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Former Arts Commissioner and Governors Arts Award recipient Grace Casey has Died at Age 90

Concord, NH. June 1, 2007…….The NH State Council on the Arts is saddened to announce that arts patron Grace Casey died Sunday at age 90 in her Gilmanton Iron Works home. She was well-known as an energetic and forceful woman who dedicated herself to the arts in New Hampshire. As a lifelong NH arts advocate, Casey helped organize exhibits, worked for historic preservation and created new partnerships to bring the arts to a wider public.

She was appointed as a state arts commissioner for the NH Commission on the Arts (now known as the NH State Council on the Arts). In 1997, Casey received the Governors Arts Award for Individual Arts Patron, the state’s highest recognition for a NH citizen who has made a significant contribution to the support of the arts in New Hampshire.

In 1974, Casey co-founded Portsmouth’s Prescott Park Arts Festival with Jon Kimbell. While Kimbell focused on the theatrical side of the festival, Casey worked on the visual arts component. Up to last year she coordinated and juried the festival’s annual New Hampshire Art Association (NHAA) Art Show and Gallery.

Casey served as the NHAA’s first paid executive director for 16 years. During that time she brought art to nursing homes and hospitals, promoted exhibitions and arts education, advocated public support for the arts in the State Legislature and in Congress, championed the work of renowned photographer Lotte Jacobi, and encouraged all artists, new and established. After her tenure she remained active as a board member.

Casey also founded the NH Heritage Forum and mounted cultural exchanges between New Hampshire and Brazil, when she served as cultural liaison for Partners of the Americas, 1979-1995.

The Prescott Park Arts Festival will dedicate their 2007 season to the memory of Grace Casey. A Memorial Service is scheduled for June 9^th at 2 pm at the Gilmanton Community Church, Route 140 in Gilmanton Iron Works.

Last updated: June 20, 2007