Strafford News

City of Dover issued the following announcement.

The Dover Arts Commission and the City of Dover will be among award recipients celebrated Tuesday, Oct. 26, for receiving a Governor's Arts Award at a public ceremony hosted by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.

The hybrid in-person and virtual award ceremony will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. at Studio Lab, 11A Street in Derry. It will be streamed on the New Hampshire State Council's Youtube channel and Facebook page.

In July, the Dover Arts Commission and the City of Dover were notified that it won the Creative Communities Award, which recognizes a city, town, community-wide organization, or an individual that significantly fostered the arts through funding and/or program initiatives within the past three years. The City Council recognized the Arts Commission's work and the award with a proclamation in August.

The initiatives by the Dover Arts Commission and the City of Dover to foster art within Dover include:

• Incorporating public art requirements into new development in the downtown central business district;
• Creating an Arts and Culture Chapter of the Master Plan;
• Establishing City Arts Grants;
• Establishing Art Beat Program, partnerships between local businesses and artists;
• Funding a new state of the art performance center in Dover High School;
• Supporting programming that makes art accessible to its citizens through the Dover Public Library and Recreation Department.

The Governor's Arts Awards are given every other year. While the awards are non-monetary, they publicly recognize outstanding contributions to the state's arts and cultural life made by individuals, organizations and communities.

The New Hampshire State Council on the Arts is a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. The State Arts Council provides a wide variety of services, competitive grants, and technical assistance to not-for-profit organizations, schools, health care facilities, and individual artists, helping to ensure that the arts thrive in New Hampshire and are accessible to all. Funding for grants and services is provided by the New Hampshire Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

The Dover Arts Commission is a City Council-created committee that serves in an advisory capacity to the City Council and City Manager to enhance an appreciation and awareness of arts and culture in the community through increased dialog and participation of citizens. It typically meets on the first Monday of each month in Room 323 of the McConnell Center. For more information, visit the Dover Arts Commission webpage at https://www.dover.nh.gov/government/boards-and-commissions/arts-commission/.

Original source can be found here.