November 5, 2025

Thirty five years ago, AVA Gallery took a bet on 11 Bank Street, occupying a fraction of the space while laying the groundwork to achieve a big, bold vision of a community arts center that would serve the Upper Valley.

We’ve come a very, very long way. You’ve helped to build a vibrant, wonder-filled community space for creativity of all kinds. Together we’ve helped to make the Upper Valley a more inclusive, more joyful, and more creative community for thousands of people. Thank you—and congratulations!

In 2025, thanks to your hard work, more than 8,000 visitors attended an exhibition or event at AVA. At least 527 children participated in a camp or workshop and 445 adults took a free or paid class. AVA directly supported 21 local artists by providing affordable studio spaces and another 11 by providing access to tools and equipment through our Bente Torjusen West Sculptural Studies Building. We exhibited 24 professional artists, employed 43 artist instructors, and supported the livelihoods of another 150 working artists through sales in our Bank Street Gallery. In total, AVA’s premises generated just over $1M in economic activity, 85 percent of which circulates within the 61 towns and villages we serve in New Hampshire and Vermont.

AVA has more potential and we need your help to achieve it! As we put a bow on 2025, we’d like to ask for your help to position us for success in 2026. Our finances are tight, the funding landscape is uncertain, and 2025 was a year of transition that cost us. With your help, we can rebound and make another bold bet on our future.

Here’s what’s happening as we prepare for 2026, and where we invite your investment:

• Expand access. Our new membership offering is designed to expand member access to our Sculptural Studies Building, throughout the Carter-Kelsey Building, and across our classes and programs. This includes $9,873 in scholarships and $21,170 to support community programs like CAOS, ArtLab, and Senior Art.
• Expand Experiences. AVA is widening our repertoire, becoming a platform for community aspiration. This includes a space for young emerging artists, coworking digital nomads, mixed media courses that combine our Sculptural Studies workshops. We’ll be investing approximately $37,000 developing our new ideas.
• Systems upgrade. From our work environment to the membership experience, AVA is implementing reforms intended to reduce our technology costs 400 percent while boosting performance. In the short-term the transition will cost us $35,095.
• Increase our reserve. The AVA facilities team estimates that we have $400,500 in infrastructure maintenance costs that must be made by 2030. This means we need to raise and save at least $80,000 each year for the next five years.
• Build our brand. AVA has a lot of capacity to share, and to do that we need to expand our audience–online and in person. We’ll be investing $36,612 in marketing efforts to improve our assets and increase our visibility in the region.

All in, we’re looking at $219,750 in investments over the next year where your support will be essential to our success. As we close out 2025, please help us reach halfway toward our goal, or $109,875. And we can do it! For example, if just 50 percent of everyone who reads our monthly newsletter chipped in $100 today, we’d exceed our goal by $55,000!

To get you excited and onboard, here’s just a preview of some of what’s coming up in the first few months of the new year:

• Thanks to the generosity of two long-standing AVA champions, AVA will host our first TIG welding classes in the Sculptural Studies metal shop in January.
• Later in the month we’ll launch our new website and membership portal, both designed to foster more meaningful community engagement and smoother business experiences.
• On January 23 and 24 dance artist Rachel Bernsen will perform with Julian Barnett, guitarist Evan Patrick, and vocalist and interdisciplinary artist Jean Carla Rodea. This is an exciting opportunity to expand multidisciplinary programming at AVA.
• With thanks for the support from another long-standing pair of AVA champions, we’ll roll out our second floor coworking offering in February.
• And mark your calendars for AVA’s thrilling annual high school artists’ exhibition, opening February 27 in the Roesch Visual Arts Gallery.

With these and other activities afoot for 2026, we’re excited to wrap up the year with your pledge of support! Please make a tax-deductible gift today.

And just as important, we’d love to have you involved at AVA when you:

• Join as a member
• Sign up for classes
• Come for our events
• Buy AVA merchandise
• Become a volunteer
• Teach as an instructor

Rolling into 2026, we’re excited to launch our next chapter as a platform for the creative aspirations of our community. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with your ideas any time. Make art, make your gift, and have a wonderful holiday season!

Creatively yours,

Lars Hasselblad Torres, Executive Director

Jeremy Greeley, Chair of the Board