Arts & Culture

Keene, and in fact the entire Monadnock region, is home to a thriving community of arts and cultural organizations including performing arts venues and schools, galleries and studios, musical training groups, and cultural museums. Here's a list of places you should check out:

Arts Communities
Dance/Movement
Drama
Museums/Historical
Music
Performance Centers
Visual Arts

Arts Communities

MacDowell Colony Peterborough, NH
The MacDowell Colony nurtures the arts by offering creative individuals of the highest talent an inspiring environment in which to produce enduring works of the imagination.

Monadnock Folklore Society Monadnock Region
To increase the visibility of folk dance and music in the Monadnock Region; providing new venues for performers; offering support to local musician's projects; and providing educational services in the folk arts to the community.

Sharon Arts Peterborough, NH
The Vison of Sharon Arts Center is to be the heart of artistic experience and education in the community, a vibrant center of individual and collaborative activity, providing a stimulating environment that nourishes a wellspring of ideas and creativity.

The Starving Artist Keene, NH
The Starving Artist is a non-profit creative collective. We are a unique space and people dedicated to satisfying the wayward creative soul seeking, hungering, and thirsting for a sanctuary of inspiration and renewal.

Dance/Movement

Brattleboro School of Dance Brattleboro, VT
The school strongly believes that dance can be a vital aspect in the lives of both men and women, whether they wish to enjoy its benefits as an avocation or to pursue a career in dance. The school also believes that students learn most effectively when presented with maximum challenge and support and when the artistry and fun of dance is not forgotten.

Keene State College Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond Keene, NH
The dance department at Keene State College has produced its annual Evening of Dance for more than 30 years. The College's Redfern Arts Center is now the hub site of the Quebec/New England Dance Alliance.

Luminz Studio Brattleboro, VT
Luminz Studio dance & performing arts center is a lively dance studio offering lessons in many forms of dance and fitness for adults & children.

Moco Arts - Moving Company Dance Center Keene, NH
Transforming lives through movement and creative expression. They offer programs in dance, theatre, wellness, and visual arts. Their dance program provides technique classes in many different genres including jazz, tap, ballet, modern, hip hop, ballroom, latin, and swing. Students of any age are welcome.

Monadnock Performing Arts Academy Peterborough, NH
MPAA is a training ground for the disciplines of Ballet, Tap, Jazz, and Modern Dance. The Academy's program also includes Musical Theatre, Hip-Hop, Voice, Break Dancing, African, Kindergymnastics, Acrobatics, Yoga, Boys Classes, and Acting Classes.

New England Center for Circus Arts Brattleboro, VT
To create a school, facility and community where circus arts are available to the general public and to inspire students of all skill levels, ages, abilities and aspirations.

NH Dance Institute Keene, NH
The mission of New Hampshire Dance Institute is to awaken children to the transformative power of the arts, and to make art, through dance, a vital part of their education.

Drama

Acting Out Keene, NH
The mission of the program is to cultivate resiliency, social skills and healthy development in youth through theater training.

Actor's Circle Theatre Peterborough, NH
Actors' Circle Theatre's continuing mission is to foster enjoyment and participation in the theatre arts throughout the Monadnock Region.

Actors' Theatre Playhouse West Chesterfield, NH

Andy's Summer Playhouse Wilton, NH
Andy's Summer Playhouse exists to provide a safe environment for children to experience and learn about all aspects of the performing arts, with the goal of creating innovative theater for the surrounding community. Andy's emphasizes education and community building, encouraging all participants to explore their own creativity.

Branch River Theatre Marlborough, NH
We are a community theatre committed to providing a high-quality and entertaining theatre experience, a theatre season designed to entertain the community, entertainment at a reasonable cost, and opportunities for actors to perform.

Children's Stage Adventures Sullivan, NH
An affordable, high quality theatre experience for schools, community groups and summer camps.

GUTWorks Monadnock Region
Our mission is to serve theatrical storytelling from a multifaceted approach in order to reach a diverse audience. GUTWorks is dedicated to telling visceral stories. We believe that each story will inspire its own unique process. As a company our role is to use this process in order to discover the story's greatest potential.

MoCo Arts Keene, NH
MoCo Arts is about transforming lives through movement and creative expression. They offer programs in dance, theatre, wellness, and visual arts. Their theatre program offers classes in improve, musical, and storytime theatre as well as puppetry.

New England Youth Theatre Brattleboro, VT
New England Youth Theatre provides professional training and production experience in theatre arts to young people by engaging their intellects, bodies, and imaginations in the creative endeavor.

Peterborough Players Peterborough, NH
To provide professional theatre of high quality to a broad-based audience and to do this within a supportive atmosphere such that professionals and students alike may practice and expand their art.

River Theater Charlestown, NH
RIVER THEATER is a not-for-profit community theater, with a special emphasis on youth theater and education.

Sandglass Theatre Putney, VT
Sandglass Theater is an internationally known theater company specializing in combining puppets with music, actors and visual imagery.

Small Pond Productions Marlborough, NH
To create, produce, and perform great entertainment and provide an opportunity to showcase our talent.

Springfield Community Players Springfield, VT
Vermont's longest continually-running non-professional theater group.

Surry Players Surry, NH
We are a non-profit community theater group based in Surry, New Hampshire, that has been presenting plays since 1979.

The Northfield Country Players Turners Falls, MA
Our primary goal is to engage in the production of, the promotion of, and other related activities involved in presenting community-based quality theater for the educational and cultural development of participants and audiences.

Vermont Theatre Company Brattleboro, VT
VTC is committed to a policy of open auditions and is proud to introduce to our audiences new talent alongside seasoned performers. We intend to offer high quality theatre at affordable prices and to offer shows which will entertain and excite the imaginations of our diverse and discriminating audience.

Museums/Historical

Brattleboro Museum & Art Center Brattleboro, VT
To present art and ideas in ways that inspire, educate, and engage people of all ages.

Historic Society of Cheshire County Keene, NH
HSCC is a nonprofit educational institution dedicated to collecting, preserving, and communicating the history of Cheshire County, New Hampshire.

Horatio Colony House Museum Keene, NH
The Horatio Colony House Museum and Nature Preserve has been established to preserve the 1806 house and collections of Horatio Colony II and the 415-acre nature preserve; to educate people about the social and natural history of the area through a focus on the property of Horatio Colony.

Keene State Thorne Sagendorph Keene, NH
The Thorne showcases art and ideas from around the world as well as traditional New England art.

Mariposa Museum Peterborough, NH
To explore and celebrate the diversity of world cultures and the common humanity that connects us all through exhibits, performances, artifacts and "hands-on" exploration. Children raised with respect and curiosity for all cultures will know more peace and less war.

Music

Animaterra Women's Chorus Keene, NH
Animaterra is a non-profit (501c3) organization formed by and for women to communicate through music. We share a love of multi-cultural folk music, expressive spirituality, learning and healing with a focus on community.

Apple Hill Nelson, NH
The Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music promotes peace and understanding through the transformative power of playing and teaching chamber music around the world.

Greater Keene Pops Choir Keene, NH
The Greater Keene Pops Choir is a unique performing ensemble in the Greater Keene, New Hampshire community. We sing American popular music in all its many styles.

Keene Chamber Orchestra Keene, NH
To provide performances, recordings, and rehearsals of the orchestral repertoire at the highest artistic, expressive, and technical standard.

Keene Chorale Keene, NH
For the past thirty years, the Keene Chorale has been delighting its audiences by performing the best of choral music for the enjoyment of those who sing and those who listen.

Keene Community Music Center Keene, NH
To provide an environment where musicians meet to teach, learn, perform, and share; KCMC welcomes collaboration with other arts organizations in the Monadnock Region

Monadnock Chorus Peterborough, NH
The Monadnock Chorus is a volunteer, non-profit organization with the purpose of performing choral works.

Monadnock Music Monadnock Region
Monadnock Music makes exceptional music accessible to all in intimate and informal settings in the towns and villages of the Monadnock region and beyond. Through a commitment to varied and imaginative performances and teaching, Monadnock Music keeps a sense of musical daring and discovery alive.

Peterborough Children's Choir Peterborough, NH
To provide a place for young singers to share the rewarding experience of making music together.

Peterborough Folk Music Society Peterborough, NH
The Peterborough Folk Music Society is an all-volunteer non-profit organization dedicated to bringing the most innovative, entertaining and diverse musicians to the Monadnock Region.

Raylynmor Opera Company Peterborough, NH
Igniting passion through opera. The Company performs high quality productions, sung primarily in English to make them enjoyable and accessible to local audiences and to young opera-goers in particular.

River Singers Saxtons River, VT
The River Singers is a multigenerational 90-voice community choir founded and led by Mary Cay Brass in the village of Saxtons River, Vermont. The choir sings lively and soulful songs from many community-based traditions around the world.

The Cheshiremen Chorus Keene, NH
Recognized as the region's premier choral organization, while encompassing the Society's vision of an ever-growing, singing fraternity, drawn together by love of the four-part, a cappella, close-harmony style of music known as barbershop.

Two Rivers Community Choir Peterborough, NH
The mission of the Two Rivers Community Choir is the create and nurture a singing community. This unique choir is dedicated to performing varied styles of music, with a focus on building a supportive ensemble, where camaraderie and giving back to the community are integral parts of our endeavor.

Performance Centers

Bellows Falls Opera House Bellows Falls, VT

Colonial Theatre Keene, NH
The Colonial Theatre is an historic performing arts center, which brings the cultural and creative spirit of our community to life.

Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery Brattleboro, VT
Live music, photography, film, comedy, painting, sculpture, live theatre, film and literary festivals… and your events!

Jaffrey Civic Center Jaffrey, NH
A multi-faceted resource available to the residents of Monadnock Region for the pursuit of artistic, educational, and historical endeavors; by providing the facilities necessary for: meetings, classes, performances and exhibits.

Keene State Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond Keene, NH

Since 1980, Keene State College's Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond has brought outstanding national and international music, theater, and dance companies to the region for public performances, master classes and workshops. The College's music, theatre and dance departments offer faculty recitals with visiting artists and an ambitious series of performances by students.

Latchis Theater Brattleboro, VT

Main Street Arts Saxtons River, VT
Main Street Arts is a non-profit arts center dedicated to serving the creative needs of our greater community. We seek to encourage creative expression through a wide range of artistic experiences.

Monadnock Summer Lyceum Peterborough, NH
The Monadnock Summer Lyceum is known as "a feast for the thoughtful" and features prominent speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines who discuss topics of importance to our time.

Park Theatre Jaffrey, NH
To provide and promote educational, cultural and entertainment programs and activities for residents of, and visitors to, the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire communities.

Visual Arts

Keene State College Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery Keene, NH
The Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery at Keene State College brings an annual series of innovative exhibitions to this area, including works by international, national, and local artists representing a range of genres, along with shows by faculty members and students.

MoCo Arts Keene, NH
MoCo Arts is about transforming lives through movement and creative expression. They offer programs in dance, theatre, wellness, and visual arts. Their School of Art provides classes in many different genres including mixed media, clay, drawing, painting, recycled art, 3D and much more. Students of any age are welcome.

Monadnock Area Art Association Keene, NH
The Monadnock Area Art Association is a non-profit organization with a strong community/family commitment and orientation. Activities center on generating interest and appreciation of art within our region primarily through the exhibition of art works. The Monadnock Area Art Association sponsors Art in the Park held in Ashuelot River Park over Labor Day weekend and the Keene Art Walk through downtown Keene in June.

Monadnock Art/Friends of the Dublin Art Colony Dublin NH, 03444
Monadnock Art / Friends of the Dublin Art Colony (MA / FDAC) is a non-profit organization with a mission of celebrating the presence of the visual arts in the Monadnock Region of southwestern New Hampshire, from the artists who gathered in and near Dublin at the turn of the 19th century to the hundreds of artists who live and work throughout the region today.

Sharon Arts Center Fine Art Galleries: Peterborough, NH; School of Arts and Crafts: Sharon, NH
Sharon Arts Center is a non-profit organization that supports and serves artists and craftspeople, to engage the community in the artistic process, and to foster the relationship between artists and the community through education, exhibitions, the promotion and sale of art and craft, as well as through special programs and events.