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Imagine TERITEY https://imagine.nashuanh.gov

Arts and Culture

Top Goal: Diversity
Top Goal: Arts and Culture

Arts and culture — the creative economy — is

a community asset that strengthens the local
economy and draws visitors to Nashua. Arts and
culture provide a common language that

brings together diverse populations and age groups.
By making Nashua a place where new people want

to come and where current residents want to stay,
an improved quality of life and set of amenities in
and around the neighborhoods, will have ancillary
benefits related to housing, education, regional
desirability, and competitive advantages relative to
neighboring communities.

Nashua Today: Arts
and Culture

Imagine Nashua strongly
believes that a strengthened arts,
culture, and recreation sector

will provide many benefits to
Nashua beyond the pure economic
impact. Nashua is home to a rich
cultural ecosystem with many
venues, events, and public art
programming available throughout
the year for its residents, workers
and visitors to enjoy.The city
values its diverse communities,
with a shared vision of keeping
Nashua creative, inclusive and

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Part of the “Nostalgia” mural done a few years ago in Main St to celebrate the
100th anniversary of the Chase Building on which it was painted

vibrant .Building capacity for
the arts radiates out to cultural
institutions, artists, neighborhoods
and important partners to bring the
plan to fruition. The City is working
to integrate arts and culture into
planning and decision-making
across all City departments and
further develop arts programming
Nashua has made great
strides in its arts and cultural
programming since 2014. Nashua
has more public art than any other
city in New Hampshire. It is the
only City with an International
Sculpture Symposium in the United
States. It is home to the state’s

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Comprehensive Master Plan

Arts and Culture

Nashua Arts Commission
The Nashua Arts Commission
is the face of arts and culture
for the City of Nashua. The
purpose of the Nashua

Arts Commission is to

serve the community as
Nashua’s cultural resource
by Facilitating, Advocating,
Coordinating and Educating on
behalf of the arts and cultural
assets of the City of Nashua.

Nashua Arts and Culture Plan
The 2014 Nashua Arts and
Culture Plan, led by the
Nashua Arts Commision,

was updated in 2020. This
plan envisions vibrant arts

and culture offerings for

a diverse community, and

its main goals are: identity,
centralization, education,
marketing, commerce and
growth. This plan emphasizes
the importance of integrating
art into the improvement

of quality of life and the
attraction of businesses and
residents that will enhance the
City’s success.

Ss ae

Imagine VEGI

https://imagine.nashuanh.gov

The Arts sector plays a very important role, and previous analyses
have already shown the multiplier effect that arts events can bring into

Nashua’s economy.

symphony orchestra and the
premier youth theater company in
the state. The City is home to Art
Walk, southern New Hampshire’s
largest arts festival, as well as the
Halloween Scarecrow Contest and
the Winter Holiday Stroll among

its downtown events. Both the
Nashua Public Library and the
Parks and Recreation Departments
have active arts and culture
programs. The City is moving
ahead with the construction of a
new Performing Arts Center on
Main Street, as well as renovating
the community arts facility at 14
Court Street with improvements to
the main theater, new artist studios
and reopening its small black box
theater.

Event Related

Inclusive Economic
Development

Arts and cultural programming
plays an important role in
establishing a community’s sense
of place and is closely tied to local
economic development. As seen
in the location quotient analysis
in the topic area on economic
growth, the arts, entertainment,
and recreation sector of Nashua’s
economy is approximately 70%
as concentrated as it is in the
state overall, and it makes up
approximately 1% of all jobs in
Nashua. That said, the sector still
plays a very important role, and
previous analyses have already

Event-Related Spending by Arts and Culture Attendees

All Event Attendees

. Residents Nonresidents
Spending
Average $ Spent Per $2318 $30.64 $2515
Attendee
Total Event - COW ECR 03 1,312,435 RY. To) sy eZ. 4

Related Expenditure

Attendees for Arts
and Culture Events

26%

Nonresidents

73%

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Analyzing spending on events is an effective
way to see the direct and indirect impacts of
this sector on the economy, and this plan will
also seek to quantify potential other cobenefits
of proposed new scenarios.

Source: Arts and Economic Prosperity® 5, Americans for the Arts

Comprehensive Master Plan

Arts and Culture

Arts and Economic Prosperity
in the Nashua Region (2019)
Conducted by the Americans
for the Arts, with assistance
from the Nashua Arts
Commission as a local partner,
this report utilizes localized
research focused on arts

shown the multiplier effect that
arts events bring into Nashua’s
economy in terms of attendee
spending. Because Nashua is

a Welcoming City it is of equal
importance that inclusion in
and access to arts and culture
should be available to all. Going aT aN Cettatd
forward, it is important that the organizations and event-

City builds on the success of the related spending to evaluate
current initiatives by providing the economic impact of the
continued support, collaboration nonprofit arts and culture

and coordination among artists, industry in the Nashua Region.
arts organizations, municipal The study notes that between
government, and business 2018-2019, the nonprofit arts
organizations with a strong citizen and culture industry in Nashua
volunteer base, and expanding arts generated $11.3 million in
and cultural opportunities to all total economic activity.

parts of Nashua.

“City does a good job with
fostering an arts community.
Iam very excited about

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concept and the project.”

New Hampshire Eat Local Month

Imagine TEELTE

Top Goal:
Diversity

Celebrate and integrate

the diversity of cultures,
religions, languages within our
communities and support this
diversity in city policies and
programs.

Action: Improve city
regulations to require
more user-friendly,
flexible public spaces for
events and organizing

to enhance interactions
between people from
different neighborhoods
or backgrounds.

Recommendation 1

Timeframe: Near-term

Require all new developments in
core urban areas to provide public
amenities and open space for new
residents and the surrounding
community.

https://imagine.nashuanh.gov

Action: Create inventory
of existing indoor and
outdoor public spaces

in the city including
location, hours, capacity
and key contact
information and make
this information available
and accessible to the
public on the city website
and via an interactive app

Recommendation 1

Timeframe: Near-term

Develop interactive app or

online resource that provides
information about city services,
resources, events, booking and
other information to residents and
visitors

Comprehensive Master Plan

Arts and Culture

Flexibility, from a physical, regulatory, and cultural perspective, is a key
strategy in encouraging a more welcoming and diverse community.

Action: Develop key Recommendation 4
branding and wayfinding — Timeframe: Near-term
that welcomes people to

Add multilingual translation
Nashua. to municipal signage in city

Recommendation 1 buildings, and ensure that kiosks
and information signs across the

Timeframe: Mid-term city are multilingual.

In conjunction with improving

wayfinding and signage in the

parks seek funding to expand Action: Support and

signage at key entrances to the facilitate Ci d

city and neighborhoods. acilitate City-sponsore
block parties or outdoor
events that take place

Recommendation 2 across locations in

Timeframe: Ongoing Nashua as an opportunity
Consider new locations for murals to celebrate and
and sculptures created by local highlight the diversity

artists. New public art could be :

featured at key entrances to the and unique character of

City. neighborhoods.
Recommendation 1

Timeframe: Ongoing

Recommendation 3

Timeframe: Ongoing Create partnerships between city
and community organizations to
Engage with business owners organize, market and plan events.

to activate storefronts and
encourage collaboration with local
artists, vendors and community
organizations.

151

Imagine TERITEY https://imagine.nashuanh.gov

Top Goal: Action: Re-evaluate
land use tools to
accommodate arts and

Prioritize arts and culture culture, such as outdoor

as an important aspect venues, and investment

of inclusive economic ° cueas
development and in current facilities

strengthening placemakingin = =pacommendation 1
the community.

Arts and Culture

Timeframe: Near-term

Seek additional funding to
allocate to facility upgrades and
new venues.

Recommendation 2

Timeframe: Near-term

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Complete internal feasibility study
to determine private partnerships
to help fund more events and
support small pop-up music
venues.

Recommendation 3

Timeframe: Mid-term

Research new locations for small

Dinner on Main Street - venues or pop-up events.

A Harvest Celebration

While many strategies around arts and culture must be employed to
successfully achieve most of this plan’s other goals, this plan also
affirms the value of arts and culture in a well-functioning community.

Action: Work with
existing public and
private theaters and
performance halls

to develop special
media advertising and
marketing for future
events to attract more
visitors

Timeframe: Mid-term

Action: Create an online
booking platform for all
parks and performance
space so community
groups can better utilize
space

Timeframe: Mid-term

Action: Ensure that
artists have a place to
live, work, meet, and
display the works in the
city

Recommendation 1

Timeframe: Near-term
Modify zoning to allow artist live/

work spaces across districts and
neighborhoods in Nashua

Recommendation 2

Timeframe: Mid-term

Incorporate public art into capital
projects

Recommendation 3

Timeframe: Ongoing

Promote and support local artists

by city-sponsoring art installations

and displays in public spaces such

as park and municipal buildings

* Connect local artists with
business owners

- Provide free arts and cultural
programming in public parks
seasonally by partnering with
local artists and identifying
infrastructure needs

Comprehensive Master Plan

Arts and Culture

Recommendation 4

Timeframe: Near-term

Encourage developers to include
public art, artist live/work space,
and cultural amenities and
flexible programming space in
new development proposals that
are over $10 million in value

Recommendation 5

Timeframe: Near-term

Zoning and regulatory structure
should encourage for art studios,
galleries, and performance venues
across the city

153

Imagine VEGI

Beyond Walls Nashua

Color and vibrancy has

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as nearly 20 artists have been
working to beautify what
would otherwise be boring
cement barriers.

“We are bringing something
really different to Main Street
that is going to brighten things
up and improve that lull from
the past year. There is going
to be some life brought back
into the downtown,” said artist
Cecilia Ulibarri, co-founder of
Nashua’s Positive Street Art.

Source: www.beyond-walls.org

Action: Establish
guidelines/create public
art policy to determine
what should be
considered works of art
vs signage/advertising

Timeframe: Mid-term

https://imagine.nashuanh.gov

Action: Develop
meaningful partnerships
with city agencies

and civic groups to
enhance connections
and communications
with students, elderly
population and cultural
sector

Timeframe: Mid-term

“For the Love of Friendship” Sculpture in Lovewell Pond

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