Located at a deep bend of the Cocheco River in the beating heart of burgeoning Dover, New Hampshire, is where you’ll find the historic Washington Street Mills complex. Over the past few years, something special has happened within this former textile mill, as the Seacoast Region city it calls home — the oldest permanent settlement in New Hampshire — has transformed into one of the fastest-growing communities in the state. This circa-1880s mill complex has sprung to new life through the efforts of a vigorous and varied blend of talented entrepreneurs. At the core of it all is a thriving artists’ colony anchored by a multifunctional creation, exhibition and performance space named The Art Center which is well-served by the boundless and infectious energy of its passionate owner, Rebecca Proctor. In the damp gray of early-April, as the New England spring struggled to find its … [Read more...] about INSPIRATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT: DOVER’S ART CENTER BUILDS VIBRANT ARTS COMMUNITY
Issue Articles
WATCHING THE RIVER FLOW: KANNENSTINE’S ART PRESERVES OUR NATURAL SETTINGS
In 1970, Sally and David Laughlin of Woodstock, Vermont, had a bright, vastly unpopular idea: to clean up the Ottauquechee River, which had been polluted with runoff from local mills and, during more recent years, with raw sewage. Like many unpopular bright ideas, theirs turned out to be visionary. David Laughlin, a dentist by profession, shared in a 2018 interview with Tim Traver, for his book, Fly Fishing & Conservation in Vermont: Stories of the Battenkill and Beyond, “My office was right on the river, so every morning, I could see the river running yellow or blue depending on what the dyes in the Bridgewater Mill were that day. I knew the river was in trouble but had no idea how bad it was.” In the 1960s, a treatment plant had been constructed in Woodstock, but by 1970 most of the town had not been connected to the facility, and runoff went straight to the river. At … [Read more...] about WATCHING THE RIVER FLOW: KANNENSTINE’S ART PRESERVES OUR NATURAL SETTINGS
PRINT INSPIRING MORE PRINT: MARK TWAIN HOUSE & MUSEUM HOSTS PNSNE PRINTMAKERS
“The Evocative Mark Twain Inspires the Printmakers’ Network of Southern New England” is an immensely impressive exhibit featuring a wide breadth of accomplished veteran artists. Taking place at The Mark Twain House & Museum in West Hartford, Connecticut, the exhibition consists of 18 Printmakers’ Network of Southern New England (PNSNE) artists. Members of the PNSNE, an intimate, loosely organized group of 25 contemporary printmakers in total, each picked a quote from Mark Twain’s exhaustive writings and responded in their personal visual vocabulary. The witty Twain, born Samuel Clemens, was never one to disappoint with a sharp one-liner. Known for pioneering American letters, Twain also took an interest in visual aesthetics: “You know I like color and flummery and all such things — I was born red-headed — maybe that accounts for my passion for the gorgeous and ornamental.” (To … [Read more...] about PRINT INSPIRING MORE PRINT: MARK TWAIN HOUSE & MUSEUM HOSTS PNSNE PRINTMAKERS
‘THE NEXUS OF CONTEMPORARY CRAFT’: MCGOUGH LEADS FULLER CRAFT TO ITS NEXT CHAPTER
Inspired by Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the Fuller Craft Museum, built in 1969, fits snugly into New England’s wooded landscape as an important note of modernist architecture that exists in harmony with nature. Its architectural signature is its twin-fountain reflecting poolabutting a large pond. Among other things, the pool centers the building’s design. Founder Myron Fuller’s intention was to create a place “to enrich the lives of the people of Brockton” which remains vital among Fuller Craft Museum’s core values today. The museum’s exterior and overall floor plan relates unpretentious serenity, calm precursor and framing environment to the “wow” factor audiences experience surrounded by the exquisite contemporary craft displayed. Each exhibition is innovatively curated and masterfully installed. The total experience makes this a South Shore gem that consistently … [Read more...] about ‘THE NEXUS OF CONTEMPORARY CRAFT’: MCGOUGH LEADS FULLER CRAFT TO ITS NEXT CHAPTER
A BELATED CELEBRATION: ART COMPLEX 50+1 INCLUDES JACKIE REEVES’ BIG PLANS
Using blackout-curtain fabric as her canvas, things happen to the pigments on its surface which suggest skin, parchment, old maps, architectural paper; things happen to the paint because of the material: for instance, blackish acrylic tint blurs at the top — which leads artist Jackie Reeves onwards to expand the work’s realization. The material, process, and ideas evolve and change together, one inspiring the other, interacting with each other so that she is never quite sure what accident or intention will birth what result. The joy Reeves takes in her art is this kind of spontaneous discovery, of play. “It’s what I, and my siblings have been doing, since we were children in Canada; it’s what I know how to do best.” She likes not being in control. What results from this play is powerful and moving. Reeves, formally trained, and experientially self-taught as well, started out … [Read more...] about A BELATED CELEBRATION: ART COMPLEX 50+1 INCLUDES JACKIE REEVES’ BIG PLANS
BALANCING NATURE AND ART: GLASSMAKER AARON SLATER RESETTLES IN VERMONT
As a child, Aaron Slater watched a PBS documentary film about glass artist Dale Chihuly. Soon, he was melting beer bottles and breaking glass in the basement, fascinated by what he had seen in Chihuly’s early work. That led to taking a variety of art classes in school. Later, he discovered the work of Rick Satava, whose glass jellyfish are known worldwide, and Paul Stankard, famous for his glass paper weights. He was also inspired by American glass pipe makers who pushed the art of flameworking forward in the early 2000s, when he began his own career as a glass artist. For a time, writing diverted Slater’s attention and he earned a BFA in creative writing with a minor in film at Emerson College, which led to him reading scripts in Los Angeles before he returned to glass art. He never looked back and began teaching himself glass art. “Being self-taught was not easy,” he admitted. “I … [Read more...] about BALANCING NATURE AND ART: GLASSMAKER AARON SLATER RESETTLES IN VERMONT