Spotlights

Creative Communities Network
An FY2010 Special Partnership Project  – Grant award: $10,000

Lamprey Arts & Culture Alliance “Newmarket,” an oil on canvas by Candace Reed Stella Since 2005, the Lamprey Arts & Culture Alliance (LACA) has sponsored and coordinated an annual ArtWalk Celebration, which includes visual arts exhibits, each Mother’s Day weekend in Newmarket.

The Creative Communities Network (CCN) is a consortium of local arts councils, municipal arts commissions, statewide arts service organizations, and other partner organizations that share a common goal of utilizing the arts to build and sustain healthy and prosperous communities. The collaboration and information sharing that occurs through the CCN allows member organizations to be more effective in their own communities.

Quarterly meetings, hosted by member organizations in different regions of the state, provide an opportunity for members to discuss community arts related issues and  model projects. Members engage in collaborative projects to help strengthen the creative economy at the local and state levels. Current projects include designing an Artist Needs Assessment Survey and assisting a member organization with planning a workshop on affordable live/work spaces for artists and small businesses.

Network members are also interested in other ways the arts can benefit communities, such as: incorporating the arts into health care settings; encouraging the creation of public art; bringing the arts into environmental projects; including arts and culture in community long-range planning; and measuring the economic impact of the arts sector.

In December of 2009, Randy Cohen of the Washington-based group Americans for the Arts presented the results of an economic impact study of the Monadnock region. The study was done in collaboration with Arts Alive!, a Keene-based not-for-profit that works to sustain, promote, and expand access to arts and cultural resources in the Monadnock region.

The CCN, originally named Arts Satellite Network, is an outgrowth of a meeting held in October 2008 that was convened by the State Arts Council’s former staff member Judy Rigmont. Because the State Arts Council recognizes the important work done by the CCN to build an infrastructure of community-based organizations that provide arts programs to underserved populations, strengthen the state’s creative economy, and attract visitors and new businesses to the state through the arts, it funded a FY2010 partnership initiative grant to support CCN’s continued efforts.

Network member Art-Speak of Portsmouth is serving as  fiscal agent for the project. Grant funds help to cover administrative support and efforts to formalize the structure of the organization, plus scholarships for  members to attend creative economy-related workshops and  conferences.

Current CCN members include:

In 2009, Art Esprit, a not-for-profit organization that serves literary and visual artists in the Greater Rochester area, created, raised funds for, and staged a city-wide temporary art exhibition, The Shoes of Rochester, to bring people to the downtown area. The exhibit featured 12 unique sculptural 6-foot shoes on display in walking tour fashion throughout the city.

                                                                                        
Arts Alive
Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire
Art-Speak/Portsmouth Cultural Commission
Art Esprit
ARTVENTURES New Hampshire
AVA Gallery & Art Center                                       
City Arts Nashua, Inc.
City of Manchester Economic Development Office
City of Portsmouth
Creative Concord
Dover Arts Commission
Great Mills Management
Lebanon Recreation & Parks Department
Peterborough Cultural. Planning Committee
Manchester Arts Commission
MoCo Arts
New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts
Newmarket & Heritage Cultural Center Committee         
Rochester Main Street Program
Upper Valley Arts Alliance  
                       

For more information, contact Judy Rigmont at judebythesea@msn.com or (207) 439-7523.

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The arts are making a difference in communities throughout New Hampshire.
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Learn more about State Arts Council grants and program services.

Last updated: September 7, 2010