Advancing Arts and Culture in the Monadnock Region
Arts Alive! is a nonprofit organization working to sustain, promote and expand access to arts and cultural resources in the Monadnock Region. Arts and culture are community assets that enhance financial strength, health and wellness, and social capital in the communities where they are supported.
Arts Alive! is comprised of a broad range of arts and cultural organizations—museums, acting troupes, musical organizations, theatres, galleries—that share a common goal to enhance arts and culture in our region.
Areas of focus
Arts Alive! seeks to develop an infrastructure that will sustain, promote and expand access to arts and cultural resources.
- Completed an economic impact study demonstrating the economic value of arts and culture
- Conducting a regional cultural needs assessment as part of a collaborative effort for a multi-arts center
- Creating a vision and facilitating master plans for arts and culture in the region and developing ties with municipalities
- Developing communication channels to increase awareness of and participation in artistic and cultural events
- Cultivating funding sources for arts and culture throughout the region
- Developing tools that foster collaboration, communication, and cooperation among arts and cultural organizations
How Arts came Alive!
In 2007, a group of private citizens convened a meeting of regional cultural and artistic organizations to discuss plans for an informal collaboration that would facilitate communication and distribution of information regarding programming, fund raising and other activities of mutual interest. The first Plenary Session of the Monadnock arts and cultural organization was held on January 11, 2008, at Antioch University New England, and generated an enthusiastic consensus and collaboration. Arts Alive! was incorporated as a New Hampshire nonprofit corporation in 2009 and received 501(c)3 status in 2010.
A Volunteer Effort
Arts Alive! is governed by an 18 member Board of Directors drawn from towns across the region and a wide range of art and cultural disciplines. The Board is supported by eight work groups addressing a range of mutual issues and initiatives. To date Arts Alive! has developed an online planning/event calendar for participants; held consultations with Keene Master Planning work group to include arts and culture as part of the City of Keene's Master Plan; collaborated with Americans for the Arts to complete an Economic Impact Study for the Monadnock Region; and conducted a cultural needs assessment with Webb Management Services for the planning of a multi-arts center in downtown Keene.
Board of Directors as of January 2011
Daniel Henderson,Jr., Chair
Caroline Hollister, Vice Chair
John Hoffman, Jr., Secretary
Lois Haskins, Treasurer
Carol Batchelder, Executive Director, MoCo Arts
Maureen Curtiss, General Manager, Timken-Keene
Alec Doyle, Executive Director, The Colonial Theatre
Donna Dubuc, Director of Development, Cheshire Medical Center Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Keene
Mikaela Engert, City Planner, City of Keene
Alfrieda Englund, Board President, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music
Tom Hanna, Attorney
Maryann Lindberg, Vice President for Advancement, Keene State College
David Macy, Resident Director, The MacDowell Colony
Lenny Matczynski, Executive and Artistic Director, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music
Melinda Mosier, Senior Program Officer, NH Charitable Foundation
Don Primrose, The Edge Ensemble
David White, ArtVenturesNH
Aaron Wiederspahn,The Starving Artist
Executive Director
Susan Farrell
Funders
Hoffman Family Foundation
Putnam Foundation
C&S Wholesale Grocers
New Hampshire Charitable Foundation-Monadnock Region
Coordinating Agencies
Antioch New England University
Giving Monadnock
Monadnock United Way
New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts
New Hampshire State Council on the Arts
SW Region Planning Commission
Participating Organizations
Acting Out, MFS
Actors Circle Theater
Actors Theater Playhouse
Animaterra
Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music
Art for Water
ArtsFest NH
ArtVentures New Hampshire
Branch River Theatre
Cathedral of the Pines
Chamber Singers of Keene
Cheshire Children’s Museum
Cheshire Medical/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene
Cheshiremen Chorus
Children’s Stage Adventures
City of Keene
Colonial Theatre Group, Inc.
Creative Communities Network
Crotched Mountain
Edge Ensemble
Elm City Music and Movement
Either/Or Films
Franklin Pierce University
Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce
Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce
Hannah Grimes
Harris Center
Historical Society of Cheshire County
Horatio Colony Museum
Hourglass Readers
Jaffrey Civic Center
Jaffrey Chamber of Commerce
JF Singers and Musicians Studio
Little Branch Theater
Keene Chamber Orchestra
Keene Chorale
Keene Community Music Center
Keene Downtown Group
Keene High School
Keene Lions Club
Keene Pops Choir
Keene Public Library
Keene State College
MacDowell Colony
Mariposa Museum
MoCo Arts
Monadnock Area Artists Association
Monadnock Choral Arts Alliance
Monadnock Chorus
Monadnock Community Hospital
Monadnock Folklore Society
Monadnock Living Magazine
Monadnock Music
Monadnock Summer Lyceum
Monadnock Travel Council
Music All Around
New Hampshire Citizens for the Arts
New Hampshire Dance Institute
Norway Pond Festival Singers
Peterborough Chamber Choir
Peterborough Children’s Choir
Peterborough Folk Music Society
Peterborough Historical Society
Peterborough Players
Peterborough Town Library
Rabbit Ear Films
Raylynmor Opera
Redfern Arts Center, Keene State College
River Theater
River Valley Community College
SAU 29
Sharon Arts Center
Small Pond Productions
Stageline Studio
Stonewall Farm
Surry Players
The Park Theatre
The Starving Artist
TEAM Jaffrey
Town of Jaffrey
Town of Peterborough
Thorne-Sagendorph Gallery, Keene State College
Tricinium
Walpole Artisans Cooperative
Whole Terrain