Welcome to Arts Alive’s member updates. This blog is part of our monthly newsletter, which you can access here. This month we have a couple gallery openings in BRAND NEW gallery spaces, artists excited about learning new things and expanding their expertise, and new leadership in a local arts organization. Read on!

Bryan Field learns a new carving technique

Excited to have returned from a workshop at Snow Farm where I learned how to carve on the lathe using multi-axis turning. The course was taught be Derek Wieidman. After years of pens and bowls I can break out of the circular thinking that has limited my creativity and the world is now my oyster! Meet Henry the goat, my first multi-axis turning.

Social Practice Artist Residency (Keene): SPAR(K) at Covenant Living of Keene 2024

Olivia DelGandio

SPAR(K) has selected an artist for the Fall 2024 Residency: Olivia DelGandio of Portland, Oregon will be in Residency for the month of October 2024. This proposed residency will offer a $5000 stipend to the artist as well as living accommodations. Covenant Living will offer a full-time art/work studio to the resident artist and meeting and presentation rooms.

The resident artist will work closely with Craig Stockwell (SPAR(K) Director) and Gregg Burdett (Covenant Director) and Rebecca Poor (Covenant Chaplain). It is understood that the nature of Social Practice art is that a process will develop and that we will have patience to allow that process and outcomes to develop as needed.The 2024 Residency will take place at Covenant Living of Keene. Covenant Living is a senior living community that is, by mission, devoted to providing a vital community experience. The idea for the residency grew out of conversations that SPAR(K) Director, Craig Stockwell had with Carl Jacobs, a Covenant resident. Craig is 72 and is a working studio artist and teacher, but thoughts of how to be an artist in the next phase of life are present in his thinking. The Residency would likely begin with the artist in conversation with Craig around these issues and move quickly to a convened group of 8 artists dealing with aging. The skill of a social practice artist is to take these bare bones and enter a process that would engage: 1) Stockwell, 2) a focus/core group, 3) the Covenant Community, and 4) the Keene community. Age and a changing artistic practice would be the focus with the understanding that thinking around this issue speaks to us all.

taryn fisher opens a home gallery

Gallery Director Taryn Fisher is delighted to debut her boutique fine art gallery, particularly since art lovers continue to lament the closure of her beautifully appointed LNHC Keene Fine Craft Gallery on Central Square.

After searching for space for well over a year, Taryn chose to convert an under-utilized space in her home on Court Street into a gallery. She installed lighting, a museum-style art hanging system, new windows, and hardwood flooring, all which amplify the beauty of artworks on display.

Taryn Fisher Fine Art showcases the original, contemporary work of accomplished artists based in the Greater Monadnock Region. Mediums include paintings, prints, sculpture, photography, and mixed media artworks.

Taryn will host an Artist Reception featuring abstract oil and acrylic painter Scott J. Morgan on Saturday, August 31st from 4 to 6 pm.

The abstract curves and forms of Scott’s art emulate nature. Scott describes his work being “like a song, a lyrical dialogue of line, form and color.” Not surprisingly, Scott is also a musician (jazz, rock, reggae).

An exhibition of Scott’s artworks – including painted guitars – will be on display at the gallery from August 31st through September 28th.

Taryn Fisher Fine Art is located at 302 Court Street in Keene. Except for Special Events and Artist Receptions, gallery hours are by appointment only.

For more info, visit https://tarynfisherfineart.com, text 978-985-4720, or email tarynfisherfineart@gmail.com.

joan hanley’s solo exhibit in Maine

Rockland, ME – The Blue Raven Gallery is pleased to announce Joan Hanley’s debut solo exhibition in Maine, titled Intimate Paradox: Joan Hanley, opening on September 3–30, 2024. An opening reception and Artist’s Talk will be held on September 21 at 5:30pm at the gallery, located at 374 Main Street, Rockland, Maine.

The exhibition marks a welcome return to coastal Maine, where, decades ago, the artist led Outward Bound trips from Hurricane Island in Penobscot Bay. Hanley’s career began in 1980 when renowned artist Alice Neel juried her into her first exhibition. Since then, she has refined her practice within the American painting tradition, drawing inspiration from masters like Fairfield Porter, Milton Avery, and Lois Dodd. “I paint the ordinary strangeness of life. My lifelong meditation practice and interest in image-based psychology inform my work, where paintings juxtapose cell phones with intimacy, and our climate crisis with herons – I love paradox,” says Hanley.

The New Hampshire-based artist will present a new series of works featuring several large and mid scale paintings in gouache and oil, along with smaller studies that extend her exploration of oil paint. At the heart of the exhibition is Jake (2024), a large-scale gouache painting created specifically for this show, depicting the iconic black-and-white checkered floor of the historic bank where the gallery is housed—nestled between the Farnsworth Art Museum and the Island Institute. The artist’s sketchbooks will also be on display, providing an intimate glimpse into her creative process. The exhibition traces her journey from initial sketches of everyday, personal moments to small paintings where her ideas take shape, culminating in large canvases where her compositions come into full focus.

Joan Hanley (b. 1955, Queens, New York) is a painter, teacher and has led an art & yoga mentorship program for eight years supporting artists at every stage of their careers. For the past 25 years, she has lived and painted in New Hampshire with breaks for a residency year in Dublin, Ireland and extended trips teaching abroad in countries like Mexico, China, Taiwan and England. Hanley has exhibited her work internationally in venues such as Broadstone Studios in Dublin and cultural institutions such as the Fitchburg Art Museum, MA, Brattleboro Museum, VT, the Mariposa Museum, NH, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA, the Open Center NY, the University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMass and the Attleboro Museum, MA. Hanley completed a BFA from Hartford Art School and MFA from Vermont College.

Intimate Paradox: Joan Hanley is the culmination of a prolific year for the artist, presenting three exhibitions across New England, including AVA Gallery in Lebanon, NH and Gallery 51 in North Adams, MA. She is also featured in the Group show, The Lure of the Local at the Fine Arts Gallery in Putney, VT curated by Humberto Ramirez. For more information about her work, studio visits, events and her artist mentorship program, visit www.hanleystudio.com

Apple Hill has a new executive director

The Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music is thrilled to announce Sam Bergman as the non-profit arts organization’s new Executive Director, effective September 3, 2024. Bergman is a distinguished musician, advocate for greater inclusivity in classical music, and a former faculty member at Apple Hill. He will succeed Javier Caballero, who ... is now departing to pursue new opportunities. Read the press release here.

The sustainability project opens a gallery

DEPORTEES: A TRIBUTE at the Sustainability Project's Emerson Brook Forest Center

The first exhibit to herald the opening of the beautiful new event space and gallery at 57 Emerson Brook Drive, Gilsum, NH will be "Deportees: A Tribute", featuring works on paper by Erika Radich, NH Printmaker.

The opening reception takes place on September 19th, from 4-6pm, and the exhibit runs through October 31st. Refreshments will be served. There is a suggested donation of $18, with no one turned away for lack of funds. We hope for a lively turnout with ample opportunity to connect with Erika and to discuss her work.

The Sustainability Project's newly completed event space and gallery, the Emerson Brook Forest Center, provides a permanent home for the vast collection of sculptured clay heads by artist Susan O'Hara. There are hundreds of these creations, in a variety of styles and gestures, all evocative and emotionally compelling.

Additionally, space is reserved in the new structure, to house transitory exhibits by regional artists. "Deportees: A Tribute", is the first of these. The exhibit features a suite of 28 monotype collages addressing issues of social injustice, equality, and human dignity. As Radich explains, "...the exhibit may become personal to each viewer. In 1948 there was a plane crash in Los Gatos Canyon, California. Twenty eight Mexican farmworkers died as they were being deported to Mexico. The migrant workers were buried in a mass grave, with only a single plaque, referring to them as 'Mexican Nationals'. The New York Times reported the accident as the death of 28 'nameless' deportees. Fundamental to who we are, what our identity is, is our name. In this exhibit we remember who they were and, in the process, who we are."

Subsequent to the September 19th opening, the exhibit is open by appointment through October 31st.

Please contact Valerie Piedmont at 603-209-7272 for details, if you'd like to docent this or future exhibits, or if you are interested in hanging an exhibit of your own.

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August/September 2024: What's New with Arts Alive Artists