SPAR(K)
Social Practice Artist Residency (Keene)
SPAR(K)
Social Practice Artist Residency (Keene)
Social Practice Artist Residency (Keene) has selected an artist for the Fall 2026 Residency:
Craig Pleasants will be in residence in the fall of 2026, in collaboration with NOVA Arts and Brewbakers Cafe. We will also be in collaboration with the Gordon-Matta Clark Estate which is based in Chesterfield, NH and is Directed by Jessamyn Fiore.
Past Residencies
SPAR(K) at Colonial Theater Keene 2025
Artist: Kye Grant Kauffman
https://kyealive.club/About-Me
The 2025 Residency took place at SHOWROOM at the Colonial Performing Arts Center in Keene, NH.
The 2025 residency brought many different community members together in common cause. The Club Alive event served as a celebration of who Keene is and a beautifully executed teaching lesson in what Social Practice art can be. The Showroom (and thus the Colonial) was reimagined and presented as a place of possibilities. https://youtu.be/mctE7d8Glb
SPAR(K) at Covenant Living of Keene Oct 2024
Artist: Olivia Delgandio
The 2024 Residency took place at Covenant Living of Keene. Covenant Living is a senior living community that is, by mission, devoted to providing a vital community experience.
https://www.covlivingkeene.org/
SPAR(K) at Monadnock Family Services 2023-24
Artist: Katie Bachler
The MFS-SPAR(K) residency ran from September to early June 2024.
read full project reflection here
The SPAR(K) artist (Katie Bachler), along with MFS’s art therapist, Kate Russo, undertook a process with a group of young MFS clients to develop a working relationship and to undertake projects and processes that worked to establish an understanding of the MFS building and its site near the Ashuelot River. Katie has done extensive research concerning the water ways of Keene (Ashuelot, Beaver Brook, etc.) and the water theme developed as a focus for the project. A very rich cooperative project developed between the artist, the young clients, MFS staff, and the Keene community.
Katie Bachler is an artist and educator living in Brattleboro, Vermont. She deeply believes that the role of art is to connect us to each other and the world around us, through sharing our gifts. Her work is always collaborative with the public, and takes multiple forms, including maps, gardens, dinners, audio recordings, mobile museums, and braided rag rugs. She has done projects with the Walker Art Center, Mural Arts in Philadelphia, High Desert Test Sites in Joshua Tree, CA, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Slanguage Studio and IDEPSCA Worker’s Center in Los Angeles, Mildred’s Lane, Transition Town Putney, and others. She has a Master’s degree in Curatorial Studies in the Public Sphere from the University of Southern California, and is currently a teaching artist at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, and the mother of a 4 year-old.
Press:
Pilot Residency 2022
Artist: Roz Crews
The pilot residency successfully occurred for 4 weeks in October 2022. Roz Crews was the artist: http://rozcrews.info/#/rozinkeene/o/ The project was titled: When no one is there to witness how it feels inside.
About the Residency
The Keene artists’ residency is designed to bring accomplished social practice artists to Keene to work with and within the community to create opportunities for engaged participation, reflection and the making of art.
The project will be open, inclusive and will have as its’ primary goal: engaging the community in a shared process that engages social action and is followed by reflection. There is no specific requirement that the project result in art objects.
Resident artists will be in Keene for 1-6 months to take time to come to know the community, develop a project and instigate that project. The residency will work out of an accessible location and housing will be provided for Residents.
The Residency program will also include, yearly, two short events with invited visiting artists for special projects. The residency program will develop annual events to highlight the efforts of the center and offer the community enthusiastic participatory events.
Keene, NH is a small rural city that is impacted socially by the presence in Keene of the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies and Genocide Studies at Keene State College and the Jonathan Daniels Center for Social Responsibility. Jonathan Daniels was a civil-rights martyr born and raised in Keene. These organizations will serve as referents for efforts to undertake the social action possibilities of art as a way of reflecting on the experience and history of others and how that might be brought into our community. Social practice art is a form of art that has emerged out of the desire to activate art in community settings.
A wide range of projects and involvement are possible, perhaps the defining aspect of social practice art is the emphasis on engaging the community in projects that stimulate reflection. The intention is that Keene will benefit from the presence of a nationally recognized artist with deep experience in this field who will develop and implement projects that increase community awareness and provide a lively engagement that will attract and keep young adults in this area.
The pilot residency successfully occurred for 4 weeks in October 2022. Roz Crews was the resident artist and the project was titled “When No One is here to Witness how it feels Inside” SPAR(K) worked closely with Nova Arts and Arts Alive! https://www.novaarts.org/residency