With the 2017 installment of NH Open Doors about to get under way, we wanted to find out where it all started and how it got to where it is today.
With more than 100 participants in all regions of the state, it’s safe to say that a weekend-long event like this doesn’t just come together overnight, and changes from year to year are inevitable.
Carol Fusaro, vice president of Sullivan Creative – which handles the marketing for the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, which puts on NH Open Doors – filled us in on some of the back story.
“It started about 12 years ago,” Fusaro said, cautioning that she was not 100 percent sure on that. “Initially, the League, they did what was called an open studio tour – that was just the League’s juried members.”
In the beginning, it really was just a collection of League members quite literally opening their doors to let people poke around the studio and see how they do their work.
Then, a few years later, the League reached out to New Hampshire Made and the two groups decided to work together.
“We kind of expanded the participation so it wasn’t just League members,” Fusaro said. “It could also be members of New Hampshire Made and other businesses around New Hampshire.”
Now, all kinds of businesses and creative minds participate. While the core of the event is still showcasing the work of Granite State artists and craftsmen, there are farms, jewelers, greenhouses and other businesses involved that one might not immediately think of as being art-related.
“Part of this is also driven by the fact that the League pursued grants from the state of New Hampshire,” Fusaro said. “This is an event really designed to bring tourism to New Hampshire, both from outside the state and within the state. It gives people an opportunity to really explore the state, maybe visit a part of the state they’d never been to.”
And that’s where NH Open Doors is at now.
“Now that this has expanded to include people throughout the state, the idea is to really showcase the fuller breadth of what New Hampshire has to offer,” Fusaro said. “It started as just an open studio tour, but that was only for a few years. For many years now it has been more of a statewide touring, shopping event.”
Make sure you get out and do some touring and shopping this weekend, and help make sure this event has enough support to last another dozen years or more.
