The Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce’s downtown Visitors Center is an oasis for art lovers. New Hampshire Furniture Masters and the New Hampshire Art Association both display works there. Currently, sculpture and otherworldly tables and chairs built by Jon Brooks are streetside, while 11 paintings from Yildiz Grodowski adorn the back wall.
Grodowski was born in Istanbul, Turkey, and studied there before moving to New England; she’s lived in the Boston area for most of her life. Speaking by phone recently, she described herself as “a semi-abstract artist, because there are always recognizable elements in my paintings.”
These include scraps of text: handwritten or from newspapers, magazines or sources, like the Viking cruise ship brochure found in the lively “One Step at a Time.” The latter work is part of a series called “Into The Woods,” which occupies the first half of her exhibit, “Where Will I Take You.” Its four pieces — there are more, she said — are evocative, playful and joyous.
The first, “Ménage a Quatre,” has a bird with bits of sky in its wings rising toward three Dali-esque windows capped by a staircase to the stars. Below this raucous activity is a street scene that looks cribbed from a mid-20th-century European fashion magazine. The next two, “Her Hands Were Watching Me” and “One Step at a Time,” are colorful and animated.
The final painting of the group, “Take Me to Where the Wild Things Grow,” is subdued. It’s also beautifully textured, another characteristic of her work. It’s an important reason why looking at photos of her art online can’t do them justice.
Her overall selection of works for the exhibit, which ends in early November, was done in hopes of holding onto summer as it fades away.
“I like warm weather, I don’t like winter, I don’t like cold,” she said. “That’s the reason I wanted to bring some color, something happy, something joyful, something optimistic.”
That said, Grodowski stressed that her art isn’t born from crunching around in the autumn leaves, even if it arrives in a bucolic place eventually.
“I love nature. I respect it so much, but it’s not my inspiration for some reason,” she said, explaining that the series’ title is “about discovery of a space, of a person, of oneself.”
For Grodowski, the creative process is as kinetic as her works suggest. The first stage, which she calls “the play,” always includes music played at full blast, and a lot of movement. “I don’t even think about creating movement,” she said. “It’s so intuitive, it comes from within, you know? I’m a dancer, so I guess my brush dances on the substrate as I’m painting.”
She often layers on an already prepared surface.
“I start with either collage or my own writings on the substrate,” she said. “Collage pieces can be almost anything. A lot of them have also numbers and writings … or I write myself. If I’m listening to a song, maybe I’m just writing the lyrics, or whatever happened the day before, or what I’m feeling.”
The middle stage is the longest, one she calls The Ugly. “Which is the struggle,” she wrote for artsyshark.com, leading to “refinement — the home stretch. With the exception of the last stage, during which I need absolute quiet, I blast the music, singing and dancing … and of course, painting.”
At that point, after the pasting, the painting and occasionally the sanding of surfaces, Grodowski can bond with the piece and sign her name to it.
“Connection is everything; that’s the foundation of my art, really,” she said. “Connection means … there’s nothing more I can add; it’s all I could give to that piece. Although many artists and many masters say, and it’s true, that no art piece, no painting, is finished … there comes a moment that you know — this is it.”
Hopefully, the viewer will be similarly lifted.
“I want to create something so they can find their own place and connection,” she said, noting that the exhibit title is a question, not an answer. “Rather than giving it to them, saying ‘Here it is, take it,’ I want to ask them what they see.”
‘Where Will I Take You’ – Yildiz Grodowski When: Through Nov. 10, artist reception Saturday, Nov. 2, 6 p.m. Where: Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center, 49 S. Main St., Concord More: nhartassociation.org
Featured image: Works by Yildiz Grodowski. Courtesy photo.
This year’s grape harvest is as excellent as last year’s was bad
Some of the most reliable weapons in Amy LaBelle’s yearly battle to bring her grapes through to harvest are bars of soap. Of course there are nets to protect young grapes from birds — “As the grapes start to ripen, birds start to get savvy, and we have to drop our nets,” she said. And who could have predicted the beavers? “We had a few problems with beavers taking out an entire row one year and borrowing our trunks to make a dam in the stream that runs behind the winery. So that was kind of a bummer. Yeah, so we battle, but we’re winning so far. I don’t think anyone ever wins completely.”
But it’s the bars of Irish Spring soap that keep the deer away. “I’m a believer that Irish Spring soap works to protect my perennial beds at home and my grapes at the vineyard,” LaBelle said. “So we hang Irish Spring soap bars from some of the vines closer to the wood lines.”
LaBelle and her husband, Cesar Arboleda, own LaBelle Winery (345 Route 101 in Amherst and 14 Route 111 in Derry, 672-9898, labellewinery.com). They grow 6 acres of grapes between their two vineyards. It turns out you don’t need a huge amount of land to grow grapes. While a small apple orchard generally covers at least 20 acres, grain fields can be hundreds of acres in size, and some cattle ranches are as big as medium-sized European countries, a respectable vineyard often takes up about the same amount of space as a couple of football fields.
“The 3 acres in Derry haven’t matured quite yet,” she said. “We’re not pulling a full crop from there. In Amherst we’re pulling about 14,000 pounds a year.”
Most years.
2023 was a rough year for New Hampshire grape growers. A hard frost toward the end of May killed off new blossoms and buds, more or less destroying last year’s grape crop.
“On May 18 [last year], I lost my entire crop in two hours,” LaBelle said. “The six weeks just before that I had spent meticulously pruning that whole vineyard myself, every single plant, and I was making sure that every plant was perfect. I was trying to have the best year ever. Last year I [harvested] 300 pounds of grapes.”
This year’s grape harvest is looking good across the board.
“This year was our earliest harvest ever,” said Al Fulchino, owner of Fulchino Vineyard in Hollis. “We started picking on Aug. 21. It’s been a fabulous year. We’re three and a half weeks into our harvest, maybe four, and then we probably have two more weeks. The tonnage has been good.” Fulchino said that the sugar content in this year’s grapes have been high, and their acidity has been right about where it should be.
That acidity comes in part from New Hampshire’s climate. Winter temperatures are low enough that most vineyards in the state grow cold-weather varietals that tend to be lower in sugar and fairly acidic.
“It’s interesting,” said Richard Jacob of Vinilandia NH, a wholesaler specializing in wine from small estate vineyards, “because we obviously have a different climate than very famous growing regions for grapes. Normally in New Hampshire grape wine-making, you would get a lower-alcohol wine with higher acidity. So that being said, a classic thing that winemakers would do in New Hampshire is if they do go bone dry, sometimes the acidity can be a little bit overwhelming. And so you can back sweeten by adding some sugar or you can stop your fermentation a little bit earlier, so that way you have a little bit of natural residual sugar and the acidity isn’t as intense.” In that case, he explained, because the fermentation has been stopped early, the resulting wine is normally lower in alcohol.
Ted Jarvis is the owner of Black Bear Vineyard in Salisbury and the President of the New Hampshire Winery Association (260 Stage Road, Hampstead, 770-6719, nhwineryassociation.org). He said that New Hampshire wine makers are not limited to acidic wines.
“Each winemaker can finish the wines however they like,” Jarvis said. Personally, I don’t like sweet wines, and I like my wines finished off fruit-forward. We can’t grow just any type of grape here in the Northeast.”
“For instance,” Jarvis continued, “I do what is called a meritage, which is a blend of a couple of my reds together that we grow here on the property.” He also experiments with flavors in his finished wines. “I do some infusion in wines where I make what is called Amante de Chocolate, which is a raspberry chocolate-infused red wine, which is a big hit. I also do a take on my favorite childhood ice cream; I’ve turned an orange creamsicle into a wine. Yeah. It tastes exactly like an orange creamsicle ice cream. I sought out a certain coffee bean — a Sumatra coffee bean that had some spicy notes and chocolatey notes — and then I infused that into the wine; it’s called Vino Cappuccino.”
Not all grapes in New Hampshire are grown for wine. Owner John Lastowka grows 16 varieties of table grapes at Maple Gate Farm and Vineyard (183 Amherst Road, Merrimack, 759-9174).
Photo courtesy of Flag Hill Distillery and Winery.
“Normally, the table grapes that we get here in New England come from California in one season,” he said, “and in our winter season they come from Chile. Those two locations supply pretty much all the table grapes in the country.” As a result, Lastowka explained, most supermarket grapes have been developed to ship well from the West Coast or South America, and not necessarily for other characteristics, like flavor. “The universities have been doing a lot of research on table grapes to develop hybrids and different rootstocks that will survive our cold winters,” he said.
Like other New Hampshire grape-growers, Lastowka only devotes a small area to his vines. “I have about a half-acre vineyard,” he said. “I’m not done picking, and so far I’ve picked two tons. Each vine will produce on average 20 to 30 pounds of grapes.” His rows are 9 feet long and spaced 4 feet apart.
This sort of density of planting seems to be the norm, but Amy LaBelle says she plants each varietal of grape a little differently. “I’ve planted them a little bit differently depending on their expected vigor,” she said. The Cayuga [varietal], for example, is a very vigorous vine, so I planted those a little closer together to try to control that vigor so I don’t get an all-vine-no-grape kind of situation. It reduces the workload eventually in the vineyard a little bit, because if you can help the plant naturally reduce its vigor then you don’t have to trim it back every week to make sure that the grapes can do their thing.”
Ted Jarvis at Black Bear devotes a little more acreage to his vines. “I’m very old-school, very traditional,” he said. “We have one of the largest vineyards here in the Lakes region. We have about 4 1/2, 5 acres of vines on our property. We grow seven different varietals. We started our vineyard in 2008. It was my oldest son’s senior high school project. He got the A+. My wife and I get to spend every time we have money.”
LaBelle grows six main varietals in her vineyards — three white and three red. “In Amherst, we take all of the white varietals,” she explained, “and we blend those into an estate blend called Amherst Vineyard White. And that wine is so beautiful because it has that little influence from the grape called petit amie, which is, even when you just eat them fresh off the vine, that you get this huge explosion of florals, especially roses. It’s crisp and elegant and lovely and with that floral overtone — just very, very special.”
Al Fulchino said that about half of Fulchino Vineyards’ wines are blends. “I would say we’re closer to 50-50,” he said. “We do a lot of single varietals and we do do a lot of blends. That’s kind of a lot of fun in that. Literally taking the same grapes and doing a tweak one way or the other, aging it differently, oaking it differently, and getting a totally different wine that will be more suitable for one customer over the other.”
Because New Hampshire vineyards are comparatively small, if the grapes are ready to be picked, most or all of a season’s crop can be harvested very quickly, often in a day or two. LaBelle winery brings its customers in on the process.
“We usually select a date for harvest, and then we send out a note to our Vineyard Club,” Amy LaBelle said. “Our Vineyard Club is a long-standing club at LaBelle Wine. They are very loyal, very good customers — folks who have paid money to join the Vineyard Club. [Club members] sponsor a vine in the vineyard. They get their name on one of the vines and they come and visit their vine during the year and they take pictures with their vine. It’s very cute.”
Bill and Mary Reinhardt are Vineyard Club members. They said harvesting grapes at LaBelle is one of the highlights of their year. “What happens is that early in the morning we’ll gather with other Vineyard Club members. Amy and Caesar basically tell us, OK, this is what we’re going to be doing; we’re going to be harvesting these grapes’ and go through the process,” Mary Reinhardt said. “It’s a day where you can just go out and enjoy nature and life, go pick grapes, and talk to the people — just leave all your troubles and what’s going on in the world behind and enjoy yourselves.”
Bill and Mary each sponsor a vine, and of course they have named them. “It’s Mia and Grumpy,” Mary said, “because that’s what our grandchildren call us.” The Reinhardts’ vines are petite amie grapes, which make a dry white wine. “They put your name on it and you can go visit it,” Bill said, “when you’re there for lunch or whatever and see how your grapes are growing.”
Fulchino Vineyards harvests their grapes themselves. “We are hand-harvest,” Al Fulchino said. “We have three different vineyards all within 2 miles of our winery. [Our harvest is] mostly staff. We do have some people who follow our social media page like on Facebook and they know we’re harvesting and they want to get involved. We used to pick much more on Saturdays and Sundays, but because the winery is so much more busy on the weekends we have strategized to move more toward Monday through Friday. We’ll meet up in the morning and target what we want to pick, then we’ll all sit down and have some lunch and some wine and talk. It’s kind of old-school — very simple. It’s a really nice old-fashioned way to enjoy and not rush and remember why we’re here. Oftentimes when you do it on the weekends, you have to rush a bit. We’ve picked 20 tons or so so far.”
Ted Jarvis organizes a ticketed event to get his grapes in. “We throw a big harvest fest weekend,” he said. “Last year we had over 250 people up. We have live music. We have food trucks come in. We have 20 or 30 vendors to set up their New Hampshire crafts, so people can go booth by booth and check all that stuff out. And if people want to help out, we are a family business. I’ve had people come up, families, for years come up and just want to come in and participate in the whole process of it and help pick the grapes. My boys and I set up a crush pad so folks can see how their wine became from vine to glass. They can taste the juice coming right out of the wine press to see what it tastes like just being crushed and then like if they’re having a glass of La Crescent wine, ‘This is the grape, this is how I started it, and that’s what you’re tasting is how I finished it.’
Grape Fun
• Help with the harvest at Black Bear Vineyard (289 New Road, Salisbury, 648-2811, blackbearvineyard.com). Volunteer to help with the harvesting of grapes at Black Bear Vineyard on the weekend until the harvest is in and Black Bear provides lunch and a bottle of wine, according to the vineyard’s Facebook page. Email blackbearvineyard897@gmail.com to volunteer and get the details.
• Bottle Your Own experience at Averill House Vineyard (21 Averill Road, Brookline, 244-3165, averillhousevineyard.com). This is an ongoing series of events held Sundays through Nov. 10, at noon, 1 and 2 p.m. Attendees get a guided tour of the winery and vineyard and will learn directly from staff about the winemaking process. The cost is $59 per person and includes your own bottled wine to take home.
• Harvest and Stomp Festival at Appolo Vineyards (49 Lawrence Road, Derry, 421-4675, appolovineyards.com) Saturday, Sept. 28, and Sunday, Sept. 29. In addition to grape harvesting opportunities, there will be winemaking tours starting at 10 a.m., grape foot stomping and more. Tickets are $60 per person and include a catered lunch and other amenities.
• Harvest Weekend at Black Bear Vineyard (289 New Road, Salisbury, 648-2811, blackbearvineyard.com) is Saturday, Oct. 5, and Sunday, Oct. 6, noon to 6 p.m. Tickets are $18 through eventbrite.com. There will be live music, wine, food trucks, yard games, vendors selling New Hampshire products, and bringing in this year’s harvest.
Photo courtesy of LaBelle Winery.
• “Walks in the Vineyard’ wine class at LaBelle Winery Amherst (345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinery.com) Sunday, Oct. 6, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Join Wine Educator & Sommelier Marie King and Senior Assistant Winemaker Melaney Shepard for an educational walk through LaBelle Winery’s vineyard and wine cellar in Amherst. Sample five LaBelle wines and learn about the winemaking process during the harvest season. Tickets are $35 through LaBelle’s website.
• The Annual Hollis Grape and Italian Festival will be Sunday, Oct. 20, noon to 6 p.m. at Monument Square in Hollis. The day will include a car show, live music, food vendors and a meatball contest, according to the event’s Facebook page. See fulchinovineyard.com.
• It’s not a local harvest but the Franco-American Centre will celebrate the French harvest with its Beaujolais Nouveau Gala dinner and dance on Saturday, Nov. 23, from 6 to 10 p.m. to celebrate the release of the 2024 Beaujolais in France. The three-course meal, with optional wine pairing with each course, will be at Oscar Barn Wedding Venue, 191 W. River Road in Hooksett. Tickets cost $115 ($90 without wine) for non-members. See facnh.com.
Wild Grapes
Joe Ross is a foraging expert and the owner of Eat the Planet (eattheplanet.org), a business that teaches students how to identify and find edible New England wild foods. According to him, there are three varieties of wild grapes we are likely to run across. “In our region, there’s three different kinds of wild grapes that are native,” Ross said in a telephone interview. “There’s the fox grape, the riverbank grape, and the frost grape.”
“The fox grape is the wild variety that’s called Concord,” Ross said, “but when they make a variety, they breed it specifically for certain traits over time. They select obviously. But if you look up Concord, it should be the same.” Ross said that all three species of wild grape have what’s called a “palmate” leaf structure. “It’s not like an oak leaf that’s got a center line all the way up the leaf with lobes on the side. The lobes can vary in what they look like.”
Ross said that while wild grapes can grow almost anywhere in New England, from the edges of swamps to deep forest, they do best on the edges of woods, where they have access to a lot of sunlight.
“Wooded edges and wetter areas are good areas to look for them; check those spots,” he advised. “Even just old fields where there’s a lot of bramble-type stuff — that’s a good spot to check because they’ll at least have a chance of popping up a vine again above everything else., so they can get to that sun.”
Sometimes older grape vines can be found deeper in the woods, Ross said, but that’s usually a situation of new trees growing up around an established vine. “Some of them are shade-tolerant,” he said, “but growing in the shade, you’re just not going to get a lot of grapes.”
Wine-Making Terms
Crush pad – Where grapes are crushed for their juice. This is usually done outside.
Meritage – A blend of two or more red “noble” Bordeaux varietals — cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, malbec, merlot, etc.
Root stock – The base of a plant that is used to graft onto a different variety. In the case of New Hampshire grapes, the root stock will be of a hardy, cold-tolerant variety, and the vine grafted onto it will have other characteristics, like improved sweetness or acidity.
Terroir – Subtle characters in the taste of a wine, dependent on unique weather and soil conditions in the vineyard where the grapes are grown. Each vineyard has its own terroir.
Varietals – How winemakers describe the types of grapes that go into their wines, instead of “varieties.”
Local varietals
A good resource for finding out more about cold-hardy grape varieties is a website by the University of Minnesota, mnhardy.umn.edu.
Whites
Frontenac Gris: A gray-skinned cold-hardy varietal used in white or rosé wines with fruity flavors, especially peach and pineapple, with hints of honey. Black Bear Vineyard (289 New Road, Salisbury, 648-2811, blackbearvineyard.com) makes a Frontenac Gris white.
Frontenac Blanc: A golden-skinned cold-hardy white wine grape. The vines produce exceptionally high yields of fruit. Averill House Vineyard (21 Averill Road, Brookline, 244-3165, averillhousevineyard.com) uses this grape in its Fronteanna White.
Petit Amis: A green-skinned cold-hardy grape used in acidic white wines. LaBelle Winery Amherst (345 Route 101, Amherst, 672-9898, labellewinery.com) uses this grape in its Amherst Vineyard Estate White.
Cayuga: A French-American hybrid grape used in light, citrus-tinged wines that can come in a range of styles, from dry and sparkling to late-harvest dessert wines. Flag Hill Winery (297 N. River Road, Lee, 659-2949, flaghill.com) produces a Sparkling Cayuga White.
La Crescent: A very cold-hardy white grape. The wine produced from La Crescent has flavors of apricot, citrus and tropical fruit similar to that of muscat. Zorvino Vineyards (226 Main St., Sandown, 887-8463, zorvino.com) produces a La Crescent White that it describes on its website as “lively with sweet flavors of Meyer lemon and white peach.”
Reds
Frontenac: A classic bluish-black grape known for its rich, red wines. Black Bear Vineyard makes a “deep garnet”-colored Frontenac.
Marquette: Medium-bodied, dry, red wine suitable for extended maturation in oak barrels. Shara Vineyards (82 Currier Road, Concord, 836-9077, sharavineyards.com) uses this variety.
Petit Verdot: Red wine grape whose small, thick-skinned berries are valued for their depth of color. LaBelle Winery uses this grape in its Amherst Vineyard Estate Red.
Chancellor: A black-skinned cold-hardy grape used in full-bodied red wines with notes of plum and apple. Blue Heron Winery (Quinn Court, Newfields, 770-6719, blueheronwines.com) uses Chancellor grapes in its Seacoast Red.
Maréchal Foch: A cold-hardy hybrid grape that is made into deeply colored red wines with jammy, dark-fruit flavors. On its website, Flag Hill Winery describes its Maréchal Fochas having “lingering flavors of cherry and plum, with nice acidity.”
The Academy for Science and Design charter school in Nashua is one of two New Hampshire schools awarded as part of the 2024 National Blue Ribbon Schools, according to a U.S. Department of Education press release. The other is Bernice A. Ray School in the Hanover School District. The 2024 cohort has 356 schools; the recognition “highlights schools that excel in academic performance or make significant strides in closing achievement gaps among different student groups,” the press release said.
“The National Blue Ribbon Schools Award is a testament to the exceptional achievements of students and educators at each of these schools,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in the release. “The 2024 National Blue Ribbon Schools are raising the bar for our nation’s students, serving as models for effective teaching and intentional collaboration in their schools and communities. As we celebrate their achievements, let us look to these schools for inspiration as we champion education as the foundation of a brighter future for every child.”
The Academy for Science and Design Chartered Public School in Nashua describes itself as being “the state of New Hampshire’s top-performing public school and largest STEM-specialty school,” and “is aimed at expanding students’ interest and ability in STEM locally and statewide,” according to its website, asdnh.org. The school serves kids in grades 5 through 12 and will begin accepting applications for the academic year 2025-26 on Monday, Oct. 7, the website said.
Pollen count
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon has partnered with the National Allergy Bureau to install a pollen counting station on the roof of the medical center’s power plant, according to a Dartmouth Health release. Samples collected from the station will be reported to the Bureau for inclusion in its national tracking of allergen levels, the release said. The release said that the third week of September is often considered “peak week” for emergency departments seeing allergy and asthma patients, according to the release. The new station is the only one currently operating in New England, with the next closest located in Rochester, New York, the release said.
“Pollen seasons are changing,” said DHMC allergy and clinical immunology specialist Erin L. Reigh, MD, MS, in the release. “Studies show that ragweed season is two to four weeks longer than it was in the 1990s, and we are seeing allergenic plants spread farther north with the warmer temperatures. Higher CO2 levels also cause ragweed plants to release more pollen.”
According to the press release, the DHMC pollen information will be at pollen.aaaai.org, where you can sign up to have it send updates.
Merci Boxcar
The annual commemoration of the Merci Train Boxcar will take place Sunday, Sept. 29, at 1 p.m. at the boxcar’s permanent location, 144 Reed St. in Manchester, according to a newsletter from the Franco-American Centre.
The event is organized by 40 & 8 Society, a veterans group, and will feature representatives from France and New Hampshire, the newsletter said. “This year’s event has a special meaning as it comes during the 80th anniversary year of the D-Day invasion and 200th anniversary of Lafayette’s farewell tour of the U.S.,” the newsletter said.
According to mercitrain.org: “49 French railroad box cars filled with tens of thousands of gifts of gratitude” from French citizens were sent to the U.S. in appreciation of 700 American box cars of relief goods sent to France in 1948. On the Merci Train website, you can see photos of some of the items that had been in New Hampshire’s car as well as photos of box cars and gifts that went to other states.
Butterfly results
The Second Annual Capital Area Butterfly Survey conducted on July 27 by the New Hampshire Audubon counted 981 individual butterflies from 38 distinct species, according to the NH Audubon September newsletter. “These surveys are part of a nationwide effort through the North American Butterfly Association to track butterfly populations and gain insight into how habitat and weather affect them,” the newsletter said. Six teams with a total of 36 participants spread out through the Concord area at 19 different sites, the newsletter said. “Several teams reported sightings of the delicate American Copper. … Ninety-three Crescent butterflies gathered in an open area of the Boscawen Town Forest. At the Karner Blue Conservation Area, observers were treated to sightings of six Karner Blues, along with several Edward’s Hairstreaks and a Coral Hairstreak. A few rarities were also recorded. One team encountered a Giant Swallowtail … a small team guided through the grassy areas of the Concord Airport, where they recorded a Variegated Fritillary. A Buckeye made an appearance at the Pembroke National Guard property, and a Common Sootywing was observed in the Concord Community Gardens,” the newsletter said.
Seeking volunteers
The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road in Londonderry; aviationmuseumofnh.org, 669-4820) will hold a volunteer open house on Tuesday, Oct. 8, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. “The Aviation Museum is specifically seeking volunteers to help carry out its educational programming to young people from preschool through high school ages,” according to a museum press release. “The museum hosts field trips, school visits, and operates a popular ‘Flights of Discovery’ summer camp. In addition, the museum welcomes families with young children to participate in hands-on activities in its classroom. Volunteers can help all these programs.” Volunteers also help with special events such as the annual car show, fundraising gala and more, the release said.
Seeking essentials
The Zonta Club of Concord is asking for donations of toiletries and other essentials to be given to women at shelters and transitional housing as part of its Purse Program to be brought to the Fall Fling on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at 5:30 p.m. The event will explain more about the club and its programs, according to a Zonta Club of Concord fall newsletter. “For over 60 years, the members of our club have been making a difference in the lives of women and girls through service projects and scholarships,” according to zontaclubofconcordnh.org.
Seeking understanding
United Way of Greater Nashua (20 Broad St., Nashua, 882-4011, unitedwaynashua.org) will hold its ninth annual United We Sleep event Friday, Sept. 27, at Nashua Community College (505 Amherst St., Nashua, 578-8900, nashuacc.edu) “to raise funds to combat homelessness and support vital community services,” according to a United Way press release.
“The funds raised through United We Sleep support $400,000 in annual grants to local safety net organizations, emergency funds for homeless youth and adults (with $25,000 allocated so far this year), and programs at United Way that combat food insecurity,” the release said.
Visit fundraise.givesmart.com or text sleepout2024 to 71777 for information on how to participate or donate.
The Red, White & Brew Craft Beer and Wine Festival will take place Saturday, Sept. 28, at FunSpot in Laconia with a general admission time of noon to 4 p.m. The event benefits Veterans Count NH and will feature craft beer, wine, food, a car show, an auction, raffles, live music with The Bob Pratte Band and more. Admission includes sampling tickets and a commemorative glass, while supplies last (food is not included). Tickets cost $50 for VIP access (which starts at noon) and $35 general admission. See vetscount.org/events/red-white-brew.
Catch Highway to the Ranger Zone, the monthly open mic show featuring Andrew North & The Rangers, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at the BNH Stage in Concord (16 S. Main St., ccanh.com) with sign-ups starting at 6:30 p.m. and the show at 6:45 p.m.
NAV Arts will feature New Hampshire Poet Laureate Jennifer Militello at the Word Search Open Mic event on Wednesday, Oct. 9, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Bookery Manchester. Militello’s new collection, Identifying the Pathogen from Tupelo Press, is slated for a 2025 release; see jennifermilitello.com. NAV Arts holds its open mics — which include poetry, music and other performers — on the second Wednesday of the month from 5 to 7 p.m.
The Nashua Choral Society is inviting new singers to join its 2024-2025 season. Check out a rehearsal — Monday evenings 7 to 9 p.m. at the Judd Gregg Auditorium, Nashua Community College, 505 Amherst St. in Nashua. Rehearsals will be open to new singers to this non-auditioned chorus with no obligations until Oct. 14. See nashuachoralsociety.org.
The weeklong Manchester Citywide Arts Festival is back, with free art exhibits, free dance lessons for kids, chances to meet artists, an open mic night, demos, tours, and, to cap it all off, a screening of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The festival runs Monday, Sept. 16, through Saturday, Sept. 21, at various locations, with two closing events on Sunday, Sept. 22.
Katie Lovell, Director of Operations at the Palace Theatre, talked about the festival that celebrates the community and its artists.
“This is our third year and it’s basically a week-long celebration of the arts in New Hampshire…. It’s a good variety, different things. All the arts are covered,” Lovell said. “We are trying to do community events to bring a lot of people downtown to show everyone all the amazing things that Manchester has to offer and bring in more families and family-friendly events as well.”
Classes and demonstrations throughout the week lead up to a big party on Saturday.
“The main event is the Street Fair,” Lovell said. “On that day we shut down Hanover Street in front of the Palace Theatre and we have over 50 art vendors that will be set up so people can walk around, view their art, make purchases … everything from knitted blankets to handmade stickers.” There will also be food trucks and a stage with live performances, she said.
Lovell said the street fair usually brings 8,000 to 10,000 people.
Before that, during the week, there will be plenty of events at dance studios and art galleries, some free, some not. Not all require signup in advance, but some do.
For visitors on Monday, it’s time to boogie and see some sculpting, with a free drop-in pottery demonstration in the afternoon at Studio 550 on Elm Street and two free dance lessons at Forever Emma Studios.
Tuesday, muralists get a spotlight. “In Manchester we have tons of beautiful murals that have gone up in the last few years,” Lovell said, “so we’re going to have some of the muralists come to the Bookery and Cat Alley and people will be able to meet with them.”
Dimensions in Dance will host a youth ballet class on Wednesday.
Then for Thursday evening, the libations begin to pour. “Dew Collective, which is a beautiful flower shop right on Hanover Street, they just opened up a few months ago, they’re going to host a meet-the-artist cocktail reception. They’ll have a bunch of local artists in the flower shop and then you’ll be able to make floral arrangements in there as well, have a drink and meet with colleagues and network.” That same evening, the Currier Museum of Art will have a free “Art After Work” session. “You can go to the Currier and walk around the museum and then everyone is going to meet after in the museum, have a cocktail, and chat with each other,” Lovell said.
A competition unfolds on Thursday as well: an open mic night at the Rex that Lovell described as “like a ‘Manchester’s Got Talent.’ Anyone can submit any talent and we’ll review the submissions. And it’s also a free event.”
For Friday, the day before the Street Fair, “the Manchester Arts Commision is going to host an opening cocktail party with the Palace Theatre in our Spotlight room,” Lovell said. “We’re going to invite all of our sponsors, the artists, and it’s going to be open to the community as well. The Pop-up Gallery will be open that night also…. You can kind of get a little preview of what you’ll see on Saturday, what you can purchase, and you can meet with them as well.”
Saturday night visitors should be on the lookout for the Foot Clan. “We’re hosting the 1990 version of the Ninja Turtles movie at the Rex Theatre on Saturday night with Granite State Comic Con and we’re going to have the original Ninja Turtles from that movie there for a Q and A as well. We’re all trying to support each other,” she said.
The Manchester Citywide Arts Festival is a great coming together of business and art.
“All the downtown businesses, we’re all trying to work together just getting more people downtown,” Lovell said. She called it “a very positive event and experience.”
Lovell is excited for the Festival and hopes to see everyone on the street. “I love Manchester. I’ve worked at the Palace now for almost 13 years and I just love to see it so busy and the city bustling and so much positivity around it.”
Manchester Citywide Arts Festival
When: Monday, Sept. 16 to Saturday, Sept. 21 More info: palacetheatre.org/manchester-citywide-arts-festival (Some of the Studio 550 Arts and Dimensions in Dance events may require sign-up)
Arts and Crafts Fair When: Saturday, Sept. 21, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Where; the Opera Block of Hanover Street
Arts Festival Schedule Monday, Sept. 16 2 to 4 p.m. FREE Pottery Demonstration Studio 550 Arts Center (550 Elm St.) See how we make our Paint-your-own-pottery items for this live drop-in demonstration. 4 p.m. FREE Intro to Dance (Ages 3-5) at Forever Emma Studios (516 Pine St.) 5 p.m. FREE Dance Technique (Level 1) at Forever Emma Studios (516 Pine St.)
Tuesday, Sept. 17 10 to 10:45 a.m. FREE Ballet and Storytime (Ages 2-4) at Dimension in Dance (84 Myrtle St.) 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. FREE Art Ramp Painting Studio 550 Art Center (550 Elm St.) 5 to 6 p.m. FREE Meet the Muralists at The Bookery (844 Elm St.)
Wednesday, Sept. 18 10 to 10:45 a.m. FREE Ballet Class (Ages 3-5) Dimensions in Dance (84 Myrtle St.) 10 to 10:45 a.m. FREE Specialty Class AR Workshop (23 W. Merrimack St.)
Thursday, Sept. 19 10 to 11:15 a.m. FREE –Adult Ballet Dimensions in Dance (84 Myrtle St.) 4:15 to 5:15 p.m. Family Sculpting (All Ages) Studio 550 Art Center (550 Elm St.) 5 to 7 p.m. FREE Art After Work Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St.) 6 to 8 p.m. Meet the Artist Cocktail Reception at the Dew Collective (34 Hanover St.) Featuring Peter Noonan, Laura Braciale, Ron Lohse, Verne Orlosk, and Lauren Boisvert 7 p.m. FREE Open Mic Night The Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St.)
Friday, Sept. 20 3 to 5 p.m. Dew Collective School’s Out Playful Art at Dew Collective (34 Hanover St.) 4:15 to 5:15p.m. Family Pottery (Ages 9+) Studio 550 Art Center (550 Elm St.) 6 to 9 p.m. MAC Cocktail Party at the Spotlight Room at the Palace Theatre (90 Hanover St.)
Saturday, Sept. 21 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. FREE – Street Fair Opera Block of Hanover Street 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. FREE – Spotlight Room Pop-Up Gallery at the Palace Theatre (90 Hanover St.) 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. FREE – Positive Street Art Satellite Gallery at theManchester Chamber of Commerce (54 Hanover St.) 10 a.m.to 5 p.m. FREE – Tours of 83 Hanover Street Red Oak Apartments (84 Hanover St.) 1 to 2 p.m. FREE Glass Pulling Demonstration at Studio Verne (412 Chestnut St.) 7 p.m. Screening of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) as part of the Granite State Comicon, screening is at the Rex Theatre (23 Amherst St.)
Sunday, Sept. 22 10 a.m.to 5 p.m. FREE – Spotlight Room Pop-Up Gallery at the Palace Theatre (90 Hanover St.) 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. FREE Closing Breakfast with MAC at the Spotlight Room at the Palace Theatre (90 Hanover St.)
Fans of all stripes will find fun at the Granite State Comicon
By Zachary Lewis zlewis@hippopress.com
The Granite State Comicon is here with most of its action on Saturday, Sept. 21, and Sunday, Sept. 22, at the DoubleTree Downton Manchester and SNHU Arena across the street.
“When we started Granite State Comicon in 2003, we just used a small room at the hotel, and then over the number of years we’ve been growing, [we had] to take on a larger room and larger space. And then we went for two days. And then for the past couple years, we’ve kind of noticed, ‘hey, we’re getting really tight on space.’” said Chris Proulx, owner of Double Midnight Comics and con organizer.
“There’s things we want to fit in that we can’t fit in. The attendance was getting a little tighter, and we knew if we wanted to bring in more comic artists, more celebrities, and especially if we’re getting from bigger franchises, we would need more space,” Proulx said.
Which venue should be chosen for this quest?
“If you’re looking for more of the comic-centric things, you would kind of hang out on the hotel side, because that’s where all of our guest artists are,” Proulx said. Meanwhile, at the other venue: “And then if you’re looking for more of the celebrity and pop culture stuff, you’re looking at the arena. Both of them have vendors and lots of stuff to see. So there’s unique stuff at both venues. It’s definitely worth crossing Elm Street.”
Like with Gotham or Metropolis, the city itself is integral. “What we’ve been kind of talking about is referring to the third venue [as] downtown Manchester, trying to get some of the restaurants and bars involved, you know, whether it’s if they offer some kind of special drink or, you know, some kind of special menu or get dressed up,” Proulx said.
It’ll be a day for the arts on Saturday. “We’ll be promoting the [Manchester Citywide Arts Festival], so that way people can kind of cross-pollinate and just see the more positive sides of Manchester,” he said.
“We talked to the Rex because we wanted to do a screening of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It’s a beautiful venue and they agreed to partner with us on that and it’s going to be a fun night. We decided to go all in on it and celebrate it, or ‘shell-a-brate it,’ as they say. So we’ve got actors from the 1990 movie, the ‘87 cartoon, tons of artists and writers who have worked on the Ninja Turtles over the years, including Kevin Eastman,” he said. See palacetheatre.org for tickets to the screening, which starts at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21.
But those aren’t the only stars at the con.
”John Rhys Davies, you’ll be able to find him at the hotel. He’ll be doing signatures, professional photo ops, he might have some props with him for photo ops, like Gimli’s ax from The Lord of the Rings. My business partner has met him a bunch of times and he’s the sweetest, nicest guy, so we’re very excited to have him join us,” Proulx said.
“Amy Jo Johnson, she’s the original Pink Power Ranger. There’s been many many iterations of the Power Rangers over the years but she’s one of the the original cast members so we’re very excited to have her joining us. She recently wrote a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic book mini-series. She had a couple of the artist guests that we have that had done covers for it, so it’s a pretty cool thing,” Proulx said.
“Then we have Kevin Nash, who was a two-time WWE Hall of Famer. He’s also been in a bunch of movie and TV projects, like The Punisher, and he was Super Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. He was a nice crossover there.“
“We’ve got Nolan North, who is the video game voice of Deadpool, and Cal Dodd, who is the voice of Wolverine in X-Men, the animated series. There’s a lot of cool guests, plus we have the original four voices of the Ninja Turtles from the ’87 cartoon. It’s a big Turtle-centric thing this year because it’s the 40th anniversary of the Turtles. They’re created by Eastman and Laird in New Hampshire,” he said.
Be sure to check out the website for more information. “The full program is up there, so you can see all of our panels and workshops. There’s information on KidsCon, movie cars, all of the various features.”
The event even attracts fans from all over the world. “We never thought people would be coming from multiple countries to Manchester, New Hampshire,” Proulx said.
“We want to make sure people are having a good time…. Our show’s very family-friendly and entry-level so you’re not like, ‘oh man, if I want to go to Comicon I gotta go to New York, I gotta travel four hours, I gotta pay for a hotel, I gotta pay for this, everything’s more expensive,’” he said.
Patrons do not need to have read a single comic book to have fun at Granite State Comicon.“We always say everybody’s a geek over something. The people that play fantasy football, that’s geeky. We’re all geeks. So there’s literally something there for everybody. So whether you’re into anime or board games or comic books or costuming, there’s literally something for everybody and it’s a great time. We’re very affordable for a family trip. There’s lots of stuff for kids to do. So it’s a really good fun time and we feel like it’s a great fun event for Manchester,” he said.
Even as the convention grows, what makes Granite State Comicon special stays the same.
“A lot of people like our vibe. It’s not hyper stressful, it’s fun, we have that focus on the fans so people really dig that. We have a really good team and we want to continue to grow at a good pace without breaking who we are,” Proulx said.
Granite State Comicon When: Saturday, Sept. 21, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Where: DoubleTree, 700 Elm St., Manchester, and SNHU Arena, 555 Elm St., Manchester Tickets: $20 to $125 (various packages) More: Visit granitecon.com and doublemidnight.com. Email info@dmcomics.com or call 669-9636.
The Hippo recently spoke with Katie Marinoff-Silk, the Director of Development at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, about this year’s AerospaceFest, the center’s yearly family festival, which blasts off on Saturday, Sept. 21, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. “AerospaceFest is our annual celebration of all things STEM,” Marinoff-Silk said. “So we bring various science and education organizations from around the state. We invite them to come set up booths at our museum, both inside and outside, just to share what they do with our community.” Granite Staters will not need to spend a penny to get inside. “It’s the third Saturday in September every year. And admission is free. We do have a suggested donation of five to 10 dollars,” she said. There is typically a good turnout. “Last year we had about 630 people come and that was during a hurricane. So we’re hoping that the weather will be nicer this year and that we’ll see even more people,” Marinoff-Silk said. The New Hampshire Astronomical Society will be setting up telescopes, for those who want to look up at the sky. If you’d rather keep your gaze earth-bound, you can look at bugs: the Caterpillar Lab from Marlborough will be bringing some of their caterpillars. “So we just have a bunch of different organizations doing all kinds of science coming,” Marinoff-Silk said. The Caterpillar Lab aims “to raise awareness about the animals you can find in your local ecosystem, particularly caterpillars, and how important they are to our local ecosystems,” she said. An activity called Mad Science will introduce children to the principles of air and pressure as they watch a hovercraft in action, according to the event page. A special guest yet to be announced will be in attendance as well. “That guest speaker will also present the winners of the Alex Higgins Memorial Space Camp Scholarship,” Marinoff-Silk said. The scholarship was founded in 2000 in Memory of Alex Higgins of Bedford. Since 2001 it has helped more than than 50 New Hampshire children and teens attend the U.S. Space Camp & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for a week of simulated astronaut or pilot training, according to the website. The planetarium will also be in full use, with a premiere of a new planetarium show. For that, you need tickets, which are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Show times will be at 11 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., and 3 p.m. The show, We Are Guardians, looks at how the world, its people and its ecosystems are connected and how satellite monitoring helps us see the effects of human activities and climate change, according to Marinoff-Silk
AerospaceFest When: Saturday, Sept. 21, 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Where: McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, 2 Institute Drive, Concord Tickets: Free, suggested donation $5-$10 Info: starhop.com
