Dear Honorable Governor Sununu:

On behalf of Arts4NH and the entire arts and creativity sector in the State of New Hampshire, thank you for your support and efforts for our members during these challenging times.

We very much appreciate your efforts to fund relief and recovery through the various CARES Act programs, most notably the NERF-GOFERR, Main Street, SELF, Live Venue, and Arts Council NH CARES funding. These funds have been invaluable for our members and their organizations as they continue to innovate, collaborate, and cooperate to survive this ongoing pandemic.

We all know, however, that the relief and recovery funding assistance provided the arts falls far short of the revenues needed for many of our member organizations to survive. Most are struggling. Some have re-opened to vastly diminished audiences. Yet many remain closed or are closing again, finding it economically impossible to host on-site visitors in their venues as COVID resurges.

Many of our arts organizations have been awarded grants from the various NH State Council for the Arts programs, among them certainly the significant Public Value Partnership (PVP) grants. These two-year grant awards are critical to the annual budgets and cash flow projections for those of our members fortunate enough to have been awarded a FY20/21 PVP grant.

Arts4NH respectfully requests that you release the current General Fund freeze on the $300,000 PVP grants previously awarded, but not yet fulfilled.

Thank you again for your support of the New Hampshire arts sector. We wish you a very happy, safe and healthy Thanksgiving

Warm regards,

Trip Anderson,

Arts4NH Board Chair

Thank You to Governor Sununu