Exhibits, galleries, theater and more: Seacoast arts and culture news

New exhibit opens at the Gateway Gallery at Great Bay Community College

PORTSMOUTH — The Gateway Gallery at Great Bay Community College announced the opening exhibition of the 2022-2023 academic year with “Connect, Combine, Reflect” by Rollinsford, N.H. based artist Shiao-Ping Wang. Representative of the woven and ephemeral nature of human experience, “Connect, Combine, Reflect” presents a collection of abstract paintings inviting viewers to take a moment of pause and reflect upon the intangible and fleeting nature of much of our daily lives.

Featuring six large scale paintings, Ms. Wang has created a group of works that joyfully welcome inspection and contemplation within the gallery space. Using a combination of acrylics and Flashe, an artist’s grade vinyl paint, the layered works shift in color as viewers move through the gallery and as the day progresses. The subtle nature of this dynamic presentation ensures a multitude of unique viewing experiences, perfectly reflective of Ms. Wang’s inspiration for the work.

In addition to the careful and considered use of color, Ms. Wang also incorporates signs, symbols, and patterns to create points of literality within the abstract works. Sinuous lines become understood as knotted thread when viewed next to repeated fabric-like patterning, and the comparatively harsh geometry of punctuation marks and geometric shapes present the viewer with ample opportunities to draw connections between the works and throughout the gallery space.

The exhibition is now open to the public and will remain on view until October 14. A closing reception for the exhibition will be held in October, with further details to follow. The Gateway Gallery is located in the main lobby of GBCC’s Portsmouth campus at the Pease Tradeport, 320 Corporate Avenue, Portsmouth, N.H. Any inquiries regarding the exhibition can be made to the gallery curator, Andrew Super, via email at asuper@ccsnh.edu. Exhibit is open during regular campus hours. For info please visit www.greatbay.edu/hours-directions/.

Garrison Players Arts Center auditioning for ‘Inspecting Carol'

ROLLINSFORD — Auditions for the comical and unorthodox Christmas play “Inspecting Carol” will be held on Monday, Oct. 3 and Wednesday, Oct. 5, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at Garrison Players Arts Center, Corner of Roberts Road and Portland Ave (Rte 4), Rollinsford.

Callbacks (if necessary) will be on Monday, Oct. 10. Rehearsals begin the week of Oct. 17. Actors will be asked to recite a cold reading from the script.  Please bring a resume and headshot if possible.  The play will be directed by Alyson Rachkoskie. For a list of characters visit Garrison Players Website https://www.garrisonplayers.org

Show dates are Dec. 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18.

For more information about auditions, shows, or GPAC, visit the website at www.garrisonplayers.org.

Anne of Green Gables Opens the UNH Theatre and Dance season

DURHAM — The University of New Hampshire Department of Theatre and Dance is bringing a classic story to the Johnson Theatre. Anne of Green Gables, adaptation by playwright Donna Hoke, and winner of the Anna Zornio Memorial Children’s Theatre Playwriting Award, will be playing from Oct. 5 to Oct. 9.

Based on the novel by L.M. Montgomery, this updated classic brings Anne to the 1970’s. In a world where foster parents were told to keep their distance, the endearing girl warms the heart of her unlikely guardians. Her indominable spirit charms even with her tendency to inadvertently cause mischief. From beginning to end, audiences will love this show.

Directed by Professor Raina Ames and starring a cast of talented UNH students, the 2022-23 UNH Theatre & Dance Season opener is perfect for audiences of all ages. As Anne herself says, “It's delightful when your imaginations come true, isn't it?”, so come and see the Anne of your imagination brought to life on stage.

Get your tickets today by visiting www.UNHArts.com. Tickets are $12 for general admission seating and $8 for seniors, UNH ID holders, youth, and groups of 15 or more.  The UNH theatre box office opens one hour prior to curtain in the lobby of the Paul Creative Arts Center. For more information and show times, season subscription offerings, and the current season call the Theatre & Dance visit our website https://cola.unh.edu/theatre-dance. Also, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram @UNHTheatreDance for all the latest news and department gossip.

UNH Traditional Jazz Series Concert #268

DURHAM — The University of New Hampshire Department of Music Traditional Jazz Series presents Davina and the Vagabonds, Friday, Oct. 14, at 8 p.m. in Johnson Theatre of the Paul Creative Arts Center, on the Durham campus.

The often unbelievable, sometimes harrowing, and wholly inspiring journey of Davina Sowers gave birth to her eponymous band Davina and The Vagabonds in 2004. 2019 marks a new chapter as the group unleashes its first offering for Red House Records, Sugar Drops. A distillation of bluesy barroom baritone and bravado, graveyard jazz grooves, and noir-ish confessional lyricism backed by boisterous piano, guitar, and strings, the music actualizes longstanding intent for Davina. “It represents about one-hundred years of Americana,” she continues.

Tickets are $12 general admission; $10 students/senior citizens and are available at the PCAC Box Office one hour prior to performance and online at www.unharts.com. For more information, call the UNH Music Department at 603-862-2404. TTY Users: 7-1-1 or 800-735-2964 (Relay NH).

Arts In Reach receives $25,000 from The Foundation for Seacoast Health

PORTSMOUTH—The Foundation for Seacoast Health Trustees selected Arts In Reach (AIR) as the first recipient of the Terry Morton Award for At-Risk Youth. This grant will fund an AIR pilot project in partnership with Seacoast Mental Health Center to provide mental health support for participants in AIR’s core arts and mentoring programs. Services will be individualized and focus on helping teens develop protective factors and social and emotional strategies to manage challenges in their lives.

According to the Foundation for Seacoast Health, “Terry [Morton] was dedicated to providing all young people with opportunities to reach their full potential and enter early adulthood with the skills, self-esteem, and confidence they need to make sound decisions and healthy life choices.”

“We’re honored to be the first recipient of this award named after the founder of the Foundation for Seacoast Health,” said Debra Holloway, AIR Executive Director. “I remember Terry, and I think he would be proud that this award is in his name. He strongly advocated for youth empowerment, as AIR does. Our programs engage teens in expressive arts and mentoring to build resiliency and confidence. This project is a huge step forward in destigmatizing youth mental health support, making it accessible, and improving its impact. We are so grateful to the Foundation for Seacoast Health for this award.”

AIR is a nonprofit community arts organization dedicated to empowering girls and gender expansive youth ages 11-22 through free out-of-school programs that include mentoring by professional artists and transportation assistance. AIR promotes the skills teens need to build fulfilling lives.

AIR has provided transformative arts programming for over 2100 teens from the Greater Seacoast region since 1997. For the last decade, AIR has documented the rising mental health challenges of teenage girls and gender expansive youth and has adapted its programming to address their needs.

This $25,000 grant will fund a new and innovative approach to addressing the critical gap in mental health support for local youth by providing inclusive and accessible services to teens participating in AIR and increasing the capacity of AIR staff to meet their needs.

This project ensures that any AIR participant who needs behavioral health support receives it complimentary while continuing to engage in AIR’s complementary arts programming and mentoring to further the development of teens’ protective factors and creative social and emotional strategies.

The project also strengthens AIR’s programming and mentoring through ongoing staff consultation with behavioral health specialists and continued training of staff and teaching artists in Teen Mental Health First Aid. Services will be provided through a partnership with Seacoast Mental Health Center Inc.

Jay Couture, President & CEO of Seacoast Mental Health Center, commented, “Seacoast Mental Health Center is thrilled to be partnering with AIR to offer mental health consultation and supportive services to AIR staff for youth presenting with mental health needs. The pandemic has greatly increased and intensified mental health needs in youth, and this partnership will allow for early identification and intervention for emerging behavioral health challenges in a non-clinical setting. We appreciate the Foundation for Seacoast Health’s support of the collaboration and look forward to building a sustainable partnership with AIR.”

Holloway added, “This project will transform lives and improve the health of seacoast communities.”

Haley Art Gallery celebrates Hispanic Heritage month

KITTERY, Maine — Haley Art Gallery’s 2022 season’s final exhibit—The Rhythms Within–which opened on Sept. 17, celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with Murmurs of the Mirror series by Chicano artist, Carlos Vega. The exhibit remains on view through Nov. 19.

Carlos Vega’s artistic work captures the hybridity of culture and spirit that is ever-changing in the Latinx community–one shaped and reshaped by places left behind and those to be found. Central to Vega’s art is religion and spiritual belief—in all its manifestations and transgressions. Considering religion as much image, ritual, and the material, as an abstract belief, Vega works primarily with antique and vintage mirrors in historic frames that may tell their own stories. Eroding the reflective surface of the mirrors to bring out what he believes the glass has retained of what it has seen, some will imagine a collage, but he believes he is revealing portions of cultural and personal pasts. Other than existing images, he employs gold and other metal foil, paint, ink (oftentimes using a syringe that breaks through the layers of impressions), and powdered pigment.

Vega lives between New England and the South of Spain and was raised on the border between Mexico and the U.S.. Having studied in Paris, New York, and Cambridge, MA, he is chair of Wellesley College’s Spanish and Portuguese Department and teaches Medieval Spanish Literature at Wellesley College.

In addition to original artwork, the Haley Art Gallery gift shop offers social impact gift items from around the world. The gallery is open Thursdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Contact: Haley Art Gallery at 617-584-2580 or haleygallery@comcast.net. Visit https://haleyartgallery.com/.

Ukulele Festival raises $1,100 for charity

DOVER — The Southern New Hampshire Ukulele Group (SNHUG) raised $1,100 at a recent event, their seventh annual ukulele festival “SNHUGFEST, to benefit the Ukulele Kids Club.

The funds will be used by the Ukulele Kids Club to purchase instruments for children’s hospitals with music therapy programs, including several here in New Hampshire.  The UKC donates these instruments to music therapists who then teach the hospitalized children how to play.  The child brings the instrument home with them as a “gift for life.”  The UKC is a NH registered 501(c)(3) charity.

June Pinkham, co-organizer for SNHUG, says “I have seen first-hand how putting this happy little instrument in the hands of a sick child brings smiles and provides comfort in a very stressful environment.”  The UKC has donated over 14,000 ukuleles to date to hospitals nationwide.

The event was held on the Rotary Arts Pavilion Stage at Henry Law Park in scenic downtown Dover, N.H. on Saturday, Sept. 24. Featured performers included solo artists Kristina Looney and Rich “Amazing Dick” Leufstedt.  Ukulele groups included, The Unlikely Strummers, Desperate Strings Trio, The Austin17 Band, The FLUKES, Ukulele Strummers of Southern Maine, June and the Honey Badgers, Co-Host the Ukes of Hazard, and SNHUG.

SNHUG was organized eleven years ago and meets every other Friday at Austin17 in Brentwood. They are open to players of all levels.  Meetings include classes, workshops, jam sessions, and open mics. To date, SNHUG has raised over $90,000 for charity, most going to the UKC.  For information contact SNHUG@outlook.com and visit  www.facebook/snhug.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Exhibits, galleries, theater and more: Seacoast arts and culture news