Category: Art & Theater

Take in the natural and artistic beauty at Andres Institute

By Zachary Lewis
zlewis@hippopress.com

The Andres Institute of Art (106 Route 13, Brookline) sits on the site of a former ski lodge and granite quarry and consists of 140 acres, 12 miles of trail, and countless opportunities to encounter the sublime on a hike through art and nature. It’s “a beautiful setting, it’s gorgeous,” said Kristi St. Laurent, President of the Institute.

Andres was founded in 1998 by engineer philanthropist Paul Andres and Master Sculptor John Weidman. In 1999 they held the first International Annual Bridges and Connections Sculpture Symposium, which is where typically around three sculptors from all over the world are invited to Brookline for a few weeks to create magnificent sculpture.

Andres Institute of Art also hosts an art gallery and performance space for a myriad styles of music, from bluegrass to jazz to classical, a decision made to reflect the wide array of artistic styles represented here.

“The former ski lodge is now our welcome center,” St. Laurent said.

One hundred sculptures are on permanent display, made by artists hailing from 50 different countries. The trails where the sculptures are placed are open for free to the public any day of the year.

“You can just park your car and walk the trails,” St. Laurent said. “You don’t have to come here planning on doing 12 miles. There really is too much to see in one day, definitely.” On the Institutes’s website is a link to the app and website Trailforks, which contains a detailed map of the trails. Maps can be downloaded, or can be picked up on location.

The studio is set up for metal and stone work.

“It’s just John that’s working in the studio except for during the symposium; then the visiting artists are there,” St. Laurent said. In 2023, Weidman received the New Hampshire Governor’s Arts Award for Distinguished Leadership.

Weidman has lately been building a cupola, a furnace that can melt iron, for the 2024 Spring Iron Melt, set to take place on Saturday, June 1. Another Melt takes place in the fall.

For the Melt, essentially, participants purchase a mold, which is a 12- by 12-inch “brick” that has a 6- by 6-inch square inset that designs can be carved into with a “nail” provided by the Institute or with their own tools. On the day of the pour, each mold is coated in graphite to ease the eventual iron release, “which is like spraying a cooking pan … so that your brownies come out of the pan,” St. Laurent said. Once the iron is poured, what’s left is a half-inch-thick, 6-inch by 6-inch iron tile. “It has their design cast into it…. Some people bought them as Christmas presents.”

Details on how to sign up for future Iron Melts are on the Andres website.

The trails at Andres transform with the arrival of spring and summer.

“The change in the park in just the last week with all the leaves coming out and the flowers, it’s so beautiful,” St. Laurent said. “Even when the parking lot is full you still might not run into anybody. … It’s nice and quiet and peaceful. It’s a great place to take kids.”

More field trips are heading to Andres as well.

“I ask the kids, ‘What are the normal rules at a museum?’ and they’re like, ‘No running, we have to be quiet, don’t touch anything.’ and I said, ‘All those rules are out the window!’ and they love it. You can run, you can be loud, you can touch the art, you can take a selfie with it, you can climb on it, it’s great,” St. Laurent said. This rule applies no matter which direction or trail is taken, and apart from the art, the world around it can be considered an installation piece.

“The money view is up at the summit with the sculpture called the Phoenix, and that was from the very first symposium…. You can look out and see Mt. Monadnock and some of the other mountains in the distance and it’s absolutely gorgeous,” she said. Dogs on-leash are welcome to sniff and zoom with their owners here too.

St. Laurent’s favorite sculpture sits on the quarry trail near the quarry pond: “A human figure made out of rebar and other types of metal. I just love that one. That one’s called ‘Monument [II].’ It’s actually by a woman artist, Alexandra Limpert from New York…. Although there are many, many close runner-ups.”

In an artist statement about that piece, Limbert said she aimed to “translate the human form into metal lines, grids and compartments. This random vocabulary defines the entity beneath the façade. The exposed construction of each piece also reveals my process. Much like architecture under construction, my sculptures are anonymous monuments in states of transition.”

Encountering all the beauty, man-made and from nature, is what the Andres Institute of Art wants for their visitors.

“Part of the mission of the Andres is to get people in contact with art,” St. Laurent said. “That’s what we’re trying to do on a daily basis: art and nature.”

Spring Iron Melt 2024
Where: 106 Route 13, Brookline
When: Saturday, June 1, approximately from noon to 1 p.m.
More: andresinstitute.org, 673-7441

Clue comes to life in Concord

Who killed Mr. Boddy, with what weapon, and where? Was it Miss Peacock wielding a lead pipe in the library, or maybe Colonel Mustard with a dagger in the dining room? To anyone who’s ever played an iconic board game, this is a familiar question. It’s also the basis for a unique experience hosted by the Capitol Center for the Arts.

CLUE: A Walking Mystery invites participants, grouped into six five-person teams, to solve the now-cold case of Boddy’s demise. The quest begins at the historic Kimball House in downtown Concord, as two “butlers” who were there long ago when the crime was committed provide instructions to the sleuths-for-a-day.

The house was sold after the murder, they’re told, with all the furniture auctioned off. The butlers believe that in some hutch, dresser or desk is the key to identifying the criminal. Each item is now in a local business, like Teatotaller Café, Gibson’s Bookstore or the Barley House. Everyone is then handed an auction catalog.

The detectives go forth on a walk through the city, questing for answers, solving puzzles as they go.

“It’s like an escape room, but it’s broken up into nine different pieces around the city,” Kevin Hammonds, one of the game’s creators, said by phone recently. Hammonds added that it’s ideal for folks who find escape rooms claustrophobic.

“This is the opposite of being locked in a room,” he said. “You’re walking around, you’re getting a lot of great exercise and experiencing the best of Concord. It’s a great thing to do as a family, a group outing or for team-building. The puzzles are really original and creative and tricky.”

The immersive experience began during the pandemic as a way for L.A.-based touring company Right Angle Entertainment to keep employees busy. Initially it involved engaging suspects along the way, but that proved unwieldy. SoCal puzzle designers The Wild Optimists came up with a new vision. The retooled CLUE debuted in Chicago and ran for six months.

Hammonds scouted Concord as a potential location and loved what he found.

“The thing about Chicago is that it visits all these iconic places but it’s spread out,” he said. “We tried to keep it under a mile, but it still takes some time and walking. Concord is a compact digestible version. It’s not quite as sprawled out, but it’s still incredibly satisfying.”

Choosing where to put furniture “was literally me walking up and down the streets of Concord,” he said. “You have to find a place that has the same hours as the game, will fit a piece of furniture, and also accommodate 30 people every 20 minutes to come in and play the game. … It also has to kind of fit the Clue vibe and aesthetic.”

The cast members “all love improv,” he continued. “Most of them are drama college students, but we have a college professor who loves murder mysteries and Clue, and he also acts part-time. I have another butler that’s a great improv actor that does a lot of work on Saturday Night Live.”

Similarly, participants are encouraged to follow a penchant for cosplay at the event.

“When the butlers greet them, they inform them that they are descendants of the OG suspects, like Miss Scarlet, or Colonel Mustard,” Hammonds said. “In Chicago we had a lot of people come dressed up as those characters or in those colors.”

Unlike the board game, there are no winners.

“It’s not a contest,” Hammonds said. “You’re not hunting for where you go next. It tells you go to Gibson’s Bookstore; this is the address; this is a picture of the bookcase. We also say, while you’re at Teatotaller Café looking for the kitchen hutch, enjoy 10 percent off, or have lunch at the Barley House…. We encourage people to stop and enjoy whatever each business has to offer.”

CLUE: A Walking Mystery
When: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through June 16, multiple time slots
Where: Kimball House, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $34 at ccanh.com

Celebrating creativity in Sunapee

Wine and chocolate will flow amidst paintings, photography and piano music at an upcoming event in New London to showcase the Lake Sunapee Region Center for the Arts. The Raise a Glass to the Arts! reception will serve as a reminder of the Center’s many efforts to support expression throughout the area, which include micro-galleries in local businesses, festivals, seminars, concerts and youth programs.

“We wanted to create a wonderful evening to celebrate with our donors and members, our artists and our community, what the arts are all about when it comes to the Center,” CFA Executive Director Dina Stahlheber said by phone recently. “It’s a moment to step back and think about the wonderful talent here, and all the different things that are able to come together.”

The Center’s mission encompasses visual, performing and literary arts, Stahlheber said.

“They’re very closely intertwined, yet each one of themselves are quite vast,” she said. “Many of our painters are poets and many of our poets are performers or musicians. We have singer-songwriters that dip their toes into both writing and music. We have quite a variety here.”

She envisions the event, happening at Colby-Sawyer College’s Wheeler Hall, as a way to “celebrate these three different key aspects of what the organization does, as well as its love and focus on youth. We also offer some great scholarships, school grant programs, and activities for our youth and families.” To underscore this cross-pollination, ticket holders will be entered to win a pair of seats to the New London Barn Playhouse’s June production of Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Stahlheber added that a past scholarship winner will perform at the gathering, along with veteran pianist and composer Will Ogmundson. This and other CFA endeavors serve to highlight the importance of human expression, something that’s particularly critical in an age that sees it threatened by machine learning.

The latter is a topic that Stahlheber spoke eloquently about in a press release last March.

“In a landscape increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and algorithms, the essence of human experience embedded within artistic expression becomes ever more poignant,” she said. “While technology can assemble stories and generate visually stunning images, it cannot convey the personal journey behind the creation of art.”

During the interview, Stahlheber was quick to point out that she’s no Luddite.

“I appreciate technology,” she said. “I just want to be sure that we don’t forget or lose sight of the fact that artificial intelligence still cannot communicate the human essence of the arts as humans can.”

She continued, “AI can replicate stories and even make them very moving, but at the end of the day, there’s something about someone having lived … when they share their story, the pain and glory of overcoming a situation, that is what’s authentic, powerful and meaningful.”

Stahlheber took over the reins at CFA just over a year ago and has focused many of her efforts on messaging. “I wanted to be more intentional about what we’re doing, why are we doing it, and how it fits into our mission,” she explained. “Not everyone in the community realizes how much we’ve done and the large role it plays, the many places and connections the Center for the Arts has in this region.”

To that end, an event later this summer will shine a light not only on the CFA’s work but also on the region it serves.

“I am so excited for our July Arts Week in Sunapee Harbor,” Stahlheber said. “It has been a year-long planning session with a group of wonderful organizations, [and] we have been trying to put together a really special weekend. But also, to promote Sunapee Harbor. It is super-beloved, but not everyone, even in the surrounding area, remembers it’s here.”

Raise a Glass to the Arts!
When: Saturday, May 18, 7 p.m.
Where: Wheeler Hall, 541 Main St., New London
Tickets: $55 members, $65 non-members at centerfortheartsnh.org