It started about a year ago around a table in Deerfield, when Justine and I had a few initial meetings with Heather Johnson, Brett Weiss, and Dana van der Bijl. Early on, we have meetings with filmmaker Bill Millios and NH's Cultural Commissioner, Van McLeod. Judy Bush of Bush Bead Studio shared some invaluable advice, as did NHSCA's Jane Eklund. A brunch with Bridget LeRoy, Eric Johnson, and Annie Ballin and numerous visits to John Herman's NH Media Makers led to innumerable contacts and additional ideas.
Eventually, others joined us, notably Sean Wiley and Cheryl Roth, now Regional Coordinators for the southwestern part of the state and Manchester (respectively). We continued to meet with interesting people -- Justine with representatives of the League of NH Craftsmen, I with Ryan Linehan of the Kimball-Jenkins Estate, and together with the Exeter Arts Committee -- and had email correspondence with helpful folks like Susan Schwake, of Rochester's artesprit and artstream, and the multi-talented Joan Roefels.
We started visiting communities to have conversations about the project. Kind hosts included Ron St Jean of Ron St. Jean Photography in Rollinsford, Elise McDonald of Studio 99 in Nashua, and Aaron & Keri Wiederspahn and Laina Barakat of Starving Artist in Keene. At these meetings we met folks like artist/web designer Stephen Bobbett, City Art Nashua's Liz Racioppi, and writer Kathy Bailey. Michelle Collins wrote a nice article about the project, which was featured in an April edition of the Nashua Telegraph.
In June, we held our first-ever arts event, where works were shared by Sean; Cheryl's husband, painter Kim Roth; photographer Scott Bulger; mosaic artist LeeAnn Petropoulos; musician Sam Rheaume; and sculptor James Rappa. We also had a reading by author Cathy Vincevic and poetry recitation by Lindsay Coombs.
Our second event was in July at the MCAM studios in Manchester. Cheryl arranged it for us, and did a remarkable job. It featured numerous artists, including musician/publisher Dave Stevenson; musician/artist Oria Blue; sculptor Nat Witschonke; photographers Kathy Marotta, Tracy Lee Carroll and Sue Duggin; and poet Jasmine Roth.
July also found Justine and me on the airwaves for the first time. Robin Ann Peters, herself an talented photographer, invited us onto her WSMN radio program, "Art in Action." A kind and eloquent host, Ms Peters made us feel at home and helped spread the word further.
In October, Ms Peters and City Arts Nashua asked us back to their fair city for their annual ArtWalk. We used this opportunity to assemble our third arts event...and the first outdoor one. Although the weather was not the best on the first day, the second was mostly clear and made for a fun experience. Those days we featured an assortment of art by Bev Norton, striking images by members of the NH Photo Tour, and music by Audrey Danielson's group Emerald Strings. Nat Witschonke and LeeAnn Petropoulos joined us again, to our delight--we love their work!
I've little doubt that I've forgotten countless people -- folks who have helped us along the way toward creating ArtSpider.net, folks who have shared their talents with us, folks who have encouraged and inspired us. But for the record, to each and all, we are deeply grateful.
A final, special thanks to our collaborators on the ArtSpider site itself, Sullivan Creative. Pam, Carol, Tim, Dan, and the others involved all worked tremendously hard to create a site worthy of the vision Justine had and we all refined.
We look forward to year two!
