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August 2011
Dear supporters of ACT, this community, and the arts,
Do you want the short version or the long version? For the long version, scroll down below the asterisks to read about the wonderful year we have just wrapped up, and about our plans for the year ahead—then meet me back here.
As noted below, our theme for this year is “Make Joy with Less.” Through our planned programming we hope to teach Tamworth’s children and community members of all ages from the surrounding area skills for bringing art and song and movement into their lives with little need for costly supplies or equipment. What’s more, we want our performances to be accessible to everyone in the community. We cannot do this work without your financial help.
I write you at a time when funding for the arts and arts education is in decline both in NH and nationally. Because of this, we are looking not only for generous donations this year, but also for individuals, families and businesses willing to sponsor discrete parts of our work—artist residencies in the Brett School (where the free and reduced lunch rate now stands at 47.4 %), free afternoon performances, the Art Connects Us website, the annual art show—or to make a several-year commitment to support our activities. Please send a contribution to ACT, PO Box 1, Tamworth, NH 03886, donate above, or contact me to discuss sponsorship options.
Do you believe the work of Arts Council of Tamworth strengthens our community and benefits our children and senior citizens? Are you willing to support this work with financial contributions or donations of time or materials? Do you have ideas about ways ACT can better serve this community?
I hope your answers to these questions are Yes! Yes! and Yes! I look forward to talking to many of you in the year ahead, and may our work together help our children, our senior citizens, and all of us in between adapt gracefully to the changing world we inhabit.
Yours,
Juno Lamb
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Our offerings this past year included two substantial and well-received artist residencies at the Brett School in Tamworth, free workshops and performances, several stellar jazz performances, an All-Ages Dance Party that lived up to its name; the transformation of our website, with the help of a grant from the NH Charitable Foundation, into this site, Art Connects Us, providing a web presence for several local arts nonprofits, celebrating the arts and artists of Sandwich and Tamworth, and serving as a model for nonprofits in other communities seeking to make the best use of limited resources; and the development of our relationship with Tamworth Artisans, the new visual arts arm of Arts Council of Tamworth. Finally, at the end of July, over 40 area artists shared their lovely and diverse work with the community at our annual summer Art Show & Sale and a record number of attendees supported the local economy by buying art. We are so grateful to the individuals, businesses and grantors who made this work possible.
Click on Limmer or Jafferis to see photos and video from last year’s residencies. Click on Miss Tess or Niswanger or Vignola for a taste of some of last year’s concerts.
We learned this year that when we had an opportunity to share what was happening in the school with the community, the community responded with delight, and when we were able to offer performances with no set ticket price, people we’d not seen before at our shows turned up. This awareness has shaped our plans for the year to come.
Our theme for this year is “Make Joy with Less.” People of every culture, regardless of financial resources, find ways to bring creative joy into their lives. Kids play games with sticks and stones, old buckets and washboards become rhythm instruments while a cigar box is turned into a banjo and a wash bucket and string serve as upright bass. Especially, with no equipment at all, people sing, dance, and tell stories. In times of great prosperity we tend to move away from simple pleasures. In moments of financial uncertainly we may need reminders that people working creatively together, cooperating and collaborating, using their minds and hearts, bodies and hands, can make art, build community, and experience joy.
Though we continue to scale back in an effort to create a stable, sustainable organization, we will offer several diverse performances and another dance party, with “Choose your own ticket price: $5 to $35” tickets. Three outstanding, experienced teaching artists will work with students at Brett and offer workshops for the general public in vocal improv & jazz with recycled rhythms, eco-fashion, and circus arts. We will also offer several daytime performances at Brett. In addition to sharings of student work at the end of each residency, students will present some of what they’ve learned at a Make Joy with Less Festival, in conjunction with the 2012 Tamworth Energy Fair, that will include a Re-circus—circus arts using recycled circus equipment—a vocal and recycled rhythms performance, an eco-fashion show of garments made of re-purposed t-shirts and incorporating original block prints, and an environmentally-themed art and design contest and display. Our year will culminate as it always does with the 2012 Art Show & Sale.
Will you support this work?
You can find our 2011-2012 schedule here; check back for updates. Enter your email into the Get the Latest Updates box in the middle column to never miss a post from Art Connects Us. We look forward to seeing you at workshops and performances, and out on the dance floor, later this year.
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