Workshop Archives - Portsmouth Historical Society

Memories In Blue: Cyanotype Prints

by Portsmouth Historical Society | Jun 4, 2024

Big Trees of Portsmouth Tour and Presentation with Kevin Martin Saturday, June 22

Get creative with this cyanotype workshop!

Through the generous support of our donors, we are able to offer two tickets for this workshop at reduced cost. If cost would be a barrier to your participation, please reach out to Sarah Robbitts-Terry sarah@portsmouthhistory.org for more information.

About the Artist:

Kristy Cavaretta is an artist and mother of three living on the Southern Maine seacoast. She enjoys exploring the minutiae of domestic life through a variety of media.

Cavaretta earned her undergraduate degree in Visual and Media Arts from Boston’s Emerson College and a Graphic Design Certificate from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. In 2012 she moved to the seacoast with her husband after a decade of working in the film industry in Los Angeles. She worked as a graphic designer until she had her first child in 2016 and continued to work as a freelance designer for numerous nonprofit organizations, including the Ogunquit Museum of American Art (2015-2019) and Old York Historical Society (2015-current.) Cavaretta began printmaking in 2014 at Chases Garage in York, Maine in various workshop settings. Since having her children she has leaned into block printing, direct object printing, and collagraph printing for their accessibility and speed. Either the ability to make a piece in a single nap time sitting or chipping away at a larger work little by little over a long period of time.
In 2021 Maine Magazine named Cavaretta one of the years’ artists to watch, in 2023 she held her first solo exhibition at the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts.

Cavaretta teaches printmaking at Chases Garage in York, Maine and is proud to sit on the board of art and wellness non-profit ArtHope ( 2015-present.) In 2024 Cavaretta was honored to become a juried member of the New Hampshire Art Association and the New England Monotype Guild.

Workshop: Family, Memory, Place

by Portsmouth Historical Society | Jan 12, 2024

Workshop on 4/16 at 6 pm Family, Memory, Place: Writing Family Stories for Our Community.

Join us for the first part of this free interactive workshop!

About the Presenter:

Maura MacNeil is a writer, editor, and teacher. She is the author of the poetry collections: A History of Water (Finishing Line Press), Lost Houses (Kelsay Books), and This Last Place (Dancing Girl Press). Her poetry, prose, and critical writing has been published and anthologized in numerous publications over the past three decades including: Penning the Pandemic: An Anthology of Creative Writing from the Beginning of the Covid Era; Mud Chronicles: A New England Anthology; Poet Showcase: An Anthology of New Hampshire Poets; and Voices from the Frost Place Volume II. For over two decades she has taught writing at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire.

This event is made possible by a grant from New Hampshire Humanities

Brewster Series: Bark Basket Making Workshop

by Portsmouth Historical Society | Sep 15, 2023

Bark basket with an outline of a tree sewn onto the front

Learn traditional bark basket making techniques

Photos by Ted B. Sierad, Ed & Helen Pelletier

Small bark basket with a leather string tied around the center.

Learn about our workshop leader, Jennifer Lee

Artist Statement:

These bark baskets are made from the trees around my house. Following the season of “loose bark moon” or when the bark is slipping, the bark is peeled from a ladder so it won’t get ruined during felling. By selectively thinning the forest, which is a 45 year overgrown apple orchard, I’ve sustained my bark basket supply and improved the woods.

Historical accounts of the use of Ash, Oak, Pine, Spruce, Elm, Chestnut, Linden and Birch barks to cover wigwams encouraged me to try different barks for baskets. These baskets are made from trees that shaded the garden and needed to be taken down.
Buffalo or Bison is the material culture of the Nations of the Western Plains: the Lakota and the Osage. Bark is the material culture of the Northeast woodland tribes: the Abenaki, Ojibway, Narragansett and Pequot.

Joy describes the feeling of taking only bark roots and branches, and making something strong and usable in the tradition of my Native ancestors. People get so happy and proud when they fashion something so beautiful and durable from the woods. The trees make a way for me to share, celebrate, express, participate and contribute.

Family, Memory, Place: Writing Family Stories for Our Community

by Portsmouth Historical Society | Jan 26, 2023

What family stories do you carry with you? What story do you tell over and over? What landscape do you cherish the most? One of the deepest human instincts is to tell our life stories, to figure out who we are and what it means to be human. This interactive workshop led by Maura MacNeil explores how the landscapes of our lives shape the stories that we tell. Participants explore the themes of family, memory, and place through sample narratives and a series of short writing exercises, gaining a deeper awareness of how their stories can preserve personal, generational, and communal history.

Admission is free, pre-registration recommended.

Register for Family, Memory, Place

About the Presenter:

Maura MacNeil is a writer, editor, and teacher. She is the author of the poetry collections: A History of Water (Finishing Line Press), Lost Houses (Kelsay Books), and This Last Place (Dancing Girl Press). Her poetry, prose, and critical writing has been published and anthologized in numerous publications over the past three decades including: Penning the Pandemic: An Anthology of Creative Writing from the Beginning of the Covid Era; Mud Chronicles: A New England Anthology; Poet Showcase: An Anthology of New Hampshire Poets; and Voices from the Frost Place Volume II. For over two decades she has taught writing at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire.

This event is made possible by a grant from New Hampshire Humanities