Since it was introduced in September 2023, Art at French has enriched the Manchester, New Hampshire, community with numerous art exhibitions, workshops, and classes.
Art at French provides new and seasoned artists and art students with valuable opportunities to explore different mediums, enhance their skills, enjoy exhibitions by local artists. The program fosters a vibrant and inclusive cultural environment.
Each year in December, the Institute of Art and Design at New England College hosts an annual Holiday Artist Maker Fair in French Hall. This artists’ event offers the perfect place to purchase locally made ceramics, graphic design, illustrations, jewelry, paintings, photography, and more. These one-of-a-kind gifts are made by students, faculty, and others within the New England College art and design community and are available just in time for the holidays.
This event is free, open to the public, and handicap accessible.
Artists interested in participating can email artatfrench@hhvp.net for information and register for a table at the link below.
We are excited to showcase diverse works from talented local and regional artists. These exhibitions offer a unique opportunity to experience the vibrant creativity of the Manchester, New Hampshire, art community.
All exhibitions are free and open to the public at French Hall, 148 Concord Street, in Manchester, New Hampshire.
This exhibition showcases the artwork of members of the New Hampshire chapter of the Women’s Caucus for Art and self-identified women enrolled in New Hampshire colleges and universities whose work expresses why they are voting this November.
WCA NH is a non-political and non-partisan organization and does not endorse any political candidate.
Exhibition Dates: Thursday, September 19–Friday, October 18, 2024
Reception: Thursday, September 26, 2024, from 5:00–7:00 p.m.
Whether you want to enhance your artistic skills or explore new mediums, our workshops and classes provide something for everyone. Explore our fall offerings below!
Tuesdays, August 27–October 8, 2024, from 5:00–7:30 p.m.
Level: Beginner
Instructor: Kathy Binns
You will learn the jewelry-making fundamentals through demonstration and studio practice. You will gain experience working with sheet metal, sawing, filing, soldering, polishing, and bezel setting a gemstone.
Tuesdays, October 15–November 26, 2024, from 5:00–7:30 p.m.
Level: Beginner
Instructor: Kathy Binns
Continue to develop your skills in this encouraging and studio-based class. You’ll gain experience working with sheet metal as well as sawing, filing, soldering, polishing along with demos.
Choose from one of the following sessions:
Thursdays, August 29–October 10, 2024, from 5:00–7:30 p.m.
Thursdays, October 17–December 5, 2024, from 5:00–7:30 p.m. (no class November 28)
Instructor: Betsy Keeney
Level: Intermediate
Do you have unfinished projects languishing in your to-do pile? Have ideas but need help making them a reality? Need some advice to get you jump started again? In this class, you’ll work on individual jewelry projects of your own design each week with individual, hands-on guidance from an experienced instructor.
Wednesdays, August 27–October 9, from 2:00–4:30 p.m.
Level: Beginner
Never taken a drawing class before? Feel rusty or simply lack confidence? This course is designed for you. Beginning with a simple contour, you will use line to discover a variety of shapes, from the still life and art reproductions. Learn to develop form and space with cross-hatching and shading. Understand what makes a strong composition. Take a chance. Push with contrasts for a more dramatic image. Work in black and white with charcoal and pencils, and in color with pastels. Informal individual and group critiques.
Wednesdays, October 16–December 4, from 2:00–4:30 p.m. (no class November 27)
Instructor: Rhonda McCune
Level: Beginner
Seen as a vehicle for exploration, this course is appropriate for students of all levels. For the beginner, it serves as a superb introduction to the often-elusive medium of watercolor. For the more advanced student, abstraction provides a special focus for technique and concept. in a free-form fashion, students will explore the layering of washes and the exploration of form and color. Working from observation, memory and invention students will be encouraged to push the limits of the medium.
Choose from one of the following sessions:
Wednesdays, August 28–October 9, 2024, from 6:00–8:30 p.m.
Wednesdays, October 18–December 4, 2024, from 6:00–8:30 p.m. (no class November 27)
Instructor: Mike Ariel
Level: Beginner
Photoshop has been the industry standard in photo-editing for 20 years. In this class, you’ll learn how to edit and manipulate photos, create composites, and make the ordinary extraordinary. The process of quality printing will also be covered, empowering you to create one-of-a-kind images that will last forever.
One-day workshop
Saturday, October 5, 2024, from 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Instructor: James Chase
Level: Intermediate
There are significant times in all of our lives, whether they be big or small occurrences, that have altered who we are. Stories that we feel compelled to tell others but for which we struggle to find the appropriate mode of communication. Artists will be asked to take one of these experiences and turn it into a narrative of inspiration, all while learning the basics of screenprinting in this one-day workshop.
Choose from the following days:
Tuesday, September 10, 2024, from 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Tuesday, October 8, 2024, from 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Instructor: James Chase
Level: Intermediate
Open Studio is an informal drop-in time when we “open” our studio space to artists, makers, or people who want to explore their craft with those who may share the same creative interests. You can also come in and use the equipment for which you’ve been certified.
Choose from the following sessions:
Thursdays, August 29–October 10, 2024, from 6:00–8:30 p.m.
Thursdays, October 17–December 5, 2024, from 6:00–8:30 p.m. (no class November 28)
Instructor: Patrick McCay
Level: Intermediate
A visual art studio course designed and developed to get you drawing and painting beyond the mundane and mechanical cliché. Learn to focus on your painting and drawing with authority; take expressive control and command of your entire canvas while exploring and exploiting more original concepts and images. Overcome self-conscious fears in open-choice assignments to reveal broader, more exciting, effective, and visually complex paintings and drawings. Open to all painting and drawing media.
Choose from the following sessions:
Thursdays, August 29–October 10, 2024, from 6:00–8:30 p.m.
Thursdays, October 17–December 5, 2024, from 6:00–8:30 p.m. (no class November 28)
Instructor: Mike Ariel
Level: Intermediate to advanced
This course allows intermediate to advanced students to work independently with personal guidance from a professional photographer. It’s a unique opportunity to develop, expand, and refine your skills, helping you evolve your creative voice.
Choose from the following sessions:
Wednesdays, August 28 –October 9, 2024, from 5:30–8:00 p.m.
Wednesdays, October 16 –December 4, 2024, from 5:30–8:00 p.m.
Instructor: James Chase
Level: Intermediate to advanced
Interested in working independently in the printmaking studio with guidance from an instructor? In this class for more experienced students, you’ll continue your exploration of materials and processes used by printmakers to create multiple works of art, such as a relief, intaglio, silkscreen, and lithography.
The Saturday Morning Art Program (SMAP) is a free enrichment program in the visual arts for high school students ages 15–18. Students will meet on Saturday mornings for two and a half hours of instruction by Institute of Art and Design faculty in a wide range of exciting mediums.
Fall 2024 sessions included drawing, painting, photography, screen printing, digital art, mixed media, button collage, and portfolio preparation. These free sessions will take place on October 19, October 26, November 2, November 9, November 16 and November 23.
Students who complete 12 SMAP sessions in a year will be eligible for four college credits and a scholarship of up to $2,000 at New England College.
To enroll in SMAP, please email James Chase at artatfrench@hhvp.net.
Learn about the Pre-College summer art program in Henniker for students 14–18.
Arts Build Community (ABC) and the civic crowdfunding platform Patronicity have launched a mural campaign, Community Canvas, to bring more public art to the City of Manchester’s downtown, neighborhoods, and parks in 2024.
This second biannual art week in Manchester will take place August 8–18, 2024, with new large-scale murals, art installations, immersive experiences, tours, and events. Community Canvas Mural is a creative movement organized by Arts Build Community and a committee of passionate members from the local nonprofit, business, creative, and collegiate communities.
French Hall will serve as the headquarters during the festival for Community Gather events (artist talks, community art projects, free community art workshops), ABC headquarters during the program, and a block party.
Call for Walls: The project is looking for outdoor walls in Manchester, New Hampshire, (also accepting walls in the Concord and Nashua areas) with high profile, high visibility, and little or no obstructions (windows/doors, poles, or other signage). Submit your wall.
Call for Volunteers: The project seeks volunteers to join the events team to run our accessible, fun, and unique festival event. Become a volunteer.
Call for Sponsors: Review the sponsorship opportunities or email James Chase at artatfrench@hhvp.net.
In the early 1900s as Manchester became an industrial powerhouse, one element was missing: an institution where residents of Manchester could further their education and exposure to the wider world, a world that included painting, sculpture, music, botany, ornithology, and numerous other subjects.
This was the inspired vision of Emma Blood French: to bring culture to Manchester through direct instruction and lectures in the fine arts, music, literature, and the sciences. She underwrote and built a permanent educational institution in the center of the city, The Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences, and upon the building’s completion in 1916, gifted it to the organization and its members for the betterment of the community.
