Conversation Sparkers for Filling the Gaps: The Arts after Sharon Arts 11/13/2019

Monadnock Center for HIstory & Culture in partnership with the Monadnock Ledger Transcript will host a community conversation on 11/13/2019 on the future of the Sharon Arts community. Here are a few conversation sparking essays by Katherine Gekas, Roy Schlieben and Jessica Gelter

Keeping the art community vibrant

Sharon Arts was founded in 1946 in the spirit of artists coming together, sharing, and engaging the larger community with their work. More than studio and gallery space, it was founded to nurture and support a local artist community. Its success and growth as an institution was built by this local community.  I would argue it began to fail as it became unmoored from this deep community connection. My experience as Director of MAxT Makerspace has taught me that the facility and tools you have on hand are important, but it is your connection and service to your community that ultimately leads to sustainability.

Our survey of local artists revealed a number of challenges, but one of the most striking was the feeling of isolation and the difficulty artists were having connecting with a larger community.  While more than 75% have their own private space and equipment, most also told us they would join an arts center like Sharon Arts. Many also told us their single biggest challenge as an artist was getting integrated in the community, engaging with other artists, and having a voice in town. Just like any industry, collaboration, continual learning and improvement are crucial to the vibrancy of the arts community. And it is crucial to the health of our community at large that the arts remain vibrant.

Sharon Arts used to be that place – it elevated the arts in the lives of so many, from renowned artists to beginners. The opportunity to learn from more established artists, to share skills, get regular critiques and new ideas was part of the secret sauce.  We saw in the survey that sharing is something the arts community continues to want to engage in – over 40% of the respondents said they teach or want to teach classes, and 50% wanted to take those classes.

A focus on building on Sharon Art’s legacy of education and community is therefore essential. This is why, while work is done to bring back a new arts facility to our area, we are also working with local artists and instructors to begin filling some of the needs of our arts community right now. 

Starting in January, a series of workshops (since we don’t own the name Sharon Arts, lets call them ‘Sharin’ Arts’ for now) will be launched in a number of locations in our region.  They will be taught by some of our area’s leading artists in printmaking, ceramics, painting, illustration, and more. The Peterborough Arts Collective is also helping to fill the gap and have already launched a new regular figure drawing program and are exploring programming to support the development of young artists (particularly high-school students). More information about these opportunities will be shared at the community conversation on the 13th and will be listed on the makerspace calendar at www.maxtmakerspace.org.

Roy Schlieben

A community potter’s view on making art together

The Sharon Arts community of potters and ceramicists has been the leading driver of the effort to confront the loss of the Sharon Arts Center, Gallery, and Store. Of the 93 survey participants, 44 are artists that work in ceramics. Some are local, some come from up to 50 miles away. These artists value the resources that were at the Sharon Arts Campus - including the one of a kind Fushigigama wood fire kiln. In fact 28 individuals in this group said they would be willing to pay a monthly membership fee to utilize space and equipment at the old Sharon Arts Center building. Acknowledging this community, their needs, and the special assets that Sharon Arts Center's building brought to this group is a key step forward in understanding how to proceed on our path to "save" the Sharon Arts Center. The space, unique equipment, and community connections made, are vital and valuable, and something the group can work to build a business model around as we move forward.

I moved to the Monadnock region last year and found a home in the Sharon Arts Center pottery studio.  I was able to take regular classes there, and as an incredible “transition class,” found myself amongst master potters in a wood firing workshop with international master potters.  For someone who is used to community studios, this was several steps above what I’m normally used to!

What I value in working next to other potters is this:  I value to the connections I make with others. My work is pushed to a different level, my life is expanded beyond my little space on the planet, my pottery donations help feed people, my pottery sales through the community help subsidize other potters (young and old) who may not otherwise be able to afford pottery.

What I’m starting to perceive as unique with what was the Sharon Arts Center is the pilgrimage to the wood kiln.  Although I only participated in one firing, I saw a tight-knit community that spread beyond Monadnock potters. As our survey of local artists trickles in results, there is a strong feeling that the wood kiln, unique for its construction, should be saved.  We have not even surveyed the potters who have come far and wide for some of the firings. Because of the wood kiln, NHIA/SAC created a community of artists that reaches far beyond this region.

Finally,  I do strongly believe that we need to come up with a sustainable model for moving forward with a shared vision that includes all types of artists: those that aspire to be masters at their work, creating a cohesive body of work to be critiqued and valued, and those that make art because it improves their quality of life in an immeasurable way.  Please participate in this discussion.

Katherine Gekas

An art community with little space to show and sell work

The greater Peterborough area hosts an art community known the world over. It is the home of MacDowell Colony, and the region fosters creativity, innovation, experimentation, cultivating and preserving beautiful traditional aesthetics and pushing boundaries of the definition of art. 

MAxT Makerspace, Arts Alive! and the team looking into how to rebuild arts community assets after the closing of Sharon Arts. The team conducted a survey and results showed that space to show and sell work was lacking.

There was a clear need for studio and work space for makers who may not align with the space and tools provided at the MAxT Makerspace, there is also a clear need for shared teaching space for community arts educators, but most startlingly, there is a strong desire for a local venue or venues to showcase and sell creative and fine art products made in our region.

80% of Artists who participated in our survey said they don’t show their work locally. And about half of those surveyed said there was not an appropriate venue for their work in town. 

Of the two dozen surveyed artists who do feel there are appropriate venues to sell their work, only half of them actually sell their work locally. Why? Five individuals in this group commented on how there was not a strong enough market for their work. 

To those of us who know and value the efforts of fine art venues - from community based, to professionally curated, to private collections occasionally made public, to juried artist cooperatives - these survey results a hard pill to swallow. In fact, there are venues in town that show and sell art and fine craft products. However, not everyone feels welcome, catered to, or that there is a market for their work here.

One celebrated artist from the region mentioned one of his biggest challenges was “finding a market for something other than scenes of Mt.Monadnock.”

The Peterborough Arts Collective is doing an incredible job building community and connections for artists of all sorts to each other and to local venues. They are an active part of the town economic development hub and spoke model. I look forward to seeing the town invest in supporting this group to develop effective strategies to dive in to the economic development work needed to support this sector. Securing appropriate retail and gallery space is a key part of this support.

Survey respondents said some of the biggest challenges for their practice were being new to town, isolation and not knowing other artists, and feeling like there is an “elite club” they have to navigate to participate in the arts community. We can address these issues with a space around which community, and connections, could be built. A space where the Arts Collective and other groups can meet regularly.

Of the artists who did not feel there was an appropriate venue for their work in town, six commented that the biggest challenge for their art practice in Peterborough was that there wasn’t a quality gallery that would represent them or show the type of work they do. They also echoed comments about the challenges to find a local market for their work. 

There is one last statistic I want to close with. 24% of the artists sell their work in stores and galleries outside of Peterborough - in New Hampshire and beyond. 27% sell at craft fairs. 28% sell online. What would it mean for the local economy if even half of those sales could happen in person in town? What vibrancy that would bring!

Jessica Gelter