Oct. 17-25: 16th ArtWeek Nashua 2020, 7th Annual Meri Goyette Arts Awards to be televised

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Interviewing Rich Lannan, one of the 7th Annual Meri Goyette Arts Awards recipients, at Access Nashua for ArtWeek Nashua 2020. Photo/Wendy Fisher. I

NASHUA, NH – City Arts Nashua, in collaboration with Access Nashua, have recreated ArtWeek Nashua 2020 to be a weeklong televised event. Viewers can tune in via accessnashua.org, or Nashua Community Television Channel 96, as well as cityartsnashua.org, City Arts Nashua’s social media pages and City Arts Nashua’s YouTube channel throughout the week of October 17-25.

City Arts Nashua transformed its two biggest in-person, signature events – ArtWeek Nashua 2020 and the 7th Annual Meri Goyette Arts Awards – into this virtual celebration during the ongoing pandemic to keep all participants safe while still highlighting and celebrating the continuing artistic endeavors of working artists and important ongoing support from the patrons of the arts who received Arts Awards

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Interviewing Sid Ceaser in his Nashua-based Picker Artists Collaborative photo studio for ArtWeek Nashua 2020. Sid is also the Master of Ceremonies for the weeklong event. Photo/Wendy Fisher.

ArtWeek Nashua 2020 at a glance

ArtWeek’s programs will be hosted by Sid Ceaser, a longtime Nashua photographer, who also was a part of City Arts Nashua when it was a fledgling arts organization. City Arts Nashua and Access Nashua will present in-depth interviews with a variety of area artists in a variety of genres and mediums, as well as in-depth conversations with the Meri Goyette Arts Awards winners for 2020, each day during Oct. 17-25, 2020 on Channel 96 Access Nashua and livestreaming on the community television station’s website.

These profiles will be with:  

  • Ruth Boland/Ruth Boland Basketry
  • Sid Ceaser/Sid Ceaser Photography
  • Melissa Coppola/Vibe Yoga 
  • Kathleen and Mark Frank/Renaissance Glassworks
  • Roy Goodman/author 
  • Don Higgins/Don Higgins Illustration
  • Rich Lannan/Lannan Company/Arts Award Winner
  • Madeleine LaRose/painter
  • Sarah Lemansky/Sarah Lemansky Photography
  • Robert Lembree/RD Lembree Photography
  • Gail Moriarty/Colibri Designs
  • Nashua Community Music School 
  • Kate Pritchard/Kate Pritchard Art 
  • Sunflower Fusion Trio
  • The Picker Artists Collaborative
  • Keith Weirich/Peacock Players/Arts Award Winner 
  • Sarah Woodward/author
  • YMCA of Greater Nashua/Tiffany Josslin/Arts Award Winner 

Throughout the week, and throughout each day on City Arts Nashua’s social media, there will be profiles of other area artists and their works, and posts about each artist will be displayed on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn as well as on the cityartsnashua.org website.

There will be a video tour of downtown Nashua’s public art, narrated by Nashua Ward 4 Alderman Tom Lopez, and accompanied by a variety of City Arts board members, longtime friends, and ArtWeek Nashua 2020 organizers and their families.

A slideshow of the City Arts Nashua #CITYheARTSNASHUA project will also be displayed during the week, showing some of the ways in which contributors expressed themselves through the arts during the pandemic between March 2020 and now.

KidsWalk 2020

KidsWalk, which was a popular component of the 15th ArtWalk in 2019, will be taking place both on TV, on social media and in person with a downtown scavenger hunt, and a showcase of artwork and videos made by area kids, and crafts.

KidsWalk 2020 will be a virtual space for kids to find inspiration, connect with their artistic community, and share their own creative expressions during this unprecedented time. Children of all ages are submitting pictures and videos to our Showcase Art-acular, sharing what they have been doing creatively during the pandemic, as well as our friends at various local organizations and businesses, who will also be sharing fun content and tutorials.  

KidsWalk 2020 will also feature an exciting citywide Scavenger Hunt, where families can safely search for and locate mini art kits, which will be “hidden” in various locations around Nashua, and clues will be posted via our Facebook and Instagram social media pages as well as on Access Nashua and the City Arts Nashua website.

Precise programming times for Access Nashua’s airing of these programs and activities will be available later this week and we will share it as soon as it is available.


Arts Awards 2020 ceremony and tribute to longtime Nashua arts patron Meri Goyette:

The grand finale of ArtWeek Nashua 2020 will highlight and profile the great and longtime work of the 2020 recipients of the 7th Meri Goyette Arts Awards, and celebrate the one and only Meri Goyette. They are:

  • Keith Weirich, artistic director, Peacock Players, Individual of the Year
  • YMCA of Greater Nashua, represented by Tiffany Josslin, Non-profit Organization of the Year
  • Rich Lannan, The Lannan Company, Inc., Business of the Year
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Katrina Tsao of Nashua performed on piano at the 7th Annual Meri Goyette Arts Awards presentation held by City Arts Nashua on August 29, 2020Photo by Allegra Boverman

Highlights of the Arts Awards ceremony will also include:

  • Local radio host and author Mike Morin will MC for the Arts Awards for the second year
  • Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess will make remarks and present awards
  • Recipients will speak
  • Sing Like a Bird, the multi-talented duo of Dove Morissette, originally of Amherst, N.H., and Susan Donohue will perform 1950s standards
  • Katrina Tsao of Nashua will perform on piano
  • Special video tribute to Meri Goyette also hosted by Mike Morin, with special guests and friends, video edited by Dave Waldman

ABOUT MERI GOYETTE:

At the annual luncheon, we always celebrate longtime Nashua resident Meri Goyette, now in her 90s, who has for decades been an innovator of cultural programs and an energetic and enthusiastic patron of the arts in Nashua and vicinity. Meri always attends our luncheons and helps select our event theme each year. We celebrate her and her work to enrich Nashua’s cultural scene and her birthday; she is a treasured member of the Nashua community. She is our muse and inspiration for this and all our events!

ABOUT CITY ARTS NASHUA:

City Arts Nashua formed in 2004 and is a volunteer arts services organization with a 501(c)3 IRS non-profit designation. Its mission is to enrich quality of life by providing leadership to support and strengthen arts and culture in the Nashua region. City Arts Nashua helps expand and provide visibility for greater Nashua’s artistic and cultural community. It promotes, advocates, networks, produces events and projects, fundraises, and provides fiscal sponsorships. In addition, City Arts Nashua works closely with the Nashua Arts Commission, with local arts individuals and groups, community organizations, business, government and with State and national arts organizations. Among other events, City Arts Nashua produces ArtWalk, Nashua’s most celebrated art event every fall, now in its 16thyear, and the Meri Goyette Art Awards and Luncheon, recognizing contributions to the arts of non-artist community members and organizations, now in its 7th year, both of which have merged in 2020 into ArtWeek Nashua 2020. City Arts Nashua successfully led the effort to restore three important murals in Nashua, including, in 2016 Margaret’s View of Nashua by renowned artist Lucienne Bloch; in 2013, Vivian’s Dream, by Nashua mural artist Barbara Andrews; and, in 2015, the Yankee Flyer Diner by Nashua native and former Artist Laureate of New Hampshire, James Aponovich. City Arts Nashua was the fiscal sponsor of the planned Nashua Performing Arts Center until that organization reached independence. City Arts Nashua served as the fiscal sponsor of the Nashua International Sculpture Symposium, for 11 years; NISS is now independent and in its 13th year, and is the only such international sculpture symposium in the United States. As of 2019, City Arts Nashua now also administers an “Art Every Day” mini-grant to provide resources and art supplies to organizations, educators and others who are working to create art and arts programs and need the means and materials to do so.

Special thanks to our sponsors New Hampshire State Council on the Arts; The Nash Foundation; Great American Downtown; Nashua Arts Commission; Access Nashua; Kalil & Kress; Nashua Area Artists Association; Berkshire Hathaway; Southern NH Health; Picker Artists Collaborative.

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