Matt Connarton Unleashed: Mosaic Art Collective (Liz, Hannah, Atlas)

0:00 Speaker 1: Joining us now in the studio. So we have Liz

0:03 Speaker 1: from the Mosaic Art Collective. And Liz, this is your

0:06 Speaker 1: third time on the show.

0:08 Speaker 2: Second third, I think this is my second time.

0:10 Speaker 1: Second, Okay, all right, And you've got Hannah and Atlas

0:14 Speaker 1: with you, and they are first timers on the show. Yes,

0:17 Speaker 1: I did meet Hannah at the at the last event,

0:20 Speaker 1: right last. Oh that was last weekend. Actually, it all

0:23 Speaker 1: becomes a blur. And and I'm meeting Atlas for the

0:26 Speaker 1: first time, and you are the I'm pretty sure you're

0:30 Speaker 1: the first individual named Atlas I've ever met, so welcome

0:36 Speaker 1: to the show. So, Hannah, what what is your involvement

0:40 Speaker 1: with Mosaic Art Collective.

0:43 Speaker 3: I am one of the resident artists. Mosaic is, for

0:49 Speaker 3: those that don't know, is a gallery with a gallery

0:53 Speaker 3: hosted inside and four artists studios. So I'm lucky enough

0:57 Speaker 3: to be one of the four. And I'm also the

1:01 Speaker 3: secretary of the Mosaic Are Collective board.

1:04 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, and Atlas, how about you?

1:07 Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm one of them.

1:09 Speaker 1: Pull up, pull up, mic over it and yeah, you

1:11 Speaker 1: gotta be right on it.

1:12 Speaker 5: I'm the head of pr for a Mosaic I've been

1:15 Speaker 5: with him since June.

1:16 Speaker 1: And lean lean over a little bit, so you're like,

1:19 Speaker 1: you got to talk right good. Yeah, that's that's the

1:22 Speaker 1: worst micu okay in the room unfortunately.

1:25 Speaker 4: Yeah, so I was. I'm now pead of pr for Mosaic.

1:29 Speaker 1: Okay.

1:29 Speaker 5: I've been with the Mosaic since June and I've just

1:31 Speaker 5: been trying to be a part of it every way

1:34 Speaker 5: I can.

1:34 Speaker 4: It's been an awesome right so far?

1:35 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, excellent. Well, congratulations, very good, very good.

1:38 Speaker 4: I appreciate it.

1:39 Speaker 1: So, Liz, how how's it been for you? I mean,

1:40 Speaker 1: this has really grown right. Uh. I was commenting to

1:43 Speaker 1: Hannah that earlier off air that that was quite the turnout. Yeah,

1:48 Speaker 1: last Saturday.

1:49 Speaker 2: Unfortunately I wasn't.

1:51 Speaker 1: At those Oh that's right, yeah, yeah.

1:53 Speaker 6: But I have heard it was a fabulous turnout. We've

1:56 Speaker 6: had a couple of slower months. I think in general

2:00 Speaker 6: there was a lot going on in the art world,

2:03 Speaker 6: so probably less people were available, and I think luckily

2:08 Speaker 6: this time around there were a number of people that

2:12 Speaker 6: were available. But also it's a larger show because it's

2:16 Speaker 6: I don't remember exactly how many artists we have, it's

2:19 Speaker 6: over sixty artists in the show, and when that happens,

2:26 Speaker 6: you end up with a pretty good turnout. All the

2:28 Speaker 6: pieces that are up on the wall right now are

2:31 Speaker 6: small work, so they're all more affordable, really great gift

2:35 Speaker 6: giving sizes and prices, and so we're really lucky.

2:41 Speaker 1: When you do something like where the theme is smaller,

2:45 Speaker 1: I mean, did you put us like a size limit

2:48 Speaker 1: on that, like they couldn't be yet larger than a

2:51 Speaker 1: certain than certain dimensions.

2:52 Speaker 6: Yep, so the dimensions are smaller than twelve by twelve inches, okay,

2:58 Speaker 6: and that's in any dire so because we do have

3:01 Speaker 6: some sculptural pieces as well.

3:03 Speaker 1: When you do something like that, do you find that

3:07 Speaker 1: you get a different submissions from people who may not

3:11 Speaker 1: have submitted before. Do you see a lot of new

3:13 Speaker 1: names sometimes?

3:15 Speaker 6: I think in the last several months we've seen an

3:18 Speaker 6: uptick in new artists, which is really cool because I

3:22 Speaker 6: think around June I started feeling like maybe we've tapped

3:27 Speaker 6: into all the artists in the area and this is

3:29 Speaker 6: this is the amount of artists that we have. And

3:32 Speaker 6: then really in the last three months or so, we've

3:34 Speaker 6: seen a huge a huge number of new artists showing

3:40 Speaker 6: up for open calls. So I don't know that it's

3:46 Speaker 6: changed necessarily because of the sizes or if it's just

3:50 Speaker 6: that more people are finding out about us.

3:52 Speaker 5: And I would argue artists love a good challenge. Yeah,

3:56 Speaker 5: anything more restrictive in terms of theme or anything like that.

4:00 Speaker 5: Really as me personally as an artist, like, I find

4:02 Speaker 5: that very helpful because I can put more into it

4:06 Speaker 5: knowing exactly what I'm looking for.

4:08 Speaker 4: So I think the twelve x twelve sort of I

4:12 Speaker 4: don't want.

4:13 Speaker 5: It's like more of like a challenge to try to

4:15 Speaker 5: make something beautiful out of something within that space.

4:18 Speaker 4: And I think people responded really well to that.

4:21 Speaker 6: And atlicit actually took the challenge in a totally different direction.

4:25 Speaker 6: And he has a really cool piece in the show

4:28 Speaker 6: where he painted on a knife. Oh really, So that's

4:32 Speaker 6: definitely worth checking out if you want to stop into

4:35 Speaker 6: the gallery or go online and look at our online gallery.

4:38 Speaker 5: Okay, Yeah, was that difficult that was to Yeah, it

4:41 Speaker 5: was a totally different canvas to paint on. It's not

4:45 Speaker 5: something that you would expect to have trouble with, but

4:47 Speaker 5: it was quite quite difficult. But I had so much

4:51 Speaker 5: fun doing something within that brand new medium.

4:54 Speaker 4: Yeah, it was obviously inspired by the Mosaic Wonders show.

5:01 Speaker 5: Okay, like this, this seems like the perfect opportunity to

5:04 Speaker 5: try something new, put something new into it, and yeah,

5:08 Speaker 5: it was great and it came out with an awesome

5:09 Speaker 5: result and I'm so happy that I was able to

5:11 Speaker 5: do that.

5:12 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, excellent, excellent. Now when when people submit, you know,

5:17 Speaker 1: you call it a juried a juried what's what's the

5:21 Speaker 1: right term?

5:22 Speaker 3: A juried show.

5:24 Speaker 1: Juried show, like who chooses? Like, obviously, Liz, you're you're

5:29 Speaker 1: part of that process, but are you also both Hannah

5:32 Speaker 1: and Atlas are you both involved in that well in

5:36 Speaker 1: terms of choosing who gets in?

5:37 Speaker 3: And it's a collaborative effort. It's usually about three to

5:43 Speaker 3: four people that are selecting the work, and then we

5:46 Speaker 3: get together as a group several days after the work

5:50 Speaker 3: comes in and we collaborate once again and make decisions

5:54 Speaker 3: on how to arrange the show so that it's harmonious

6:00 Speaker 3: and each piece that is situated in a way where

6:05 Speaker 3: it really shines next to the other work. So it's

6:10 Speaker 3: a really interesting process not only choosing the work that

6:14 Speaker 3: is selected, but also how do you arrange such a

6:18 Speaker 3: diverse arrangement of such selected works.

6:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, has the number of selections, or I should say,

6:30 Speaker 1: I'm sorry, the number of submissions? Has that really kind

6:32 Speaker 1: of increased over time, because I would imagine, like the

6:35 Speaker 1: first show that you did there, I would imagine that

6:37 Speaker 1: was a significantly last number because it was the first show.

6:40 Speaker 1: Or maybe not. Maybe there's such a need and demand

6:43 Speaker 1: for what you're doing. Maybe you had a lot right

6:44 Speaker 1: out of the gate. I don't know.

6:46 Speaker 6: I mean the first show was interesting because I had

6:50 Speaker 6: never done anything like this before, and really it was

6:53 Speaker 6: just a complete guess to see what would happen. I

6:58 Speaker 6: did end up reaching out to another one of the

7:01 Speaker 6: residents at Mosaic who has a strong connection with a

7:05 Speaker 6: number of local artists, and told her that we hadn't

7:09 Speaker 6: gotten the numbers that I had hoped and I had

7:13 Speaker 6: to extend the deadline, and I said, can you share

7:17 Speaker 6: this with your audience? And she did and that that

7:19 Speaker 6: brought in some more people. So we did end up

7:22 Speaker 6: at the very first show, I think we had forty

7:25 Speaker 6: or so artists. The work was a really interesting range

7:31 Speaker 6: of emerging to professional artists, and I think from month

7:38 Speaker 6: to month it kind of ebbs and flows, like I

7:42 Speaker 6: truly get freaked out about a week before the deadline

7:47 Speaker 6: because most artists wait till the very last minute to

7:50 Speaker 6: submit their work, and I usually, like the week before

7:57 Speaker 6: will start like if I really noticed that we haven't

7:59 Speaker 6: had any submissions, I'll start like tapping people and being like, hey,

8:03 Speaker 6: are you planning on cubmenting your work? And you know,

8:08 Speaker 6: chances are some of them are, or some of them

8:11 Speaker 6: are just too busy that month, but yeah, it kind

8:13 Speaker 6: of it changes.

8:16 Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, now that makes sense, the small Wonders

8:20 Speaker 1: that's actually running for two months, Is that correct?

8:22 Speaker 2: It is?

8:23 Speaker 6: Okay, So this we have historically done a small work

8:27 Speaker 6: show in November and December. Part of that is self

8:31 Speaker 6: preservation because we're getting into like the busy holiday season

8:37 Speaker 6: and I at the beginning just couldn't take setting up

8:42 Speaker 6: another show in December. But also I think it offers

8:46 Speaker 6: more time for people to shop and see the show.

8:51 Speaker 6: We'll have another opening the second Saturday of December for

8:57 Speaker 6: Amy who runs the Seesaw Gallery.

9:00 Speaker 2: She'll have a the name.

9:01 Speaker 6: Of her show number of presently I think is what

9:05 Speaker 6: her show is called. That's another open call, and she'll

9:11 Speaker 6: have an opening that night as well, and we're hoping

9:15 Speaker 6: that there'll be another good turnout, and then I think

9:18 Speaker 6: we're also planning on doing a closing on December twenty second,

9:22 Speaker 6: so we try to like keep you know, movement in

9:25 Speaker 6: the gallery, get people in. And as of right now,

9:29 Speaker 6: we had been doing almost month to month shows, and

9:35 Speaker 6: I think going forward after November and December, we're planning

9:39 Speaker 6: on doing bi monthly shows instead. We needed a little

9:44 Speaker 6: more time. I think all of us, just from an

9:47 Speaker 6: organizational standpoint, needed.

9:49 Speaker 2: More time to.

9:52 Speaker 6: Rest and then also be able to bring in some

9:55 Speaker 6: workshops and stuff like that. We'd really like to do

9:58 Speaker 6: more community outreach, and it's hard when you're either setting

10:02 Speaker 6: up or taking down a show with.

10:04 Speaker 2: Like a week or two of the show.

10:06 Speaker 6: So we're hoping with the extended shows that we'll have

10:10 Speaker 6: some more time to do that kind of stuff.

10:12 Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes sense, and it also gives artists the

10:16 Speaker 3: opportunity to bring in more of their friends and family.

10:19 Speaker 3: A month is a really tight turnaround, so yeah, the.

10:25 Speaker 1: Opportunity, Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. I remember Jenny

10:31 Speaker 1: and I attended an event that you had had about

10:35 Speaker 1: I don't remember the gentleman's name, forgive me, but about

10:38 Speaker 1: Ai in art. That was really interesting.

10:41 Speaker 6: Yeah, he that's Carl, So he was fast this it's

10:48 Speaker 6: interesting because like AI has just exploded now, so but

10:52 Speaker 6: at the time, it was like this fairly new thing

10:54 Speaker 6: that was sort of like freaking all the artists out.

10:59 Speaker 6: And I think because of his background, he comes from

11:02 Speaker 6: a tech background. He calls calls his or called his

11:08 Speaker 6: job an ethical hacker for I b M. So he

11:12 Speaker 6: would look for the weak points in the system and

11:15 Speaker 6: try to try to break it so that he could

11:17 Speaker 6: learn how to fix it. So he did a ton

11:20 Speaker 6: of research on AI and brought that workshop to us,

11:24 Speaker 6: which was super awesome, and we would like to offer

11:28 Speaker 6: more of that kind of stuff.

11:30 Speaker 2: I know.

11:31 Speaker 6: We were in talks with Karen Jerzyk, who's an installation artist.

11:36 Speaker 6: She is not an AI artist at all, and she

11:40 Speaker 6: gets called that a lot. She's a photographer.

11:45 Speaker 1: Why why does she get called an AI artist?

11:47 Speaker 6: Her artwork is pretty surreal, Okay, it's her artwork is surreal,

11:55 Speaker 6: so it has a vibe that kind of lends itself

11:58 Speaker 6: to looking like it's computer generated.

12:01 Speaker 1: That's interesting to me.

12:02 Speaker 6: Yeah, but her she does she actually doesn't even use

12:07 Speaker 6: like photoshop all that much. Yeah, which most photographers these days,

12:12 Speaker 6: I would say at least use a little bit of

12:15 Speaker 6: touch up sure at points in their process.

12:21 Speaker 4: Yeah.

12:21 Speaker 6: Yeah, but she does not, and she's actually had a

12:26 Speaker 6: lot of success with what are they called NFTs and stuff.

12:31 Speaker 6: So we're hoping to get her in and have her

12:34 Speaker 6: do an artist talk and sort of, yeah, talk a

12:36 Speaker 6: bit more about that.

12:38 Speaker 1: That's that's interesting to me.

12:39 Speaker 5: You know.

12:39 Speaker 1: The subject of AI comes up a lot on the show,

12:42 Speaker 1: and it's interesting, you know, because we talk about people

12:47 Speaker 1: looking at art and not knowing or other or any

12:49 Speaker 1: kind of image and not knowing whether it's real or

12:52 Speaker 1: AI generated, And we worry about people looking at things

12:57 Speaker 1: and assuming that they're not AI generated when actually they are.

13:00 Speaker 1: But her artwork, you say, like people accuse her of

13:03 Speaker 1: using AI and she's actually not. That's interesting. So the

13:06 Speaker 1: inverse can also be a pitfall. Yeah. I wouldn't have

13:09 Speaker 1: expected that. Wow, that's fascinating.

13:11 Speaker 6: Yeah, definitely somebody to check out. Yeah, yeah, what was

13:16 Speaker 6: her name again, Karen Jersik. She's right in Manchester too.

13:19 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, wow, you do you do any kind of

13:25 Speaker 1: classes there or do you have plans to do in

13:27 Speaker 1: the future for people who think they might have to

13:30 Speaker 1: have ability, but want to kind of expand on it.

13:33 Speaker 6: I don't know that we're looking to do. I mean

13:36 Speaker 6: maybe maybe.

13:37 Speaker 2: At some point.

13:38 Speaker 3: Yeah, I think once we get our heads wrapped around

13:41 Speaker 3: the scheduling and have a little bit more time to

13:45 Speaker 3: think about what kinds of programs we're looking for, what

13:50 Speaker 3: kinds of classes would really benefit the community the most. Yeah,

13:54 Speaker 3: and just seeing what people are interested.

13:57 Speaker 1: In, right right.

13:58 Speaker 6: We have done some like workshop style classes. Jackie Hansen

14:04 Speaker 6: did an eras or printmaking workshop a couple times. We

14:08 Speaker 6: had somebody do a terrarium building workshop. I think there

14:14 Speaker 6: was actually a word press workshop at some point.

14:19 Speaker 1: Really, yeah, well on how to build a website.

14:24 Speaker 6: I it was interesting because it was it was attended

14:28 Speaker 6: by artists and then who don't use WordPress, and myself

14:34 Speaker 6: who uses nothing, and my husband who is a web

14:38 Speaker 6: developer and uses web WordPress all the time. So it

14:45 Speaker 6: you know, WordPress is really hard to use. That's what

14:48 Speaker 6: what I've come to learn.

14:51 Speaker 2: So it's not the.

14:52 Speaker 6: Most like artist friendly development helpful yeah can offer really yeah?

15:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. When

15:05 Speaker 1: did uh when did Mosaic first open? It's been at

15:07 Speaker 1: least what has it been two years. Has it been longer?

15:09 Speaker 6: It's been so two and a half fish, I mean yeah,

15:12 Speaker 6: I think we opened in uh September of twenty twenty two, okay,

15:19 Speaker 6: and after a year of being an LLC, we transitioned

15:23 Speaker 6: to a nonprofit model okay, and then we've been a

15:27 Speaker 6: nonprofit for just over a year okay.

15:30 Speaker 1: So yeah, what was that always the goal to become

15:32 Speaker 1: a nonprofit or.

15:34 Speaker 6: I think for me, when I was originally dreaming up Mosaic,

15:42 Speaker 6: I mean I was really young. I I Mosaic was

15:45 Speaker 6: something I wanted to do when I was like fresh

15:48 Speaker 6: out of college. I graduated and was just lacking art

15:53 Speaker 6: community and couldn't figure out where I belonged.

15:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, so in.

15:58 Speaker 6: Some ways, I think I didn't really know what it

16:02 Speaker 6: would totally look like, And once I started doing it,

16:06 Speaker 6: it just became like like a larger thing than I

16:10 Speaker 6: could do by myself, and the community aspect of it

16:15 Speaker 6: was so important that I felt like I was already

16:18 Speaker 6: reaching out to people and asking their advice or asking

16:22 Speaker 6: how to do something. So the nonprofit just sort of

16:27 Speaker 6: like naturally made sense, right. So I don't know that

16:32 Speaker 6: it was like necessarily like the thing I thought would happen,

16:37 Speaker 6: but it made sense when we went in that direction.

16:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, of course. Are you're not from Manchester originally? Correct?

16:45 Speaker 6: I actually am from Hooks It. I went to Central okay. Yeah,

16:50 Speaker 6: so I grew up here.

16:51 Speaker 1: Oh you did? Okay? Okay? Did you move away at

16:53 Speaker 1: one point? Move back?

16:54 Speaker 2: I did?

16:54 Speaker 1: Maybe that's what I'm thinking of.

16:56 Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, I lived So I went to art school

16:59 Speaker 6: down in Baltimore, Maryland, Okay. And then after Baltimore moved

17:03 Speaker 6: back here for a very brief time, and then up

17:06 Speaker 6: to Vermont. And then I lived in Burlington, Vermont for

17:10 Speaker 6: fifteenish years. Oh okay, and then moved back during the pandemic.

17:16 Speaker 1: Gotcha, gotcha? Yeah, Burlington's got a not a bad little

17:20 Speaker 1: music scene there.

17:21 Speaker 2: It's just a fabulous music good.

17:23 Speaker 1: There's some good bands up there that kind of you

17:25 Speaker 1: know that a lot of people around here might not

17:26 Speaker 1: know about because Burlington it seems like it's so far,

17:29 Speaker 1: but it's really not. I mean, how far? What is it?

17:32 Speaker 2: Two and a half hours?

17:32 Speaker 1: Two and a half that's what I was thinking. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

17:36 Speaker 1: there's some cool place. Is higher Ground still there?

17:38 Speaker 2: Oh yeah?

17:39 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a cool venue.

17:40 Speaker 2: Yep.

17:41 Speaker 1: I haven't been there in a very, very long time.

17:43 Speaker 2: We should take a field trip.

17:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a cool place. Not in the

17:47 Speaker 1: winter though, No, we'll do that.

17:49 Speaker 2: Well, I love it.

17:51 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. If you are just joining us, we have Liz,

17:57 Speaker 1: Hannah and Atlas from the Moses Art Collective here with

18:01 Speaker 1: us live in studio on this Saturday morning. Do you

18:07 Speaker 1: do you work with other studios as well, Like do

18:09 Speaker 1: you have these relationships where you kind of I don't

18:13 Speaker 1: know because you did refer to is it Seesaw.

18:16 Speaker 6: Seesaw Art on Hanover. Yes, So Seesaw is sort of

18:21 Speaker 6: similar to Hannah. You want to explain it, Like, they

18:25 Speaker 6: also rent space in the gallery or in the studio, Okay,

18:29 Speaker 6: and rent rather than use it utilizing it as a studio,

18:33 Speaker 6: they they use it as a gallery.

18:36 Speaker 1: Okay.

18:37 Speaker 6: Amy Reagan, who runs Seesaw is also one of the

18:41 Speaker 6: founders from the Rochester Museum of Fine Art.

18:44 Speaker 2: Okay, and she.

18:48 Speaker 6: Runs sort of like a boutique style gallery. So it's

18:50 Speaker 6: usually like two to three artists from the region.

18:55 Speaker 2: Okay.

18:56 Speaker 6: Yeah, But we also have worked with n h a A.

19:00 Speaker 6: We've worked with Queer Elective, We've worked with the Women's Caucus,

19:05 Speaker 6: the Women's Caucus for the Arts. This year we kind

19:09 Speaker 6: of took a slower role on partnering, just to see,

19:15 Speaker 6: like get our feet wet and see what it was

19:17 Speaker 6: like to be a nonprofit.

19:19 Speaker 1: Right.

19:20 Speaker 2: But I'd like to do some more partnerships going forward.

19:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, And speaking of partnerships, many months at the gallery

19:30 Speaker 3: we choose a cause to support. Oh okay, And this

19:35 Speaker 3: month we are gathering art supplies for the Webster Webster

19:42 Speaker 3: House okay Webster No, well, okay.

19:46 Speaker 6: So we did Webster House last year. Okay, this year

19:49 Speaker 6: we're hoping to donate to Waypoint, but we don't have

19:54 Speaker 6: we haven't heard that.

19:55 Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, so that's kind of.

20:00 Speaker 3: We're also having a weekly raffle of all sorts of

20:04 Speaker 3: community restaurants, artists and other other prizes and things like

20:12 Speaker 3: that to benefit.

20:14 Speaker 6: It's yeah, the Reproductive Freedom Fund of New Hampshire.

20:19 Speaker 1: Okay.

20:20 Speaker 2: Yeah.

20:21 Speaker 6: We're just wanting to do whatever we can to help

20:23 Speaker 6: out our community right now, and I think that's a

20:27 Speaker 6: good way to do it.

20:28 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, No, I think that's I think that's great.

20:30 Speaker 2: Yeah.

20:32 Speaker 1: Yeah, I seem to remember I think I think maybe

20:34 Speaker 1: the last time you were on you might have talked

20:35 Speaker 1: about Webster House and are you are you trying to

20:38 Speaker 1: do something different each time, like to help a different

20:40 Speaker 1: organization or yeah, I.

20:42 Speaker 2: Think I just wanted.

20:43 Speaker 6: I think we were hoping to like spread the love

20:45 Speaker 6: around as much as possible.

20:48 Speaker 3: It's kind of nice. It's a way where we can say, hey,

20:52 Speaker 3: we're we're seeing you do some great work and we'd

20:56 Speaker 3: like to we'd like to benefit you.

20:59 Speaker 6: Yeah, And I think, you know, as far as like

21:02 Speaker 6: the donation, like the art donation, the supply donations. For

21:07 Speaker 6: a lot of us growing up, art was incredibly important

21:10 Speaker 6: in our lives.

21:12 Speaker 2: We recognize like the need.

21:15 Speaker 6: For kids to have access to art supplies, and yeah,

21:18 Speaker 6: there are a lot of art are a lot of

21:20 Speaker 6: kids who don't right, and it doesn't seem like.

21:26 Speaker 2: The immediate need.

21:27 Speaker 6: But I think to express yourself definitely helps make situations

21:32 Speaker 6: feel less overwhelming.

21:34 Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, yeah, Well, you know something that we talk

21:37 Speaker 1: about a lot on the show, and it's, uh, we

21:41 Speaker 1: talked to a lot of musicians, so it tends to

21:43 Speaker 1: be more in that modality. But we talk about and

21:46 Speaker 1: I was talking about it with Dentis actually from the

21:48 Speaker 1: Gray Curtain during the first hour a little bit too.

21:51 Speaker 1: U the event that he's doing tonight in Connecticut. We

21:53 Speaker 1: were talking about you know, taking taking traumatic events, or

21:57 Speaker 1: taking problems that you have or you know, mental illness

22:01 Speaker 1: or whatever it may be. And uh, any time that

22:04 Speaker 1: you can create something from that, you know, take it,

22:07 Speaker 1: but create something, create art, create whether it's visual art

22:11 Speaker 1: or music or whatever it is, or write a book

22:13 Speaker 1: or you know that to me, that's the best therapy,

22:17 Speaker 1: right when you can take something negative and do something

22:20 Speaker 1: creative and productive with it. And and I assume now

22:26 Speaker 1: I have no you know, I'm I'm a musician, but

22:29 Speaker 1: I have no ability whatsoever for visual art. I can't

22:33 Speaker 1: paint or anything like that. So so I'm kind of

22:35 Speaker 1: a no trust me it is. But but I assume

22:39 Speaker 1: a lot of visual artists, you know, they they put

22:41 Speaker 1: that into their u into their their paintings. I would imagine,

22:45 Speaker 1: you know, as an expression of of that that pain

22:49 Speaker 1: and that trauma. And stand up comedians are really kind

22:53 Speaker 1: of famous for that. Like any stand up comedian you

22:56 Speaker 1: talk to, it's like they they've had like major trauma

22:59 Speaker 1: and the way that they deal with it is learning

23:02 Speaker 1: how to make people laugh, whether whether they're actually making

23:05 Speaker 1: jokes based on what they've been through or not. But

23:07 Speaker 1: that's like that's their therapy. You know. Stand up comedians

23:10 Speaker 1: are almost always you know, like just messed up people

23:14 Speaker 1: in some way, you know what I mean? But no,

23:17 Speaker 1: but I think that's I think that's so important. And

23:20 Speaker 1: you know you mentioned too developing that in kids. Is

23:25 Speaker 1: that is that something that is lacking in our schools?

23:29 Speaker 1: Do you think? I mean? I remember, you know, I

23:32 Speaker 1: went to a private school from grade two to grade

23:35 Speaker 1: eight and we had art class and that was that

23:37 Speaker 1: was where I learned that Actually, no, I have no

23:40 Speaker 1: visual visual ability art wise, I have no art artistic

23:44 Speaker 1: ability in that sense. But do you think that's something

23:47 Speaker 1: that's lacking? Is that something that where parents need to

23:51 Speaker 1: really kind of encourage that and foster that because I

23:55 Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know if our schools are doing

23:57 Speaker 1: that at all or not.

23:58 Speaker 3: I'm a school teacher and art teacher, so you okay, great,

24:03 Speaker 3: and I know that, or at least I believe that

24:08 Speaker 3: New Hampshire public schools are required to offer art and

24:12 Speaker 3: music okay kindergarten through high school.

24:16 Speaker 1: Oh good, Okay, I didn't know that. So they're required

24:18 Speaker 1: a lot to do that. Yeah, oh that's excellent. Okay,

24:20 Speaker 1: I didn't.

24:21 Speaker 3: However, with different towns receiving different funding, some programs don't

24:27 Speaker 3: have don't have as much to offer as other towns.

24:34 Speaker 1: Yeah, because uh, I know that. You know, these school

24:38 Speaker 1: budgets tend to be tight, and it seems like when

24:41 Speaker 1: you hear about budget cuts in public school it's usually

24:45 Speaker 1: you know, the sports are protected and everything else kind

24:50 Speaker 1: of is on that second tier where they think, oh,

24:52 Speaker 1: maybe we can get rid of this, we can get

24:54 Speaker 1: rid of that. But but you so, you're you work

24:56 Speaker 1: in public schools and you're an art teacher, so your

24:58 Speaker 1: a proof of concept that this is this is still

25:00 Speaker 1: happening in New Hampshire where we have the arts being so.

25:04 Speaker 4: Very much so.

25:05 Speaker 3: New Hampshire has one of the strongest art programs i'd

25:10 Speaker 3: say in the country, Elastic Art Awards, which is the

25:14 Speaker 3: largest and most prestigious high school art show in New

25:17 Speaker 3: Hampshire number two in terms of the size and scale

25:22 Speaker 3: of net, right behind New Jersey. And it's all volunteers.

25:28 Speaker 1: Great. So that's great. Yeah, it makes me proud to

25:31 Speaker 1: be a New Hampshire rite. Oh that's really good. I

25:34 Speaker 1: had no idea.

25:35 Speaker 6: I mean, I think in general from I have three

25:38 Speaker 6: kids in the school system, I think in general they

25:43 Speaker 6: have had a phenomenal arts education. But also I mean,

25:49 Speaker 6: art school is what you put into it, and if

25:53 Speaker 6: the parents aren't willing to foster a love of art

25:58 Speaker 6: or culture, they're only going to get what they get

26:02 Speaker 6: at school. So I feel like, you know, especially looking

26:10 Speaker 6: at my kids now, go to the schools that I

26:12 Speaker 6: went to as a kid, and one of the teachers

26:16 Speaker 6: is my one of my teachers, so she's been there forever,

26:23 Speaker 6: and I think, like in terms of I think, you know,

26:29 Speaker 6: she's doing a good job. I think the younger teachers

26:32 Speaker 6: that are coming through, you.

26:36 Speaker 2: Not that young, even teaching a long.

26:38 Speaker 6: Time, but I like Hannah does a great job. But

26:40 Speaker 6: I think, you know, the younger teachers that are coming

26:43 Speaker 6: through have a different concept of how to teach art,

26:47 Speaker 6: and I think that that can be kind of interesting

26:50 Speaker 6: to watch. I think they are, uh not too long

26:54 Speaker 6: ago when I was teaching, there was this method called

26:59 Speaker 6: teaching for Artistic Behavior, which is more of a choice

27:03 Speaker 6: based learning, and I think that.

27:07 Speaker 1: Not but what does that mean? Choice based learning?

27:09 Speaker 6: So it's not like here's a picture of a snowman,

27:14 Speaker 6: and this is how you make this picture of a snowman.

27:18 Speaker 6: It's more like, here are the materials that you might need.

27:24 Speaker 6: This is what I did do how you do it?

27:28 Speaker 6: That everyone sees differently and everyone's going to create a

27:31 Speaker 6: little bit differently and intuitively.

27:33 Speaker 1: That makes more sense to me.

27:35 Speaker 2: It does, and it.

27:38 Speaker 6: I feel like it offers students a chance to delve

27:43 Speaker 6: into the arts where they are most interested, because some

27:47 Speaker 6: kids aren't really interested in getting their hands dirty, right,

27:51 Speaker 6: but they are really interested in puzzles and building and

27:55 Speaker 6: that kind of thing. And so I think, you know,

28:00 Speaker 6: offering as much as we can do our kids is

28:02 Speaker 6: really what it's all about. And I think in New

28:04 Speaker 6: Hampshire they are doing a pretty bang up job.

28:07 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, No, sounds like it sounds like it. Yeah.

28:11 Speaker 1: Do you do you have do you have students submit like?

28:15 Speaker 1: Did you have like high school students and younger submitting

28:18 Speaker 1: to we do?

28:20 Speaker 3: One of my favorite submissions for this last show is

28:25 Speaker 3: was mother and son. Her son builds these lego worlds, okay,

28:31 Speaker 3: and she photographs them. And so she's new to the

28:35 Speaker 3: area and found out about this call and submitted one

28:40 Speaker 3: of the photographs of her son's lego build and was

28:44 Speaker 3: just so excited to bring him to the gallery and

28:48 Speaker 3: share that with him and you know, to be embraced.

28:53 Speaker 3: So that was really really cool.

28:55 Speaker 1: That's very cool.

28:56 Speaker 3: And we also at Mosaic we have an art intern

29:01 Speaker 3: who comes in and he submits quite a few pieces

29:04 Speaker 3: to the different shows as well.

29:06 Speaker 1: Okay.

29:07 Speaker 3: In addition, last year there was a show to Manchester

29:11 Speaker 3: Would Love, which featured works from all of the Manchester

29:16 Speaker 3: Public High schools. So it was an opening dedicated just

29:20 Speaker 3: to the students and their teachers and that was really

29:24 Speaker 3: really cool.

29:24 Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh wow, oh very good, very good. Are there more?

29:31 Speaker 1: Because I feel like you knows as you're as you're

29:33 Speaker 1: talking about these different these different places that are involved

29:38 Speaker 1: in art, are are there more? Is there more of

29:41 Speaker 1: an art scene than people realize? I guess is what

29:43 Speaker 1: I'm asking because I feel like you know, as you're

29:45 Speaker 1: mentioning you know different like you mentioned Seesaw and these

29:48 Speaker 1: other places like them, like I wonder if and I

29:52 Speaker 1: guess Atlas this is part of where you come in, right,

29:55 Speaker 1: making sure that people know that there is all this,

29:58 Speaker 1: you know, like because I didn't even realize sitting here,

30:00 Speaker 1: you know, I'm asking you about you know, do they

30:02 Speaker 1: even teach art in schools anymore. I had no idea

30:05 Speaker 1: that New Hampshire is doing such a great job with that.

30:09 Speaker 1: Is there more of an art scene than people know about?

30:11 Speaker 4: Yeah? Absolutely.

30:12 Speaker 5: I'd say that like in the past two years, it's

30:14 Speaker 5: really blossomed quite a bit and just receiving the inter

30:22 Speaker 5: network of knowing about the art has gotten a lot

30:25 Speaker 5: more prominent, I would say as somebody who's fairly new

30:28 Speaker 5: to the whole art scene in Manchester. Yeah, definitely feels

30:32 Speaker 5: like it's blossomed in the past two years.

30:34 Speaker 1: Yeah absolutely. Oh that's great.

30:36 Speaker 5: Yeah, awesome to see the festivals that are out there,

30:39 Speaker 5: all the events that are going on, and Mosaic being

30:42 Speaker 5: part of that.

30:43 Speaker 4: Yeah absolutely, Yeah.

30:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh that's that's great. That's great. That's really good

30:47 Speaker 1: to hear.

30:47 Speaker 6: Ultimately, I think the arts scene has been here all along.

30:51 Speaker 6: I think that it's just sort of more out in

30:55 Speaker 6: the open now.

30:56 Speaker 4: M I would agree, Yeah.

30:58 Speaker 3: It's it's more a lot. I feel with the closing

31:02 Speaker 3: of traditional galleries, there's more room for alternative spaces and

31:07 Speaker 3: people are getting really creative and open minded. Places that

31:12 Speaker 3: come to mind are like Pillar Art Project, where they

31:16 Speaker 3: have a small gallery front up and conquered with a

31:18 Speaker 3: ghost kitchen in back and Outer Space Gallery, which is

31:23 Speaker 3: hosted on the second floor of a Victorian office building.

31:27 Speaker 1: Oh wow.

31:28 Speaker 3: So I mean there's these these pockets that are opening

31:31 Speaker 3: up and people are getting much more creative and it's

31:36 Speaker 3: less about profit and more about community and getting the

31:39 Speaker 3: art work out there.

31:40 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, that makes sense. Why have you reference traditional

31:45 Speaker 1: art studio or art galleries rather? I want to make

31:48 Speaker 1: sure he's the right term closing? Why is that?

31:52 Speaker 6: What?

31:52 Speaker 1: Why is this? It sounds like there's been a shift

31:55 Speaker 1: in that sense.

31:56 Speaker 3: Yeah, there has been a shift. Some of the shift

31:59 Speaker 3: is a lot of art has gone online, rents have

32:04 Speaker 3: gone up. It is difficult to sustain a gallery model

32:09 Speaker 3: where you know you're relying on foot traffic and you

32:13 Speaker 3: know whether or not your audience is going to be

32:15 Speaker 3: receptive to the work, whether or not they have the

32:19 Speaker 3: means to purchase the work. So so yeah, a lot

32:23 Speaker 3: of places, especially when covid hit had to close their doors.

32:28 Speaker 1: Yep, Yeah, that makes sense. So it sounds like so

32:31 Speaker 1: the traditional gallery model is more just you have it's

32:33 Speaker 1: almost you know, like a like a retail store in

32:36 Speaker 1: a sense. Right, you've got art just hanging and people

32:39 Speaker 1: walk in. You hope somebody walks in and buys something.

32:42 Speaker 1: So it sounds like there's been a need, especially after

32:44 Speaker 1: the pandemic, to be more creative with how you do things,

32:47 Speaker 1: and like you're you know, you're very creative with how

32:49 Speaker 1: you're doing things at Mosaic, and you know you've got

32:51 Speaker 1: all these things going on, so so that makes sense.

32:54 Speaker 5: They like in the wake of tragedy, like in terms

32:56 Speaker 5: of the COVID pandemic, a lot of people who are

32:59 Speaker 5: around community organization tend to be like, Okay, this is

33:02 Speaker 5: the time to dig it and roll up our sleeves. Yeah,

33:04 Speaker 5: this is what we need to do for the people

33:06 Speaker 5: in our community.

33:06 Speaker 4: Because they really really need it.

33:08 Speaker 5: Yeah, And I would say that it's definitely evident in

33:13 Speaker 5: the wake of a pandemic that really rocked everybody, especially

33:18 Speaker 5: people in places of need, seeing that come from that, right,

33:25 Speaker 5: it was so apparent, and it's very lifting, and it's

33:30 Speaker 5: very enlightening. It's a wonderful. It's wonderful to be a

33:33 Speaker 5: part of it. Yeah, sure, absolutely, Yeah.

33:35 Speaker 1: Well, something I always say too about the pandemic is

33:38 Speaker 1: as awful as it was for so many reasons. We

33:43 Speaker 1: also have to try to find those silver linings where

33:44 Speaker 1: we can, you know, speaking of dealing with trauma, right.

33:47 Speaker 1: And something that this also comes up a lot on

33:50 Speaker 1: the show is that it kind of forced people to

33:52 Speaker 1: be more creative in ways that maybe they hadn't considered before.

33:55 Speaker 1: You know, you see it a lot with me. You know,

33:57 Speaker 1: like during you know, when everybody was staying home for

34:00 Speaker 1: sample with music, you saw a lot of these bands,

34:02 Speaker 1: you know, doing live performances where they're all you know,

34:05 Speaker 1: they're all connected on zoom and they're they're doing these

34:08 Speaker 1: live performances online things like that. But uh, you know,

34:13 Speaker 1: but it affected everyone and obviously you know, it affected

34:15 Speaker 1: visual art and I think it it sounds like it

34:17 Speaker 1: it did kind of force people to to be more

34:19 Speaker 1: creative with that as well. And and and how they

34:24 Speaker 1: how they show the art to the world, and uh

34:27 Speaker 1: and all of that. What's what's kind of the what's

34:32 Speaker 1: kind of the future trajectory for for Mosaic? I mean,

34:35 Speaker 1: you talked about some of it, but is there anything

34:37 Speaker 1: you have planned that we didn't mention that we should

34:39 Speaker 1: know about her?

34:40 Speaker 6: We do have a new show going up in January.

34:43 Speaker 6: It will be one of our two months another two

34:46 Speaker 6: month shows and I can't recall what the name of

34:50 Speaker 6: it is.

34:51 Speaker 4: Yeah.

34:53 Speaker 6: Yeah, but the show itself is op art, so optical

35:00 Speaker 6: illusions and black light art. Oh cool, sort of like

35:06 Speaker 6: I think, kind of like Creatures of the Night sort

35:08 Speaker 6: of a thing we figure with the darkness happening at

35:13 Speaker 6: like four o'clock, we're going to take advantage of the

35:16 Speaker 6: darkness outside and bring it inside and let the gallery

35:20 Speaker 6: the artwork kind of illuminate the space.

35:22 Speaker 1: Oh that's cool. Yeah, yeah, I like that concept.

35:25 Speaker 2: Yeah.

35:25 Speaker 1: Well, I talk about taking something negative and creating something

35:28 Speaker 1: that I hate it when it's dark at four in

35:30 Speaker 1: the afternoon. Oh, I dread it. I dread it. Does

35:34 Speaker 1: anyone like it? Really?

35:35 Speaker 2: I don't think.

35:36 Speaker 1: I don't think even people. I don't think even people

35:38 Speaker 1: because some people are weird and they actually enjoy winter.

35:40 Speaker 1: No offense if any of you are like that personally,

35:42 Speaker 1: I think enjoying winter is very strange. But uh, but

35:44 Speaker 1: I've never heard anyone say yeah, I like it when

35:46 Speaker 1: it's dark at four in the afternoon. That I've never heard. No,

35:49 Speaker 1: it's yeah.

35:50 Speaker 4: I feel like every single day it's like, is it

35:52 Speaker 4: really dark this?

35:53 Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, you don't really get used to it. It's

35:56 Speaker 1: you're right, yeah, like every every day it's like, oh

35:58 Speaker 1: it's it's dark again at four in the afternoon. Yeah,

36:01 Speaker 1: it's not great. It's not great. Well, listen, thank you

36:06 Speaker 1: all for coming in. This has been wonderful. And what

36:09 Speaker 1: should people know about, you know, you should probably mention

36:12 Speaker 1: the website and anything else people should know about what's

36:15 Speaker 1: happening at Mosaic right now and of course how they

36:17 Speaker 1: can submit for a future.

36:19 Speaker 6: Oh so visit our website that usually has up to

36:23 Speaker 6: date information Mosaic Arcollective dot com. We're also on Instagram

36:27 Speaker 6: under Mosaic Art Collective and any of the open calls

36:32 Speaker 6: are always listed on our website and on Instagram. And

36:36 Speaker 6: then we also have a mailing list that you can

36:39 Speaker 6: sign up for on our website and that will also

36:42 Speaker 6: send out the calls for art.

36:44 Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, all right.

36:46 Speaker 1: Perfect, perfect, and congratulations again. On last weekend it looked

36:49 Speaker 1: like a really good I know you weren't able to

36:51 Speaker 1: be there list, but it looked but it looked like

36:53 Speaker 1: it was very successful. And you know, Jenny is so

36:56 Speaker 1: proud to have you know, multiple pieces hanging there, and

36:59 Speaker 1: it's just you know, she hasn't I don't think she'll

37:02 Speaker 1: mind me saying this. She hasn't been an artist for

37:04 Speaker 1: that long in the grand scheme of things. I mean,

37:06 Speaker 1: it's been maybe five years, yeah, since she first picked

37:09 Speaker 1: up a brush and said I think I want to

37:10 Speaker 1: try this. And I'm just in, like I said, as

37:13 Speaker 1: someone who doesn't have that ability, I'm just I'm just

37:17 Speaker 1: amazed at how much she creates and how amazing it is.

37:20 Speaker 1: And you know, I'm just I'm just in awe. You know,

37:23 Speaker 1: she's got she's got her artwork hanging at home of

37:26 Speaker 1: course too, and so I see it every day. But

37:28 Speaker 1: I'm just you know, every new piece she creates, it's

37:30 Speaker 1: like wow, Like how to even do that? You know,

37:33 Speaker 1: It's just amazing to me. And and to see how

37:35 Speaker 1: far that she's come with it, you know.

37:36 Speaker 2: Yeah.

37:37 Speaker 6: And a lot of the artists that Mosaic are I mean, well,

37:40 Speaker 6: i'd say some are a.

37:43 Speaker 3: Lot of artists that we are the first venue where

37:47 Speaker 3: they show. And you know, I remember the first show

37:51 Speaker 3: that I was in and what an exciting event it

37:54 Speaker 3: was and how cool it was to be up on

37:56 Speaker 3: the wall with all these other artists. And at the

38:00 Speaker 3: same time, we have artists that show nationally, so it's

38:04 Speaker 3: a really really great range of different artists, art styles

38:09 Speaker 3: and everyone is welcome.

38:12 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, oh that's fantastic. All right, well, Liz Hannah Atlas,

38:16 Speaker 1: thank you all so much. Thank you, and we'll do

38:19 Speaker 1: this again soon, I'm sure.