Category: Art & Theater

League of NH Craftsmen gathering more than a craft fair

As economic uncertainty continues to affect nonprofits across the country, many people wonder if there’s something they can do to make a difference. For those committed to supporting the creative economy, particularly in New Hampshire, the answer can be surprisingly simple: come to the fair.

The annual League of New Hampshire Craftsmen’s Fair is a beloved regional tradition, but it’s also a powerful way for individuals to support the state’s arts community. A celebration of creativity with works from hundreds of artisans, it has roots tracing back to the Great Depression.

“It was one of the first programs created to be a stimulus to help the state reemerge out of a really difficult financial time,” Executive Director Kate Saunders said in a recent phone interview. “It was actually in partnership with state support. It’s a different era now, but it’s a legacy that’s 92 years old.”

Coming to the fair, which opens on Saturday, Aug. 2, and runs daily through Aug. 10, helps not just the League’s mission. Also represented are the New Hampshire Art Association, which has its own tent, and close to a dozen guilds consisting of makers and creators throughout the state.

“So it’s not just supporting the League membership, but you’re actually supporting so many different creative organizations throughout the state of New Hampshire, which I think is really important for people to be mindful of,” Saunders said.

Daily demonstrations are a highlight of the fair. Blacksmith Garry Kalajian will be there every day, continuing an amazing streak. “He’s demonstrated all nine days of the fair, at every fair, for 25 years straight,” Saunders marveled. “He’s just so unique, and it’s not often that you get to see a blacksmith in action.”

A chance to watch artisans at work is one of the reasons the fair is free for kids 16 and under.

“A lot of people, especially New Hampshire residents, have these core memories of the first time they saw a wood turner on the lathe or a blacksmith in action,” Saunders continued. “Core memories are created at the mountain each year.”

Music is an integral part of the event, provided by NH Music Collective.

Performers include Jack Ancora, Brad Myrick, Kimayo, Tom Pirozzoli, Temple Mountain, Chris Lester, Jacob McCurdy and others.

“One of the commitments that the League made this year is to increase the amount … by about 50 percent,” Saunders said. “Because it’s not just about the makers, but also supporting a range of artists.”

A full schedule is available on the Fair’s website, along with a list of participants. Guests can experience it in a leisurely mode by visiting individual artist booths. There’s also the one-stop Shop at the Fair, a cooperative sales area for juried members, most of whom don’t have a dedicated spot, to sell their work in a centralized location.

Though the road ahead seems at times daunting, Saunders remains steadfast — and resourceful.

“It makes me really sad to see that funding go away,” she said, but rather than yielding to discouragement, the League is responding with renewed creativity. That means leveraging its network of sponsors and donors to design a sustainable model for the future rooted in advocacy, partnership and public engagement.

One such initiative is House of Representatives Day at the fair. Saunders has invited legislators from every district across the state, encouraging those with craftspeople in their regions to come witness the fair firsthand. The goal is to help these representatives see the fair not just as a regional event tied to Sunapee or Concord, but as a statewide cultural institution that helps artisans and the creative economy from border to border.

By offering a tangible demonstration of the League’s reach and impact, she hopes to deepen legislators’ understanding of what the League represents. It is, in her words, “a signature of excellence not only in fine craft, but also in the history and culture of the state of New Hampshire.”

More importantly, this year’s event is a call to action. As public funding wanes and challenges rise, community support becomes even more essential. For those who believe in the arts and the creative economy, it’s more than just an enjoyable day out; it’s a powerful vote of confidence in the value of creativity, culture, and craftsmanship in New Hampshire.

“There’s no excuse,” Saunders concluded. “It’s nine days. I’d love to see us reporting back a record attendance this year.”

92nd Annual League of NH Craftsmen’s Fair
When: Saturday, Aug. 2, through Sunday, Aug. 10, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily
Where: Mount Sunapee Resort, 1398 Route 103, Newbury
Tickets: $18/one day and $28/two day, 17 and up at nhcrafts.org (16 and under free)

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Terminus Underground hosts outdoor arts fair

After a raucous indoor afternoon metal show last Sunday, New Hampshire Underground will move outdoors for the Parking Lot Pop Up Unplugged Music & Art Fair. It happens one day after the Nashua Summer Stroll and includes a vendor fair with art, clothing, plants, pottery and other creations from Underground members MyArtbyKF, LAD Art NH, Keira Curtis, Prospero Eaton, Aimee Dumont, Cosmo Loona, Joshua Jackiewicz, and Dubz Dyes.

Of course, there’s music, but dialed down a notch, according to the organization’s CEO Eleanor Luna.

“Out of respect for the residents, we will keep it acoustic,” she said recently. “We hope to create an enjoyable, accessible event for all.”

After a performance by AirFlow Projection Art at 1 p.m., Lyle Hutchins, supporting a new album, performs light rock. Named after alt country star Lyle Lovett and raised in a rural corner of the state, Hutchins “always knew he wanted to be a musician,” according to his website. Inspired by Bon Iver, Ruston Kelly, Snail Mail and others, his music blends alt rock, Americana and folktronica.

After attending college in New Orleans, Hutchins released his debut album, Flatlander, described as “a fourteen-song narrative which explores the beauty and danger of nostalgia, homesickness and heartbreak, underscored by the trials and tribulations of pursuing an often misunderstood career in music.”

Next up is Soul Thread, an all original family-friendly rock band from Nashua. At 4 p.m., Keira Curtis and her band Ashborne will “amp it up just a little bit,” according to Luna, followed by the even more boisterous acoustic metal from Konseptikor. Also performing are local musicians Joshua Nobody and Jesse Rutstein.

“Artists and musicians are the lifeblood of the work we do bringing independent talent to the forefront,” Luna said. “This event is about boundary pushing, hence the first time we are hosting Terminus Underground outside.” Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs to the family-friendly event.

“Let’s have a unique experience at Terminus Underground al Fresco,” said Luna.

Parking Lot Pop Up Unplugged Music and Art Fair
When: Sunday, July 27, 1-6 p.m.
Where: Terminus Underground, 134 Haines St., Nashua
Tickets: $15 at newhampshireunderground.org

Featured photo: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Courtesy photo.

Theatre Kapow and Ballet Misha combine for Romeo & Juliet

A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been a staple of Saint Anselm College’s Shakespeare on the Green series since it began in 2023, but this year’s selection is Romeo & Juliet. It’s a work that the play’s director, Emma Cahoon of Theatre Kapow, believes is sometimes misunderstood. That’s one reason why she looks forward to doing it.

“I enjoy taking these texts that people feel they really know or have sound notions of, and doing something different with them to see if we can encourage audiences to experience that story in a new way,” she said by phone last spring.

More recently, Cahoon said the production is a pivot from her company’s regular fare in a couple of ways. First, working outdoors is a big change.

“The foundation of a lot of our work is intimate spaces … that allow the audience to be as close and personal to the actors and the story as possible. That’s where the name Kapow comes from — in your face, right there.”

Next, the company began collaborating with Ballet Misha, led by Amy Fortier, for last year’s series, at the behest of Dana Center Director Joe Deleault. The pairing provides what Cahoon termed “a third, middle ground” that unifies Romeo & Juliet’s dance and drama.

“It is … a very physical story, and I’ve been thinking about marrying the physical language of both the dance and then our fight and intimacy choreography,” she said. She hopes to “take the language of both, work with our actors, observe Amy’s choreography and then build this … hybrid language that will be both things.”

As rehearsals commenced on June 29, she’d already had the chance to see some of Ballet Misha’s dancing for the play, saying it was a “really helpful” experience.

“For me as a director, music is a huge entry point,” she said. “It’s really a way that I can connect with the emotional world of the play. Having the baseline right away of the Prokofiev score that Ballet Misha is using and accessing the world that way has been really getting me in the mindset, and getting me so excited.”

Removing close physical proximity of the actors in the audience is a challenge, she allowed. “But I’ve been thinking about ways to heighten the intensity and the reality of the emotion for these characters, and one choice that we’ve made I’m super excited about, because it’s an experiment that either really won’t work or will be awesome.”

Most Theatre Kapow Shakespeare productions feature doubling — one actor in two roles — and gender ambiguity. “We typically have female or non-binary actors playing characters across the gender spectrum,” Cahoon said. “This time around we have one actor playing both Juliet and Tybalt, which is a really crazy track.”

For those unfamiliar with the plot: At one point Romeo kills Tybalt, making the casting a particularly bold move. “That unlocked something for me when we figured out it could even be an option,” Cahoon said. “It felt like a key to exploding some of these more buried themes in the text that I was really interested in pulling out.”

Another difference this year is the cast.

“With Midsummer we were typically working with actors of around the same age, because in that piece it’s mostly teenage lovers and fairies, who are timeless in a way,” Cahoon said. Romeo and Juliet, on the other hand, is a generational story that calls for age diversity.

“So between our seven actors we span generations — and also experience level,” Cahoon said. “I think it’ll be a really great opportunity for those of us working on the piece [to] bring to life that generational thing that’s really present in this play, and it’s something that I’m particularly interested in exploring right now.”

Shakespeare On The Green – Romeo & Juliet
When: Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., July 17 through July 26
Where: Alumni Hall, 100 Saint Anselm Drive, Manchester
Tickets: $25 at anselm.edu (under 12 free)
In the event of inclement weather, performance will be held inside at Koonz Theatre

Featured photo: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Courtesy photo.

Film, fine arts, music and more in Sunapee Harbor

Center For The Arts, located in the Sunapee region, has a wide reach. This distinction will be apparent during the annual Arts Week, which opens July 11. Along with bucolic paintings and photographs at a “Naturally New England” juried show in the historic Livery, there will be a film about barn preservation, and a songwriter’s circle.

“We dabble and focus on not only the visual, but performing and literary arts, which is super different — I don’t know of many that really address all three of those things,” Dana Stahlheber, CFA’s Executive Director, said recently. “I love that, I think it’s really special … the performing arts and music piece is just so beautiful.”

Stahlheber will moderate the July 19 Behind The Lyrics event ($15/$20) with Tom Pirozzoli, Click Horning, Grace Rapetti and Colin Nevins. The four will, she said, “share their storytelling and how they go about writing their music, and then they’ll play a song. It’s an open discussion and sharing on … the creative process that they use to come about their songs.”

A Friday evening kickoff party ($45/$55) at Prospect Hill Antiques marks the event’s official start. After a temporary tenancy at the still-closed Anchorage Restaurant, a Bow craft brewer has moved its Sunapee outpost to the first floor of the gallery. “It’s a wonderful marriage,” Stahlheber said.

Prospect Hill’s upper level remains a gallery store.

“We’re going to be up there for a good portion of time, with art from the’ Naturally New England’ artists up there,” she said. “But down the stairs on the first floor is the Hoptimystic Brewery now. There’s a little mini porch out front that you can sit on and look at the bubbling brook that goes by.”

Guests will receive tickets to sample beer, enjoy live music and explore art. Some artists will speak about their work or demonstrate their process, adding an educational and interactive layer to the evening. As Dana notes, “We’re raising funds at this point for a community arts campaign,” a sign of how much the organization has expanded in just the past year.

The 14^th annual Arts in the Harbor happens July 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., a gathering of crafters, artists and artisans under tents, with fine art and crafts for purchase such as oils, acrylics, watercolors, monotypes, pastels, drawings, photography, block prints, sculpture, pottery, fine jewelry, gold and silver work, weaving, fiber arts, wood, metal, stone and sculpture.

On July 13 at the Livery, located at 58 Main St. on the approach to the harbor, there’s a showing of Jim Westphalen’s film Vanish – Disappearing Icons of a Rural America ($15/$20), along with an art exhibit dedicated to the many barns, meetinghouses and historic buildings that are quietly disappearing from New England’s landscape.

The Livery itself is a testament to the importance of preservation. Once an old structure, it has been revitalized into a jewel of the community, frequently hosting music and art events. For example, on Friday, July 11, Grammy-nominated singer songwriter Ari Hest will perform, a show that’s not affiliated with Arts Week ($20, thelivery.org).

Stahlheber urges the curious to “come and make a weekend of it,” noting that while Sunapee may be a bit off the beaten path, that’s part of its charm. It remains laid-back, scenic and accessible, with a medium bowl of porridge feel — just right. Yes, parking in the harbor can be tight, and shuttle solutions are still under discussion, but the slower pace and close-knit vibe make up for logistical challenges.

Sunapee Arts Week
When: Friday, July 11, through Sunday, July 20
Where: Sunapee Harbor and other locations
Tickets: centerfortheartsnh.org

Featured photo: LiveryFalls By Jay Fitzpatrick Courtesy photo.

Fourth of July weekend craft fair at Gunstock

From chainsaw art to high-tech birdhouses, along with pottery, jewelry and paintings, there’s a little bit of everything at an upcoming crafts fair at Gunstock Ski Resort in Gilford. For two days, more than 120 individual exhibitors will offer wares that are unaffected by tariffs — everything’s made in America, mostly in New England.

The event is one of several organized by Joyce’s Craft Shows. Joyce Endee is a former educator who turned to her quilting hobby when she grew frustrated with the job market more than 30 years ago. Promoting crafts shows came naturally, she said in a recent phone interview.

“I turned my passion into a business,” she said. “I was a business teacher, so I liked doing marketing and advertising. It’s been very good to me, and I’ve made a lot of good friends. I care about these people; I hope that sets me apart…. I work to help them be successful. They’re exhibitors, but by and large, these are all artists too.”

The fair is not just a marketplace; it’s an immersive experience that offers glimpses into the creative process. One of the best is a demonstration by an artist who takes a chainsaw to large chunks of reclaimed trees and sculpts intricate figures, all without sketching a design beforehand.

“She doesn’t even draw on the wood, she just does it from her brain, and it’s amazing,” Endee said of Sanbornton wood carver Elise Ford. “She carves beautiful bears and a whole different group of birds, like cardinals. And then she’ll stain them — the bears will typically be black, the cardinals, obviously, red.”

The live artistry continues with a potter who’ll be working on a wheel, showcasing traditional ceramic techniques. Other craftspeople will be spinning yarn and creating handmade jewelry. Some artists offer customization of their works, Endee said. “I have a wonderful exhibitor that makes his own charcuterie boards and cutting boards, which he will personalize, so it makes them extra special.”

There are some options for those interested in what Endee calls “true art,” but it’s really a crafts show.

“I do have artists; I have one that does watercolors of mountains, and people love his work,” she said. “He does very well because I have a lot of shows in the mountains. I don’t have a lot of acrylic artists; I’m always looking.”

Endee emphasizes that her fair offers a way to support both the local economy and its arts.

“These people have amazing creativity, and I’m very proud of them,” she said.

4th of July Weekend Craft Fair
When: Saturday, July 5, and Sunday, July 6, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Where: Gunstock Mountain Resort, 719 Cherry Valley Road, Gilford
More: joycescraftshows.com

More Fourth of July events
Concord also celebrates on Friday, July 4; festivities start at 6 p.m. in Memorial Field with food vendors and music followed by fireworks at 9:20 p.m., according to the city’s parks and rec summer brochure. See concordnh.gov.

Manchester’s Independence Day celebration starts at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 3, in Arms Park with vendors and DJ Adam Furious, according to the city’s Economic Development office’s Facebook page. Fireworks are at 9 p.m. The NH Fisher Cats game on Thursday is also slated to have fireworks; gametime is 6:35 p.m. versus the Portland Sea Dogs. See milb.com/new-hampshire.

Merrimack’s Fourth of July celebration include a patriotic concert on Thursday, July 3, at 6 p.m. in Abbie Griffin Park; a parade on Friday, July 4, at 1 p.m. and fireworks at Merrimack High School that evening at 9:15 p.m., according to merrimackparksandrec.org.

Amherst’s July 4th celebration starts at 9 a.m. on Friday with food vendors and activities on the Village Green, according to the Amherst NH July 4th Committee Facebook page. A children’s bike parade is at 9:45 p.m., before the main parade at 10 a.m. See amherstnh4th.org.

Nashua’s July 4 celebration starts at 11 a.m. with a Silver Knights game at Holman Stadium (first 500 adults and children under 12 get in free; reserve tickets in advance at nashuasilverknights.com). A free concert with The Slakas starts at 5:30 p.m. followed by other local acts at 7:30 p.m., the Spartans Drum & Bugle Corps at 8:30 p.m. and fireworks at dusk. See nashua.gov.

New Boston’s July 4 happenings are at the Hillsborough County Youth Center Fairgrounds, where the gates open at 4 p.m. and offerings include kids’ activities, food, live music and more before fireworks at approximately 9:30 p.m., according to newboston4thofjuly.org and the organization’s Facebook page.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.