Opening October 1, Tom Glover, Peter Cady, Brian Chu, Dustan Knight, and Barbara Adams will share work created over the past two years. They worked together to find new ways of portraying their appreciation for this unique costal area in five highly individual styles.
Cady, Peter. Offshore No. 3. Painted papers collage on paper, 24 x 18 inches.
Chu, Brian. Orange Sign Car. Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches.
Glover, Tom. Pile of Traps. Mixed media, 7¾ x 10 inches.
Knight, Dustan. Waterfront Evening. Acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches.
Adams, Barbara. Portsmouth Waterfront, oil; 18 x 24 inches.
Red Dot Sale in the Museum Shop!
We’re getting ready for the fall, and to clear space there’s a sale, with a twist! Find the red dots and get a discount at checkout! Happy hunting!
John Paul Jones House Closing for the Season Soon!
With the exception of Veterans Day, the last day the John Paul Jones House is open to the public before we button up for winter is Monday, October 11. Stop by and see “Portsmouth Treasures” before it’s too late.
The Portsmouth Historical Society presents a panel discussion exploring the New Hampshire Now exhibition with art historian Inez McDermott and photographers Dan Gingras, Michael Sterling, and Gary Samson. The panel will discuss the role of the documentary photography project throughout American history and its potential to make change as they make connections with the images and themes found in the exhibition.
Dan Gingras started his photographic career as a newspaper photographer for seven years before earning a master’s and doctoral degrees in computer science. His fifty-year love of photography and technology merged, as photography became digital and as computers became integral to composition and imaging.
Inez McDermott has been a professor of Art History at New England College since 2000. In her courses she encourages students to examine the role of art in public life and to discover the ways in which the creative process can play a role in social engagement, participatory democracy, and activism. Inez’ research interests focus on historical and contemporary New Hampshire art and artists with a particular interest in 19th century photography. She has also curated major exhibitions at museums in the region, including A House of Dreams Untold, the story of the MacDowell Colony, at the New Hampshire Historical Society in 1996, and, most recently as a co-curator of Mount Washington, The Crown of New England, (2017) at the Currier Museum in Manchester, NH. Inez has served on statewide arts and humanities boards in the state, and currently serves as a board member for the Saint-Gaudens’ Memorial, which supports the work of the only national park dedicated to an artist, in Cornish, NH.
Gary Samson
Gary Samson has been a fine art photographer and educator for forty years. His work has been exhibited in Europe and Canada, as well as in the United States, and can be found in numerous collections including the Library of Congress and the Currier Museum of Art. In 2017, Gary was appointed the seventh Artist Laureate of New Hampshire and Professor Emeritus of Photography by the Institute of Art and Design at New England College
Michael Sterling is immediate past president of the New Hampshire Society of Photographic Artists and a contributing photographer for a number of local magazines, newspapers, and nonprofits. Sterling’s work is represented in the permanent collections of the Exeter Chamber of Commerce and Cambridge Trust and was exhibited in Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s Experience New Hampshire event in Washington, DC. Artistic interests include architecture and historic interiors, cityscapes, and environmental portraiture.
This panel discussion has been made possible by a generous grant by the New Hampshire Humanities.
New Hampshire Humanities nurtures the joy of learning and inspires community engagement by bringing life-enhancing ideas from the humanities to the people of New Hampshire. They connect people with ideas. Learn more at www.nhhumanities.org.
New Hampshire Now: A Photographic Diary of Life in the Granite State
October 1, 2021–December 23, 2021
Opening reception October 1, 2021, 5:30pm
New Hampshire Now is a two-year project to photographically record life in New Hampshire. Nearly 50 photographers traveled throughout the state between 2018 and 2020, making thousands of images that collectively create a twenty-first-century portrait of the people, places, culture, and events in New Hampshire. This project documents contemporary life in our state, in much the same way that photography projects of the past have done, such as Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange during the Great Depression and Lewis Hines when he visited the mills of Manchester in the early 1900s. The thousands of images created during this project form a powerful visual archive of both the ordinary and extraordinary events of our time.
Organized by the New Hampshire Society of Photographic Artists and the New Hampshire Historical Society, eight exhibitions held in the seven regions of the state will all open simultaneously on October 1, 2021. Each exhibition will display photographs unique to that region of the state, while the flagship exhibition at the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord will display images that represent the state as a whole. Each organization is determining how long the exhibition will be open at their facility, so everyone’s closing date will be different.
This ambitious project has been made possible thanks to the generous support of our corporate sponsor, New Hampshire Mutual Bancorp, and its affiliates (NH Trust, Meredith Village Savings Bank, Merrimack County Savings Bank, and the Savings Bank of Walpole), along with Monadnock Paper Mills, Puritan Press, and Red River Paper, with support from Kimball Jenkins School of Art. Additional support for the publication was provided by Furthermore, a J. M. Kaplan Fund.
The Book
The book New Hampshire Now features more than 250 images from the project. It will be available for sale at each of the exhibitions and at many independent bookstores around the state. The book is a New Hampshire product, published by Peter Randall Publishers and printed by Puritan Press on paper from Monadnock Paper Mills and Red River Paper.
The book includes forewords by Bill Dunlap and Project Director Gary Samson and an introduction by beloved New Hampshire author Howard Mansfield.
This is your very last chance to see our amazing exhibitions, “Twilight of American Impressionism” and “Don Gorvett: Working Waterfronts” before they close THIS SUNDAY, 9/12, at 5pm!
New Hampshire Now: A Photographic Diary of Life in the Granite State
Opening October 1 at eight locations across, “New Hampshire Now: A Photographic Diary of the Granite State”! This project, spearheaded by the New Hampshire Historical Society and the New Hampshire Society of Photographic Artists, features work by fifty professional photographers who were told to document the state of NH… and what a year 2020 turned out to be for photos!
Portsmouth Historical Society is thrilled to be the location for the Seacoast, but everyone should try and visit the other locations, as the photos will be unique for each.
PLUS: PREORDER THE CATALOGUE NOW! This gorgeous, 288-page book is available for preorder at the Museum Shop, and is a total steal at only $49.95! We’ll only have 100 copies to sell, so reserve yours now!
Save the Date! Gingerbread is Coming!
t’s hard to believe, but the holiday season will be here before you know it! This year, the exhibition will open November 26, the day after Thanksgiving.
This year our theme is favorite New Hampshire things! To go along with the upcoming exhibition “NH Now,” we’re asking you to create what you love about NH in gingerbread form.
Registration will be open soon, so start thinking about your sweet creations!
Red Dot Sale at the Museum Shop
The galleries will be closed to the public from 9/13 through 9/30 while we change exhibitions, but you can still come into the Welcome Center and Museum Shop!
Shop manager Beth Gross-Santos has put together a fun red dot sale! No hints on where to find the dots, but when you do, it’s a 50% discount! If we’re already thinking about the Gingerbread House Contest, it’s not too early to think about…holiday shopping!
Many of you received postcards for a end-of-season “Members Only” reception. Shortly after mailing, the COVID situation changed, and we had to adjust our expectations for this event. We felt it was important to proceed with caution by limiting attendance and not serving any food. However, because we couldn’t have the celebration we hoped for, we are also going to broadcast the lecture by Zoom!
Members: Check inbox your soon for a link to get tickets to a virtual lecture!
Join us for a toast to celebrate the concluding days of our extraordinary summer exhibitions, “Twilight of American Impressionism” and “Working Waterfronts” and to inaugurate the William & Arlene Brewster Lecture Series!
September 9, 2021 5:30pm Lecture by guest curator William Brewster Jr.
Support for this event is provided by Lynne Joyce of Tate & Foss Sotheby’s International Realty.
Young Writers Contest Extended!
The Young Writers Contest has been extended! Submissions are now due by midnight on Monday, September 13. We’ve got some great prizes to offer from our sponsors, Summer Sessions and Flatbread Co!
The Chamber is a wonderful resource for all greater Portsmouth businesses, and it was fun to get to see some of our fellow members and have a cup of coffee with them. Thanks for stopping by!
Above, our very own Robin Lurie-Meyerkopf talks to a group of Arts in the Afternoon summer camp kids! We’ve had such a great response from all the kids and their families. Thanks to the Portsmouth Rec Department for including us!
Art ‘Round Town Friday, August 6
First Free Friday next week! Stop by during the day for FREE admission! We’ll also be open late for Art ‘Round Town. This month, our featured artist in the Museum Shop is Piper Smith. She’ll be on hand to talk about her beautiful pottery!
Don Gorvett Lunchtime Tour #2
If you missed your chance today, there’s another chance next week! Friday, August 6 at 12:00pm Don Gorvett will lead a gallery tour at Portsmouth Historical Society, free of charge!
We Need You!
We are looking for weekend volunteers! If you can spare a few hours on Saturday or Sunday, we’d love to have you.
We’re a fun group to work with, and we need a few people to help us to spread our love of Portsmouth & the Seacoast to all our visitors. Fill out this form, email, or call volunteer coordinator Jessica Kliskey, at 603-436-8433.
