Arts and Culture at Radically Rural Remote 2020
Watch videos of the 2020 Radically Rural Arts & Culture Track, featuring stories and experts from across the country who are on the leading edge of rural arts development. Speakers include: Chrissy Deal, Director, Social Responsibility & Inclusion of Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), Lori Pourier, First Peoples Fund; Ron Ragin, Self-Employed, Artist, Consultant, Researcher, Coach; Erik Takeshita, Senior Fellow of ArtPlace America; Savannah Barrett, Exchange Director of Art of the Rural; Anthony Poore, director of NH Humanities; Barbara Shafer Bacon, Co-Director, Animating Democracy of Americans for the Arts; Rachel Balaban, Co-founder and co-director of Artists and Scientists as Partners; Catherine Stewart, Artistic Director of NH Theatre Project; HB Lozito, Executive Director of Out in the Open; Marianne Barthel, Director of the Arts Program at Dartmouth Hitchcock; Cynthia Cutting, director of Museum of the White Mountains; Amanda Whitworth, Founder Lead With Arts & Articine; Kate Beever, Owner/Music Therapist of Maine Music & Health; Eugene Uman, Director of Vermont Jazz Center; Craig Stockwell, Visiting Artist, Advisor- MFA for Lesley University
We are here, Let us bring you joy and comfort!
A Note From the Monadnock Region Arts Community
Right now, people are turning to the arts. One obvious reason is that they have the time - the time to listen, watch, learn to make or play.
Another is that the arts bring joy and comfort.
Arts organizations are keeping doors open for folks to access the arts, continuing to support staff/employees, continuing to support art-making - all in new ways. Monadnock area arts organizations are still here - and they want to serve the community by bringing that joy and comfort and even a bit of positive distraction to everyone in our community.
An essential quality of arts experiences in our region is the intimacy of the relationship between audiences and performers, experts and students, masters and viewers. This is continuing through online relationships in a variety of ways.
The sudden shift to social distancing is putting innovation to the forefront in developing new ways to share art and teach art. The experience of staying home and staying safe has been an opportunity for a cultural shift in the arts sector and beyond. We are no longer allowed to disregard or disparage the power of communities coming together or consuming arts experiences digitally.
Check Facebook. Check Instagram. Check YouTube. Check whatever app the cool kids are using these days. See all the ways artists are working to bring us together and bring joy?
The missions of arts organizations across our region involve enrichment, connection, education, and transformation through creative and cultural experiences. Arts organizations will continue to do that now - in times of crisis and beyond - because we see the arts as an essential part of connecting with our own humanity and with each others’. We look forward to the new ways arts will connect our communities when we are all able to re-open our doors. For now, find us online and reach out if you'd like to support ways arts organizations are transforming - we are in this together.
Jessica Gelter, Arts Alive!
Alison Scott & Joan Epro, Electric Earth Concerts
Lenny Matczynski, Apple HIll Center for Chamber Music
Esther Rhoades, Grand Monadnock Youth Choirs
Nick Burns, Ashuelot Concerts
Keith Stevens, Peterborough Players
Joe Caracappa, Monadnock Art
Laina Barakat Monadnock Music
Michelle Stahl, Monadnock Center for History & Culture
Pelagia Vincent, Depot Square
Marybeth Hallinan, Two Rivers Community Choir
Rick Swanson & Alan Rumrill, Historical Society of Cheshire County
Holly Gibson & Reagan Messer, MoCo Arts
Deirdre Fitzgerald, Monadnock International Film Festival
Linda Greenwood, Green Lion Photography
Johniene Papandreas, Artist
Kimberly Kersey-Asbury, Sharing Arts/MAxT Makerspace
Alec Doyle, The Colonial Performing Arts Center
Dominique Boutaud Artist painter and Art Craft
Overview of 9/25 Community Conversation on What's Next for Sharon Arts
Reflections on Plan NH's 2019 Conference on Placemaking - Planning, Community, Arts
On October 17th and 18th I had the pleasure of attending Plan NH’s annual conference, which focused on Placemaking. I was invited to lead the closing session, which was a hands-on activity to explore personalities and processes of creative placemaking. Leading up to the closing I had an incredible learning experience with some high-powered movers & shakers in the creative placemaking world - Leo Vazquez, the Executive Director of the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking; Alexander Goloub, a dynamic artist who leads projects that transform communities and spaces; and Ben Stone, the Director of Arts and Culture at Smart Growth America.