The Manchester-based McLane Middleton law firm, the Savings Bank of Walpole, Summit Supply in Portsmouth and the Amherst man who created a groundbreaking theater program at the state prison were among the winners recognized for their support of the arts Monday at the 39th Annual Arts Awards Gala hosted by the New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts.
The companies were honored for supporting arts and culture through donations of time, funds and resources to benefit their communities, individual artists and arts organizations in and around New Hampshire.
“Celebrating the outstanding award winners’ accomplishments was exhilarating,” said Tricia Soule, NHBCA executive director. “All of them are deeply committed to supporting the arts because they believe in art’s ability to positively impact our communities and transform lives — sometimes in very unexpected ways.”
The McLane law firm was honored with the Boundless Generosity Award for its commitment to volunteerism and overarching philosophy that their attorneys should be active participants in their communities. The firm supports the Capitol Center for the Arts, the Palace Theatre, Opera North and the Manchester Community Music School, among others.
Savings Bank of Walpole received the Dyed-in-the-Wool Award for supporting nearly two dozen performing, visual and youth arts organizations in the Monadnock Region. It was praised as embodying “what it means to be a community bank.”
The Fanfare Award was presented to Summit Supply for promoting the Music Hall in Portsmouth on the company’s fleet of service trucks with custom wraps that advertise the theater.
Derek Lucci of Amherst, right, founder of the Open Sky theater initiative at the state prison, accepts the Bayberry Financial Services Artrepreneur Award from Tom Raffio, CEO of Northeast Delta Dental and chair of the NH Business Committee for the Arts board.
Winning the Bayberry Financial Services Artrepreneur Award was Derek Lucci of Amherst, who was honored for his founding of Open Sky, a skills-based acting program for those incarcerated at the NH State Prison for Men. Lucci, an actor, director, writer and teacher, has reached over 650 incarcerated residents with the initiative so far, either as participants in the program or attendees of a performance earlier this year of the Sam Shepard play “True West.”
The Northeast Delta Dental Artsbuild Community Award was presented to Kimball Jenkins in Concord for partnering with My Turn to help reduce barriers of access to arts experiences for young people while helping to connect with creative placemaking through art and centering traditionally underrepresented voices.
Presenting sponsors of the event were NH Business Review and New Hampshire Magazine. The premier performance sponsor was NH Dance Collaborative. Bayberry Financial Services was the naming sponsor of the Artrepreneur Award, and Northeast Delta Dental served as the naming sponsor of the Artsbuild Community Award.
