Why the Arts Matter in NH

The Current Crisis

The survival of arts organizations in New Hampshire is being severely threatened by recent state budget cuts. This is extremely shocking, and I’d like to talk about exactly why the arts are important within communities.

What Happened

In 2025, New Hampshire lawmakers eradicated most of the state funding for the State Council on the Arts – cutting it by 90% – reducing its annual General Fund appropriation from $1.4 million to just $150,000. That amount will now be used to fund one remaining staff position, down from seven. This effectively dismantles the Council’s ability to operate and effectively makes New Hampshire the only state in the U.S. without a functioning, state-supported arts agency. The move also disqualifies the state from receiving over $1 million annually in federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). While legislators created a private tax-credit fund called the “Granite Patron of the Arts,” it cannot be used to match NEA funds. As a result, New Hampshire now invests less in the arts than Guam – a U.S. territory with a much smaller population but stronger public cultural support.

Threats to Libraries

The New Hampshire State Library also faced major threats this year. A proposal to eliminate its funding entirely was introduced in the House Finance Committee but was quickly withdrawn following public outcry. While the Library was spared from full defunding, its department’s budget was still reduced by approximately $600,000 over two years. With the Library relying on about $1.5 million annually in federal support from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), its critical programs – such as interlibrary loan, the statewide courier system, and access to digital resources like Libby and Talking Books – remain at risk if state or federal funding erodes.

What We’re Losing

The arts organizations that suffer aren’t just the visible 80+ museums in the state and the large performing arts venues in many of New Hampshire’s small cities – what people looking at the arts on a surface level see. This includes annual events that many people look forward to year after year: events like the League of NH Craftsmen’s Annual Fair, Concord Market Days, the Nashua International Sculpture Symposium, the New Hampshire Highland Games at Loon Mountain, and the Poetry Out Loud regional and state competitions.

It also includes arts education and youth programs, nonprofit dance and theater programs, and initiatives like “Percent for Art,” which integrate visual art into public buildings. Public murals, sculptures, and town-wide arts initiatives will lose key funding sources. State and federal funds were often used to pay teaching artists, support workshops, and host artist residencies – especially in rural or underserved public schools.

Economic Impact

According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2023, arts and cultural production contributed approximately $3.5 billion to the state's economy, accounting for about 3.08% of New Hampshire’s Gross State Product. This contribution supported 22,986 jobs, with total compensation amounting to $1.8 billion.

Personal and Cultural Significance

As a lifelong consumer of the arts, I can honestly say they have shaped who I am. In fact, the arts have probably played a role in most people’s self-narratives –through the stories we become invested in on television and in movies, through emulating musicians as teenagers, maybe even taking up an instrument or learning to sing, getting a tattoo, following fashion designers, and a multitude of other ways.

As an introverted child, reading, painting, music, and theater kept me engaged and stimulated. I was fortunate that my parents routinely bought me bags and bags of used books, paid for music lessons, took me to concerts and theater performances, and enrolled me in summer art classes.

Not all families are able to afford lessons, tickets, and books. Many rely on public programs like the ones I mentioned to keep the arts present in their children’s lives. Many adults enjoy participating in the arts because of their own experiences in school. Generations of people have had their first experience at a museum because their school received funding for the trip, or a professional artist visited their classroom and sparked an interest in graphic design, architecture, game design, film and video production, or other creative careers that contribute to both commerce and culture.

How the Arts Shape Community Identity

Not only do the arts help us as individuals create our own stories, they help us – as societies—tell the story of who we are as communities.

The City of Manchester, NH is a great example of how the arts help a community form an identity and tell its story. While I am not a resident of Manchester, I worked there for 10 years. I’m not an expert, but I can see their story in the 1988 ten-foot-high Mill Girl sculpture at Millyard Plaza, which honors the thousands of young women who left farms for the Amoskeag mills – symbolizing industrial-era empowerment and independence.

I see it in the more recent 1,000-square-foot mural by Southern New Hampshire University professor Harry Umen titled Women and Girls of Amoskeag, located at Arms Park, adjacent to the Merrimack River, and in the colorful hexagon-patterned mural on the stairs at Arms Park – designed by James Chase to reflect the Millyard’s blend of historic and biotech industries.

Together, the Mill Girl statue and Arms Park murals create a layered urban story: one that honors labor, embraces creativity, and invites Manchester's residents to see their city as a place of belonging—where past and present meet.

Telling Our Stories Through Books

Books like KooKooLand by Gloria Norris also play a vital role in helping Manchester shape and share its own complex, authentic narrative. Norris’s memoir, rooted in the city’s public housing projects and working-class neighborhoods, sheds light on the gritty realities of growing up in Manchester during the 1960s – exposing cycles of violence, poverty, and racism while also highlighting the resilience and ambition that can emerge from struggle. Stories like hers ground the city’s identity in lived experience, offering an unvarnished view of its past that balances pride with reckoning.

Similar works, such as Ernest Hebert’s The Dogs of March, set in fictionalized New Hampshire towns, and the essays in Rebecca Rule’s Live Free and Eat Pie!, also contribute to a richer portrait of life in the Granite State—capturing its contradictions, voices, and regional quirks. By amplifying personal and place-based storytelling, these books empower residents to see their history not as background noise, but as something worth telling, reckoning with, and carrying forward.

The arts offer people a way to express themselves and to understand the perspectives and experiences of others. For many, the arts are a primary language – a vital means of communication when words fall short. Eliminating arts funding in New Hampshire doesn’t just take away enriching programs; it takes away a voice from young people and others who are still discovering how to tell their stories.

Conclusion: What’s at Stake

When we defund the arts, we do more than eliminate paintings, concerts, or poetry readings – we erase the scaffolding that helps individuals and communities understand who they are, where they’ve been, and what they could become. New Hampshire’s drastic cuts to arts funding are not just an economic misstep; they are a blow to the spirit and cohesion of its people. Art is not a luxury. It is a mirror, a map, and a memory. Whether through a child’s first violin lesson, a mural honoring overlooked laborers, or a memoir born from struggle, the arts help us tell the truth about ourselves. If we want a future in which New Hampshire continues to grow, inspire, and include all its residents, we must fight to keep the arts not just alive – but thriving.

What You Can Do

If you care about the future of the arts in New Hampshire, now is the time to speak up. Write to your state representatives and tell them why the arts matter to you, your family, and your community. Attend city council or school board meetings and ask how arts programs are being protected or restored. Support local artists, arts educators, and organizations – especially those in rural and underserved areas – through donations, volunteerism, and participation.

Most importantly, share your own story. Tell people how the arts shaped you, connected you, or inspired you. The more we speak out, the harder it becomes to ignore the truth: the arts are not extras. They are essential.
 
Sara Ceaser
Nashua, NH Resident
sara@ceaserphotography.com