2015 Governor's Arts Awards

Individual Arts Patron
Award Recipient: Meri Goyette, Nashua, NH

Meri Goyette has been supporting the arts and artists in Nashua for over 50 years. She was an original board member of the Arts & Science Center and raised funds to build an addition to Nashua’s 1870 Central Firehouse, which today is home to the Peacock Players, Symphony New Hampshire, Nashua Theatre Guild and the Janice B. Streeter Theater. She was the first chair of the Board of the Hunt Memorial Building. To raise funds for its restoration, Meri transformed the building into an intimate arts and cultural venue, staging music and dance performances, historical presentations, art shows and more. Meri led efforts to raise funds for James Aponovich’s Yankee Flyer Diner mural on Main Street, and initiated and made a sizeable donation to City Arts Nashua’s West Pearl Street Mural Project, painted by artist Barbara Andrews. Meri, with Brookline sculptor John Weidman, co-founded the annual Nashua International Sculpture Symposium, now in its eighth year, and helped broker an agreement between the city of Nashua, Rivier University and Weidman to relocate his sculpture, Monument to Memory, to a more prominent location. Called the “Godmother of Nashua”, “Mrs. Nashua” and the “Energizer Bunny of All Things Nashua”, Meri Goyette is the perfect example of what it means to be a patron of the arts, making a huge difference in her community and in the State of New Hampshire.

Last updated: October 10, 2016