique to arts; I think nonprofits in general often are looked at in some way as second-class citizens. We’re businesses. We employ people. We pay the taxes. We provide services.”
She was encouraged by the unity on display at the Creative Economy Summit, and hopes that it helps send a message about why the arts matter that may not be top of mind, but critical in a time of social divisiveness.
“I think people forget that our arts spaces are probably one of the last places that are open to everyone. We are not political. If we’re celebrating, we’re laughing, we’re crying, we’re feeling, we’re doing all these things together as a community. I think that often is lost…. We need even more to be able to have opportunities to do something together that we can all agree on.”
Hoying continued, “Finding these ways to still keep our community together are even more important when we know there are a lot of forces out there that are trying to pull us apart. And so arts spaces, whether it’s your local theater, opera house, museum, even going to see your kids play at their band concert … all those things are bringing us together because it is that neutral thing we’ve all decided is important enough that we’re going to get up off the couch and go do it.”
Featured photo: “Sassy Sarah Vaughan” by Darren Taylor, on display now at the Glimpse Gallery in Concord.
