General Overview

photo by Althea Haropulos

Our programs:

• Artist Residencies provide people with and without disabilities direct contact with professional teaching artists in schools, veterans' centers, hospitals, and community settings.
• Professional Development Training for staff of cultural, educational, and community organizations, including disability awareness workshops and strategies for incorporating the arts into existing programs and educational curriculum.
• Advocacy and Public Education assures that people with disabilities participate in a full spectrum of quality arts opportunities.
• Festivals and Culminating Events publicly celebrate the creative accomplishments of program participants.

Our staff and roster of artists teach music, theatre, visual arts, sculpture, dance, movement, and writing to integrated groups of people. We collaborate with over 75 education, disability, cultural, and community organizations statewide, and we serve over 12,000 individuals annually.

photo by Althea Haropulos

Creating strong community.
One of the things that we have discovered over the years is that our work provides our program participants with so much more than an artistic or cultural experience. For so many of the children and adults we work with every year, VSA arts of NH programs provide a new sense of community participation, personal accomplishment, and a feeling of having a "voice" and being heard - sometimes for the very first time.

When appreciated in this way, VSA arts of NH programs are ultimately about building community at a very elemental level. The programs we fund and support help create personal, social, and community connections beyond just the numbers.

Art, whatever the medium, is always about finding one's voice and it is all of our voices that make the chorus of community strong.