The Sharon Arts Center in Sharon and gallery in Peterborough are closing this summer. The Manchester-based New Hampshire Institute of Art has run the local facilities since a merger in 2012; another newly announced merger between NHIA and New England College led to “rightsizing” of NHIA facilities, and Sharon Arts isn’t part of the plan.
That’s bad news for our community, where the vibrant arts scene is part of our lifeblood. It’s bad news for locals and tourists who’ve flocked to exhibits at the gallery, where New Hampshire artists like Anna Von Mertens and Shaina Gates or nationally renowned artists like Lonnie Holley put on eye-opening shows. It’s bad news for members of the Monadnock Art Tour and ConVal High School’s top artists, who’ve come to depend on annual exhibits in the gallery to showcase their work to a wide audience.
It’s an especially devastating blow to the budding artists in our midst, explained ConVal art teacher Mary Goldthwaite-Gagne, who said that she’s had several students go off to study art in college or elsewhere, only to return to our region and exhibit — or even work — at the gallery.
We can’t possibly enumerate the amount of times we’ve heard it — New Hampshire and the Monadnock Region needs to do more to attract young people to work and live here. Removing a draw like this isn’t going to help.
Perhaps now is the time for one of those ever-present displays of community support for the Sharon Arts Center. Perhaps there is an angel investor or arts patron out there who has the funds to take over Sharon Arts. Perhaps a bit of crowdsourcing would do the trick. Otherwise, we’ll have nothing but an empty room and bare, white walls in the heart of downtown.