Wednesday night’s Community Conversations “Filling the Gaps: The Arts After Sharon Arts” focused on the results of a recent artists’ survey as well as the new crop of art classes and gatherings beginning in the wake of the Sharon Arts Center’s closure in August.
Results of the survey, which identified the needs and assets of local artists’ as well as current and future class offerings, were discussed by the crowd of 45 people at the conversation, held at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture in Peterborough. The conversation also led to further brainstorming on the missing gaps for artists’ needs in the region.
The Sharon Arts Center was founded in 1946 as a place for artists and the public to come together to learn, work, shop and appreciate fine art. In June it was announced that the Sharon Arts Center in Sharon along with its Sharon Arts Center Gallery and Fine Craft Store in Peterborough were closing. The announcement was made about a year after the New Hampshire Art Institute in Manchester, which absorbed the Sharon Arts Center in 2012, announced it was merging with New England College in Henniker.
In reaction to the closing, a community of local artists have banded together to find a way to replace the functions and services of the Sharon Arts Center without purchasing its buildings. The Sharon Arts Center at 457 Route 123 in Sharon is currently listed for $1,006,250. The gallery and store located on the first floor of 30 Grove Street is listed for $1,236,250.
Wednesday night, Jessica Gelter of Arts Alive! discussed the results of a survey that was sent out to attendees of the community conversation on Sept. 25. She said that almost 100 people responded, and a full 45 indicated they would regularly access a centralized space to collaborate and socialize with other artists, and would pay membership dues to do so. The community has not yet set a specific location or set of locations for such a space, but the previous conversation flagged the MAxT Makerspace as a potential partner. The Peterborough Arts Collective continues to provide an opportunity for the artist community to gather at monthly artist socials at Post & Beam Brewing.
Roy Schlieben of MAxT Makerspace and local artist Kimberly Kersey Asbury are reaching out to area artists interested in teaching classes, and are scheduling events beginning in the new year. Schlieben emphasized the community’s ability to organize classes in spaces already available. The new years’ classes are being scheduled to take place in the Makerspace, public libraries, and community centers. Kersey Asbury herself has been organizing free public arts workshops at the Dublin Public Library.
“Those have been fabulous,” she said, noting that such events reinvigorate the purpose in small towns of what a library can do.
There was a discussion on the merits of a decentralized format. Kersey Asbury pointed to the Monadnock Art Tour as an example of an extremely successful, decentralized arts event.
To accommodate teens’ artistic needs, Kersey Asbury told the group that she is reaching out to Avenue A in Antrim to develop weekly programming in the Makerspace.
Gingras said she’s working to establish a portfolio night for teens to encourage and critique one another’s work.
The Jaffrey Civic Center came up as one existing asset primed to accommodate some of the community’s needs. Bob Marrone, one of its board members, pointed to the Civic Center’s three galleries and studio, as well as its staff, as an asset for the greater arts community. The Jaffrey Civic Center currently offers four weekly art classes.
“We are actually gonna be offering a lot more classes here as we go forward … especially in light of the Sharon Arts Center [closing]. We definitely have an opportunity here at the Jaffrey Civic Center to fill that void,” said executive director Regina Vorce in an interview earlier this month.
Vorce encouraged artists interested in teaching classes in the Civic Center space to get in touch.
Artists lost access to the ceramics studio and kilns when the Sharon Arts Center closed, and discussions for a solution are still ongoing. Schlieben acknowledged the Makerspace’s current lack of “wet space” appropriate for ceramics and some textile work, but said “we are committed to finding that place.”
There is still no conclusion on what will happen to Fushigigama, the outdoor wood-fired anagama-style kiln on the Sharon Arts Center’s property. Kersey Asbury recommended that the group find the necessary funds to disassemble it and rebuild it at a new location, citing national and international interest in its fate. She estimated it could cost $100,000 to complete the relocation process. The kiln was designed and built by Wilton artist John Baymore and New Hampshire Art Institute graduate students in 2014.
Schlieben and Sarah Gingras told the community about the biweekly figure drawing classes with live models that have been going on at the MAxT Makerspace since October. The next session is Nov. 19 at 6-8 p.m. The suggested contribution per session is $10.
The Makerspace has already set dates for three Saturday workshops in the new year: Josh Dannin is scheduled to run a Lego Letterpress printmaking workshop on Feb. 29 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Makerspace, a Zine workshop is scheduled for Mar. 28 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Peterborough Town Library, and a linocut/relief printmaking workshop is scheduled for Apr. 24 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Updated information can be found at https://monadnockartxtech.org/events/.