The 4th Annual TEAM Fall Equinox Fest returns to Swasey Parkway in downtown Exeter on Saturday, September 22nd from 10am-4pm.   The event will feature live music, local artists, kids activities, cultural exhibits, interactive art projects, and hooping.  There will be over 40 artist, food, craft, and non-profit vendors, as well as a full day of YOGA presented by Laney & Lu Cafe, featuring classes hosted by YogaLife Institute, Yogasmith, and Exeter Power Yoga.  The day will kick off with a community session featuring live music from nationally renowned didgeridoo player Joseph Carringer of Didge Therapy, who will be accompanied by the downtempo beats of Groove Lounge and guitar from David Drouin.  Jennifer Desrosiers, owner of Laney & Lu, sees the fest and the collaboration as a perfect fit, “We have been involved with the TEAM festivals from the beginning, and the vibe of the events embody our Live Vibrantly motto, embracing creativity, wellness, community, and healthy living.”

In addition to dozens of live musicians, the fest will also feature performances from Theo Martey & The Akwaaba Ensemble and the Full Time Fools contemporary circus troupe who will be showcasing elements of their upcoming The Treasure of the Cirque Fou production at The Player's Ring in Portsmouth.  Akwaaba is a traditional African drum and dance ensemble whose energetic and engaging performances are a reflection of their name, which means ‘welcome’ in the Twi language of the Ashanti tribe of Ghana.  TEAM has been working with members of the NH Governor’s Council on Diversity & Inclusion to help shine a light on multi-cultural artists based in the Granite State.  Rogers Johnson, chair of the council, sees the arts as an integral part of this mission and movement. "In order to fully embrace diversity you must, by definition, also embrace the culture that comes with that diversity." 
 
Cold Engines will be performing a headlining set at 3pm, their first full band appearance since opening for Blues Traveler at the Lowell Summer Concert Series in August. Lead singer and guitarist David Drouin, an Exeter resident, will be playing a guitar custom built by NH-based luthier Filipe Marques who will have a booth set up at the fest with opportunities to try out his instruments with amplifiers on hand.  
 
TEAM has been collaborating with other local organizations and businesses to expand not only their annual festivals, but also Exeter's other larger events, with supplemental programming throughout the weekend.  Exeter breweries Neighborhood Beer Company and Sea Dog will both be hosting live music Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights in support of the Equinox Festival, and will continue that schedule into the fall and winter.  Salina McIntire, Sales and Marketing Director at Neighborhood Beer Company, has been embracing the marriage of homegrown beer and homegrown music, "With the growth of the emerging scene in Exeter, we decided to expand our local live music series to three nights a week in our tap room. It brings fresh energy and is a great compliment to the beer tasting experience.”
 
Joey Kenny of The Kenny Brothers will be celebrating the release of their new album with a set at NBC on Friday, September 21st from 6-9pm, and singer/songwriter Elijah Clark will be performing Saturday night at Sea Dog in downtown Exeter at 7pm.  Saturday night will also feature an indie film screening at Exeter Town Hall, with doors opening at 6:30pm.  "Michael Lawrence: A Season Of Darkness" from Narrow Street Films was written and produced by New Hampshire author Killarney Traynor.  Tickets for the screening are $15 and include complimentary snacks and light beverages. 
 
TEAM Executive Director Scott Ruffner had this to say, "We're really excited about the evolution of the arts and culture scene here in Exeter.  There's not only a lot of new events and concepts emerging, but also a renewed energy behind a lot of our traditional programming from people of all ages.  The Equinox Fest will also be a launching date for TEAM's first ever Exeter Arts & Culture Guide which features a map of destinations in the walkable downtown and uptown areas, and listings for all of the town's annual festivals." 

Erin Thomas / Artist, Designer, Photographer

Erin (Duquette) Thomas has shown her canvas paintings, pastels and mixed media originals in several solo and group gallery shows across the Northeast for more than two decades, her original works are held in private collections both locally and around the globe. Thomas has always worked and operated or managed creative and art-based small businesses in the Seacoast through consulting, curation and management until more recently taking a more active role in her community by leading several art initiatives to create a more vibrant arts and culture scene that is driven by the artists themselves. Thomas founded the BAA (Berwick Art Association) and a popular blog and art research group, Modspoke. Thomas is also an active photographer, and responds to local fire and first response scenes to document the on-call and volunteer fire services in her community and surrounding neighborhoods.

The outlook for arts and culture in the Northeast has been on the grim side over the last decade. That's not to say there are not winning combinations in art and exemplary creative businesses present, but with grave disregard for the artists themselves coming from community arts organizations, larger businesses and politicians, the true and deep value of creative expression has become lost in translation by the time it reaches the public at large. This does both the artist and the public a huge disservice.

This new way of exploiting the word "arts" by larger public and non-profit organizations to create commerce for administrators, marketers and politicians is effectively contributing to a vapid art culture that is damaging the market for the artists and original musicians that need it to survive. It puts itself on the forefront as an authority (even if inadvertently). Positioned as an “expert” in the industry, and with strong financial backing, it then reaches the masses quicker than even the most savvy individual artist can on their best day. During this down economy, when everyone can now be considered an artist via social media, art and music is now viewed as a non-necessity product in most budgets. As these organizations misrepresent the quality and creativity in the art market, it's stifling the artist community with cultural appropriation, be it blatantly with White people performing African-themed dance on top of an African burial site or through casual theft of another's original idea.
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An article was recently published in the Exeter Newsletter about the Exeter Selectmen voting to not reappoint Scott Ruffner, Executive Director of Arts Industry Alliance and TEAM, to the volunteer town Arts Committee.  This also resulted in the resignation of two other members of the committee, Sharon Marston and Marissa Vitolo.  The decision was met with a great deal of push back and questioning from Exeter citizens, with only Selectmen members Don Clement and Anne Surman offering explanations that they were doing what was “best for the town”.  Some of the parties involved wanted to take the opportunity to give the community further background into the situation, and what goes on behind the scenes on these types of committees.  Marissa Vitolo, artist and committee member of 5 years, had this to offer.

​James Duprie, Producer of The Pine Street Players in Exeter, became involved in the situation when he learned that some people in town were interested in importing a theater group from outside the community.  Pine Street Players is run out of the Christ Church, and was fairly new and just gaining momentum, and Duprie had concerns with the impact of an outside competitor.  He started attending some committee meetings to get a better idea of what was happening behind the scenes. 

Link to original article online: http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20170427/local-arts-advocate-ousted-from-exeter-arts-committee
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In the wake of the original article in the Exeter Newsletter, an open forum interview and conversation occurred between reporter Hadley Barndollar, editor of the paper Buzz Dietterle, the three exiting members of the committee (Scott Ruffner, Sharon Marston, Marissa Vitolo), and five other local artists who all had applications submitted to join (Steven Delong, David Drouin, Ellie Willis, Bruce Jones, Lorenzo Vigil, Chad Verbeck).  All of them are either full or part time professional painters, photographers, musicians, or actors, ranging in ages from 26 to 60, who were willing to join the committee to further the arts scene in Exeter and help expand use of its public spaces.  Many of them submitted applications as far back as October, but only heard from the town after Ruffner, Marston and Vitolo exited.  All have decided to remove their applications from the committee, but will work together to keep a very close eye on its direction and if the group will be open to expanded use of the gallery space by outside organizations and active artists, musicians and performers living in town.  They see two of the potential future members as having obvious conflicts of interest. 

The three remaining applicants, Darius Thompson, John Moynihan, and Irene Graham Hall are all non artists.  Thompson is the husband of the current acting chair Kathy Lewis Thompson, and both are vocal supporters of selectmen Don Clement and Anne Surman. Moynihan is the former Operations Manager at Prescott Park Arts Festival and current administrator at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport.   The panel describes this situation as the classic scenario they have been facing in the Seacoast "arts" community.  with power-hungry volunteers and political agendas on one side, and professional non-profit administrators on the other.  They see both as a detriment to a naturally occurring organic art scene that reflects and benefits the community and the artists who live in it. 

Stream the full audio below.

​I find that one of the biggest challenges to running an independent venue is getting people to see that one of our primary offerings - music - is a commodity that is worth paying money for. Food, beer, and liquor aren't tough sells, but for some reason, the ticket prices for our shows are hard for some of our clientele to swallow. I think there's this sense that people will only pay for music if they are going to a concert at a large stadium venue, or a listening room. Because we are a combination of restaurant, bar, and music venue, there's a murky grey area where people don't necessarily understand that we are also trying to support and offer up local and touring artists. These artists aren't just playing for fun, but oftentimes trying to make a living at their craft. At least 85% of all of our income from ticket sales goes directly to the bands, with the other portion simply covering the costs of employing a full-time sound engineer, maintaining our sound system, and upgrading our equipment as technology changes so quickly. Many times, too, we pay musicians out of pocket to have free shows, so that people don't have to pay for their entertainment. There's a misconception that our venue pockets all of the money we collect from ticket sales, along with our food and drink sales, and that couldn't be further from the truth.

Another challenge we bump up against is a lack of understanding from your average person about what it takes to run a bar and music club. A lot of people think it's fun and games, a "dream" job, and they forget that it is a business that requires a lot of up-front and ongoing costs. They come in and see a packed room, and assume that we are turning a huge profit, and then wonder why we charge so much for a beer. But when you add in multiple insurances, twice-yearly inspections, annual music licensing fees, and the regular costs of maintaining a historic building that was constructed almost 200 years ago, you're really not seeing the profits that people envision, and you have to price your products up just to open the door each day.

Back before certain codes and standards, The Stone Church's capacity was 220 people, which allowed us to book larger bands. Now, our capacity stands at 99, which means we either have to take a big chance on large guarantees to book nationally-touring bands, outsource the booking to other production companies who will take that risk for us, or just try to exist with bands that don't look at a 99 capacity and shake their heads "no". With venues that hold a couple hundred people close by- 3s in Portsmouth, Tupelo in Londonderry, The Bull Run in Shirley, MA- we really can't stay competitive. In order to bump our capacity back up, we would need to install a comprehensive sprinkler system, which clearly costs a whole lot of money. This is a huge challenge, because the things that could make us bigger and better are too large of an investment.

Moreover, we have a beautiful, historic attic with many old features, and even an old stage, that is in dire need of renovation. If I won the lottery, I would definitely renovate that portion of the building to serve as balcony seating so that we could increased our capacity and restore some of the unique character of the building.

And one more thing about the codes... When The Stone Church became a music club in 1969, it was not necessary to serve food in order to obtain a liquor license, but that has changed over time. Our kitchen is a throwback to some time before that change, as we could certainly use an expansion. 

One final challenge is that craft beer has suddenly become exceedingly trendy over the last few years, along with old-time cocktails, infusions, and so on. Before this became a trend, we were serving 14 craft/microbrews on draft, and that made us stand out to people. Now, every new bar that is cropping up is specializing in craft beer- either their own, or those carried by the state of NH- and there's a been of one-up-man-ship when it comes to the creation of cocktails. The bar is being continuously raised, to the point where we have joked about becoming a place that serves Schlitz and other vintage types of cheap beer just in order to differentiate ourselves!

One thing that has become better over time is that the idea of a music club is no longer restricted to just people who are 21+, who want to come and see music and drink. Because we put a premium on providing a variety of high-quality music, and we offer it at other times of the day- Sunday afternoon/early evening, for example- we have been able to attract families and their children. So, by not funneling our clientele into one demographic, we have been able to reach more types of people, which in turn has made us become more creative with our programming and musical offerings.