The closing of the Sharon Arts Center – both the center itself and the associ ated gallery and fine craft store in Peterborough – after 73 years as a community arts institution left a hole in the local arts scene.
“We ’re all at a loss. We’re losing our place,” potter Paul Looney of Walpole said.
The closure came about after New Hampshire Art Institute in Manchester absorbed Sharon Arts Center in 2012, and then merged with New England College. Part of the merger involved selling underutilized properties like Sharon Arts Center and the store in Peterborough.
In 2022, the center was sold to Anthony Sabatino of Sabatino Realty Group and Sabatino’s Restaurant. During the Zoning Board process for Sabatino’s request to allow office and educational uses in the building, board Chairman Chet Bowles said numerous people told him they wanted the building to be used for an art center and workshops, but Mark Fernald, Sabatino’s attorney, said it was no longer an arts school because it no longer worked as one.
Sabatino’s variance request was approved, and the building is now known as The Sharon Center.