Special Bd. of Aldermen — 11/12/2019 Page 3
So then he made sure that he ground them down so the edges were all smooth. He then had 2 young people, a
boy and a girl, and he created body casts from them and then took all of those bronze twigs and used the body
casts to create those figures that you see at Rotary Common. So unless you are around for some of the
Symposia and see as they progress in their creation, you might not know some of these stories.
We certainly have a lot of challenges, just like any organization has a lot of challenges. We have a very strong,
all volunteer Board of Directors, many of whom have been involved with the Symposium since the beginning in
2008. Each year we pick a theme; our theme in 2019 was “Evolve” because we had so many challenges. One
of our biggest challenges and most important challenges is our artist director. Our artist director is critical to the
success of the Symposium. On the left is John Weidman, he’s been our artistic director since 2008: he is the
founder of the Andres Institute in Brookline, NH. The Nashua Symposium is modeled after the Symposium in
Brookline. Well John retired in June 2019, this past June. Jim Larson is now our new artistic director; Jim is a
graduate of Hamilton College majoring in art, particularly in sculpture. Jim has worked with John at Andre’s over
the past 8 years and has worked with the Nashua International Sculpture Symposium since 2014. So he has a
lot of experience but he is young, and he is very, very talented, he is very energetic. So now he is our artistic
director which kind of adds a little bit of a new challenge, because John had his traditional view of art and | think
Jim’s is a little bit more expressive, his art. So we will have to see how that all comes together for Nashua.
Another challenge is our location, since the beginning we were at Nimco for 10 years and that worked very well
for us. But as the building continued to deteriorate and the City finalized ownership of the building, we needed
to find anew home. So in 2018 we were at MakelT Labs which we really loved and we loved the collaboration
but the inside space that we had, our dedicated space was really too small. So we are at the Picker Building in
2019 and we are hoping that is our permanent home. It has great outdoor space, has great parking thanks to
Gate City Fence and the Church. It has good indoor space, it has lots of artists who are very interesting and
always milling around, so hopefully that space will work out well for us. The challenge with this space, though,
was that it did not have all of the criteria, like for example, our power, it did not have 220 power so we needed to
upgrade for that. It did not have a compressor; things like that. So there were an additional probably $7,000.00
or $8,000.00 in our budget this past year in order to accommodate a change in our location.
Another challenge we have is that once in a while we have a sculpture that is really difficult to find a location for.
That was the case with the “Walk Through Triumph”. So we were very fortunate that Norm Bouthilette at the
Boys & Girls Club welcomed this sculpture to their site. It is the only sculpture from the Symposium that is not
on public property. | just want to talk a little bit about this sculpture. There are 3 sets of legs, the first set of legs
on the left hand side represent somebody new coming to our country and setting foot on land in our country.
The second set of legs represents that person integrating and becoming part of our country and learning the
language and finding a home and finding a job and all the things you need to do to live here really, to be able to
live here. And then the third set of legs is stepping off into the future. That is really part of what happens when
people come new to our country; it is very exciting and it is very, very appropriate from our standpoint that it be
at the Boys & Girls Club. So we couldn’t be more honored to have it there.
So of course funding, this Symposium is always a challenge, our costs are our artistic director's, we pay a
stipend of $3,000.00 each to our sculptors who come from our different countries around the world. They have
to cover their own transportation with that $3,000.00. Then we have materials, the stone, the metal, we have
tools, bits, blades, all those types of things. Pretty much everything else is donated by the community. Now
that we are a non-profit organization, we also have administrative costs like insurance and things like that as
well. Sculpture Sponsorships are a great way to support the Symposium and to create a lasting memory.
Sponsorships are very personal. The “Path of Truth’ by Sarah Mae Wasserstrum from Israel is a great
example. When Garry and Joanna Clarke-Pounder sponsored “Path of Truth”, Garry talked about why they did
so.
