Upper Valley Arts Alliance

The Upper Valley Arts Alliance connects us to artists and arts organizations many of whom have cancelled or postponed their programming until the end of April or beginning of May. As the logos of some of these organizations scan across your screen, take a moment to reflect in their announcements and the opportunities they present to this communities and others who travel to visit our area. Although they may be closed now, they will open your eyes to the quality visual, performing and literary area. To become a member of the Alliance, just click on this link.

Artists

Artist Profiles:
Meet artists & see samples of their work

Arts Organizations:
Visual, performing, & literary

Arts Exchange:
Job listings, casting calls, classified ads

What’s Happening

The arts and the practice of creativity have long been know to have restorative effects on our health and quality of life. In this difficult pandemic let’s explore ways we can interact on our own, with our children, and with on-line art activities offered by our local organizations. Let’s come back together, soon, and draw on our artists’ and organizations’ strength to receive the gift of well-being.

Hood Museum of Art, 6 East Wheelock St., Hanover, NH. Closed temporarily

AVA Gallery and Art Center, 1 Bank Street, Lebanon, NH. Closed temporarily

Art Musings:
Read Susan B. Apel’s blog, Artful, covering arts and culture in the Upper Valley.

Photos: Left: Upper Valley Music Center musician, Center: Hood Museum entrance, Right: Young students at AVA Gallery & Art Center

Community

Upper Valley Music Center

Community Classes and Events for All Ages

Arts Education:
Schools, classes, & programs

Businesses:
Shops & services

Venues for Hire:
Concert halls, theaters, & galleries

Job Opportunities:
See what is currently being offered

Spotlight

“In a time of distance”

The unexpected always happens in the way
The unexpected has always occurred:
While we are doing something else,
While we are thinking of altogether
Different things — matters that events
Then show to be every bit as unimportant
As our human concerns so often are;
And then, with the unexpected upon us,
We look at one another with a sort of surprise;
How could things possibly turn out this way
When we are so competent, so pleased
With the elaborate systems we’ve created —
Networks and satellites, intelligent machines,
Pills for every eventuality — except this one?
And so we turn again to face one another
And discover those things
We had almost forgotten,
But that, mercifully, are still there:
Love and friendship, not just for those
To whom we are closest, but also for those
Whom we do not know and of whom
Perhaps we have in the past been frightened;
The words brother and sister, powerful still,
Are brought out, dusted down,
Found to be still capable of expressing

What we feel for others, that precise concern;
Joined together in adversity
We discover things we had put aside:
Old board games with obscure rules,
Books we had been meaning to read,
Letters we had intended to write,
Things we had thought we might say
But for which we never found the time;
And from these discoveries of self, of time,
There comes a new realisation
That we have been in too much of hurry,
That we have misused our fragile world,
That we have forgotten the claims of others
Who have been left behind;
We find that out in our seclusion,
In our silence; we commit ourselves afresh,
We look for a few bars of song
That we used to sing together,
A long time ago; we give what we can,
We wait, knowing that when this is over
A lot of us — not all perhaps — but most,
Will be slightly different people,
And our world, though diminished,
Will be much bigger, its beauty revealed afresh.—Alexander McCall Smith

Featured Artists & Arts Organization Profiles

View All Artists View All Art Organizations