While Mary Goldthwaite-Gagne is probably best known as an artist for her cut paper illustrations, she has many identities, all of which are connected. As an exhibiting artist, full-time high school art teacher, and co-founder of The Glass Museum, she plays a major role in the Peterborough arts community. Though much like paper cutting, the added challenge in Goldthwaite-Gagne’s life is that the entire piece has to hold together as one connected structure in the end.

“Of course, there is a constant search for balance between all of these identities,” Goldthwaite-Gagne says. “It is a challenge to ever feel like I am excelling at all of these things simultaneously.” Yet as the recipient of the 2013 New Hampshire Civic Leader of the Year Award and a 2017 PBS Digital Innovator, it’s clear Goldthwaite-Gagne is making a positive impact in her community.

Becoming a parent has given Goldthwaite-Gagne a greater sense of urgency in teaching and community building in general. “I am constantly asking myself if I’m helping to cultivate a school culture that I would be happy having my child be part of,” says Goldthwaite-Gagne. “I really love living and teaching in the same community; I can’t imagine dividing my energy into different communities simultaneously.”

Outside the classroom, Goldthwaite-Gagne’s art was recently featured in the 2017 Whitney Houston Biennial: Greatest Love of All exhibit in New York City. She has also been working on a series of portraits of women she admires. Her goal for 2017 is to create at least 52 portraits, which she will debut at Aviary Gallery in Jamaica Plain in early 2018. “This started with a poster project that I created this past fall to raise money for Planned Parenthood,” says Goldthwaite-Gagne. She chose nine of her creative heroes: Alma Thomas, Nancy Spero, Yoko Ono, Eva Hesse, The Guerilla Girls, Margaret Kilgallen, Zadie Smith, Swoon, and Sarah Urist Green. Goldthwaite-Gagne sold 50 posters in one day, and raised $500 for Planned Parenthood.

Through The Glass Museum, a 501c3 non-profit organization that began in early 2008, Goldthwaite-Gagne and her co-founder and husband, Eric, produce Broke: The Affordable Arts Fair and The Thing in the Spring concert series. Their mission? To bring world-renowned music and high quality affordable art to the Peterborough community at large.

The duo did not set out to build an arts non-profit. Initially, things started out with modest music and arts events around Peterborough, but over the years the scale of these events has grown exponentially. “The guiding principle of Broke has always been that art is for everybody,” Goldthwaite-Gagne says. “We are committed to always offering free admission to the public, keeping the work on sale under $50, and maintaining affordable tabling fees for vendors.” These days, Broke frequently receives more applicants than they can accommodate, often times twice as many.

“To me, these projects are really about bringing the art and music that we love to Peterborough, which is a really singular and special place,” says Goldthwaite-Gagne.

Mary Goldthwaite-Gagne–artist/teacher/co-founder of the Glass Museum
Peterborough, New Hampshire
Website 
Facebook
Instagram

The post The Job-Defying Mary Goldthwaite-Gagne appeared first on Take Magazine.

Molly Brown’s new band, Gilliver, seems as organic as an afterthought—a new voice coming out of Peterborough, rife with whispery vocals and an earthy sound straight out of the catalog of Cowboy Junkies or Mazzy Star.

The music is even more impressive when you consider that two main sources of inspiration for the singer-songwriter is doom metal and traditional Bulgarian women’s choir music. “It wasn’t planned, it just happened,” Brown says of the band’s sound. “I guess it’s just hard to define.”

Music fans will be able to decide for themselves on Saturday, June 9 as Gilliver performs as part of the Tenth Annual Peterborough Thing in the Spring, a five-day arts and music festival. Gilliver will perform at Harlow’s Pub (3 School Street) at 9:30 p.m. The band, which consists of Brown, her brother Dylan Brown, and Mia Govoni, is working on its first album, and have already released two tracks to BandCamp.com.

“I’ve been a musician since I was a kid,” Brown says. “In high school, I decided I was going to be an angry chick with a guitar. Then I got into Celtic music. And jazz. After ten years, I had all this material, but had nowhere to go with it.”

Enter Mia, not just the band’s drummer, but an audio engineer and producer.
“She saw some of my music online and wanted to get something down,” Brown says. “And my brother, who is also a musician, has always encouraged me, so we brought him in, and tada!”

Gilliver was born. The name, according to Brown, is a forgotten word for wall flower. “That’s how I feel most of the time, a sideline observer,” says Brown. “My life and my writing are observational, and has to do with plants!”

Actually, the music benefits a great deal not just from Brown’s work as a landscaper, but from the fact that she worked on a farm for a time. New Hampshire itself is an influence. “I sing a lot about day-to-day life, and that’s New Hampshire because that’s where I’m at,” she says. “Stone is a theme; it’s always in my background. I think about it a lot when I write.”

The band’s first album, which is still in the mixing phase, will be called Tooth in the Tilth, and is named after the first time Brown attempted to plow a field. “I messed it up real bad,” she says.

But in the end, the music of Gilliver is as laid back as the band’s musicians. “Listen, I’m a farmer, I went to school for farming,” Brown says. “There’s just something about the rhythm of the day, taking care of the animals, and sitting on the porch for an hour and writing a song.”

Want to hear what’s on Brown’s Spotify playlist and other artists we’ve featured at Take? Check out our Take a Listen Spotify channel.

Molly Brown–founding musician of Gilliver
Peterborough, New Hampshire
Website
Instagram

Top image Molly Brown and Mia Govoni, courtesy of Molly Brown

The post From Farm to Music appeared first on Take Magazine.