Monadnock Art Tour 25th Anniversary

Monadnock Art/Friends of the Dublin Art Colony • Monadnock Region, NH • monadnockart.org/plan-your-tour/ • October 2–30, 2021

Have you ever gone to an exhibition and wish you could talk to the artist? Do you ever wonder what the artist was thinking? Here’s your chance to spend the weekend chatting with 70 different artists in their own studios, all within the Monadnock region. Imagine the crisp air and forested slopes on fire with foliage as you drive from studio to studio, having planned your bespoke route according to your interests, and topping it off with refreshments from a quaint general store or charming restaurant. Welcome to the Monadnock Art Tour (MAT).

This is MAT’s 25th anniversary and they’ve planned some special extras. The tour kicks off with an exhibition of representative work from each artist on the tour at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture in Peterborough. On Opening Day, October 2, there’s a free, family-friendly gathering outdoors featuring live music, cider, and donuts followed by the official artists’ reception that evening. At the exhibit, peruse the enlarged map of the all the studios on the tour sprinkled throughout the towns of Dublin, Hancock, Harrisville, Jaffrey, Marlborough, Peterborough, and Sharon. Check out the work, see what interests you, find the studio on the map and plan your route for the weekend.

The studio tour offers dizzying diversity of media, including glassblowing, marquetry, wearable art, weaving, and ceramics, along with painting, collage, photography, and more. After studio hopping, there’s always hiking, biking, and lake fun to be had.

The Monadnock region has the highest concentration of artists in New Hampshire. With Mt. Monadnock as its muse, the art scene first blossomed with the storied Dublin Art Colony, most active from the late 1880s to 1950, and from which the tour takes its inspiration. Abbott Thayer (1849–1921), a nationally prominent painter who settled his family on Dublin Lake, was the eccentric mentor and magnet for a group that gathered around him, and many attained their own fame. They include George de Forest Brush, Barry Faulkner, Frank Weston Benton, and Rockwell Kent, among others. In honor of this rich heritage and the 25th anniversary of the tour, the MCHC is holding a concurrent exhibition of the Dublin Art Colony artists.

—April Claggett