New Year Notes from our Board Chair

Best Wishes to all for a Happy, Healthy and Healing New Year!

I suspect many of us in the arts and creative community will not be sorry to see the end of 2020.  As a colleague recently remarked ever optimistically, “2020 was a very special year”.   Special indeed! 

And very hard to forget.  The year brought forced closures to our cherished art venues.  It fostered enormous stress – financially and emotionally.  It stripped away for many the accomplishments and benefits of years of creative investment…  a piece of each and every one of us devoted to the arts.

Yet, there is silver lining in these traumatic times. The uncommon resilience and creative strength of the arts community.  It revealed the deep commitment of our cherished benefactors.  Many of us found new ways to reach our audiences.  We opened new doors of opportunity, discovered new channels of delivery, found new collaborative partners.  Together, we brought a measure of hope and healing; of insight and context; of respite and calm to our communities in troubling times.

Looking forward, brighter days seem to be looming.  Congress and our President seem to have come together on legislation that provides new relief for artists and arts venues.  Arts4NH continues to work with NERF-GOFERR personnel and its partners to advocate for relief in the original CARES Act funding.  We are working on behalf of the NH State Council on the Arts for release FY21 grant funds previously pledged, as well as advocating for increased apportionments in the state’s biennial  FY22/23 budgets.

Significantly, Arts4NH is very pleased to announce the recent award of two grants to support our operations: one from the Greenspan Foundation; and one a match challenge grant from The Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation.  The Byrne Foundation has pledged to match every dollar in membership fees or donations to Arts4NH made during the next two months, up to $2,000.

Simultaneously, Arts4NH is announcing the imminent launch and roll-out of our new CRM software platform to enhance our membership communications and bolster the services we provide to our members and sponsors.  Shortly, membership renewal information will be rolling out using this software and leveraging this rare opportunity from the Upper Valley focused Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation.

Stay tuned to this space and our website for further updates and announcements about 2021 events and opportunities.   Together, let’s celebrate the dawn of 2021 and prospect of brighter days ahead.