Upper Valley

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Sunday is Mother's Day, and the Upper Valley has a few good reasons to get outside this weekend.

Community Day at the Hood Museum

The Hood is always free to visit -- no ticket, no membership, no catch. Community Day adds drop-in activities and extra programming to an already open-door policy. If you haven't been in a while, here's what's there: 65,000+ objects spanning six continents and the full sweep of human history, making it one of the oldest and largest college art collections in the country (Dartmouth began collecting in 1772). The anchor pieces are six Assyrian stone reliefs carved around 900 BCE for the palace of King Ashurnasirpal II -- displayed on the ground floor, they're among the oldest objects you'll encounter anywhere in New England. The Orozco mural cycle, The Epic of American Civilization (1932--34), painted on the walls of adjacent Baker Library, is a National Historic Landmark. There's also strong New Hampshire landscape painting, a substantial Native American collection, Japanese woodblock prints, Old Masters, and a current exhibition on American art marking the country's 250th anniversary. The building underwent a major expansion in 2019. Community Day is as good an excuse as any.

Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra & Dance Ensemble: Firebird

Stravinsky's Firebird, performed by the Dartmouth Symphony with the dance ensemble. Student production -- which means the energy is high and the tickets are not $150. A free pre-show talk at 6:30 PM for the curious-minded.

Firebird: Pre-Show Talk

Free pre-show context before the Symphony's Firebird. Even if you know Stravinsky cold, these talks tend to surface something you didn't know.

Global Big Day Bird Count at VINS

Every May, birders around the world spend a single day counting every species they can spot. VINS joins in from the grounds in Quechee -- one of the best spots in Vermont for migratory birds this time of year. Included with VINS admission; bring binoculars.

Farm Friends Play Club

A morning of farm-based play for young kids at Billings Farm. Included with admission -- pair it with the Hopeville documentary screening in the afternoon if you're making a full day of it in Woodstock.

National Theatre Live: All My Sons

Arthur Miller's All My Sons, broadcast live from the National Theatre in London. A heavyweight Sunday afternoon. Tickets at the Hop box office.

Tutti Frutti Productions: Hare and Tortoise

Live children's theater at the Opera House. Tutti Frutti Productions does right by the classics -- this one's the Aesop fable, done properly for the stage.

Jennifer Turbes, Viola & Rose Hegele, Soprano with Chenyu Wang, Piano

A chamber recital at the UVMC -- viola, soprano, and piano. Free to attend. These Sunday evening performances are consistently good and consistently overlooked.

WHAT DOTH LIFE TRIPLE BILL!

Three bands, one night, five dollars. Sawtooth does this well. Show up after dinner.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT

Live music at Sawtooth to close out the week. $10 at the door.

Diana Whitney, Meg Reynolds & Eve Alexandra -- Girl Trouble, Condition, None of Us in White

Three poets, three new books, one Tuesday evening at Norwich Bookstore. The kind of literary event people drive from Woodstock and Hanover to attend. Free.

Art Exhibition Opening Reception

Opening night for a new show at the Norwich Public Library gallery. Free reception -- a good excuse to cross the river on a Thursday.

Celebrating the 250th: Frontier of Revolution -- The Upper Valley in 1776

As the country counts down to its 250th anniversary, Howe Library examines what was happening right here in 1776. Local history with actual stakes.

Howe Spring Writing Workshops with Keiselim A. Montas

A writing workshop series running through the spring at Howe Library. Free and open to the public.

Sawtooth Trivia Night

Free trivia at Sawtooth. Show up, get a team together, see how much you actually know.

Line Dancing Night

Line dancing at Sawtooth. Free. No experience necessary -- that's kind of the point.

DFS: Borders and Belonging -- Mr. Nobody Against Putin

The Dartmouth Film Society's Borders and Belonging series continues. Tickets at the Hop box office.

Where to Make Things in the Upper Valley

There's a version of the Upper Valley that gets talked about a lot -- Dartmouth, the outdoors, covered bridges -- and then there's the version that's a little harder to see from the highway: a dense, genuinely remarkable concentration of places where you can show up with no experience and leave having made something with your hands.

This week's Community Day at the Hood Museum (Saturday, always free) is a good entry point. Drop in, bring kids, look at things, make things.

But if Saturday gets you curious about doing more than visiting, the Upper Valley has an unusually rich infrastructure for it.

In White River Junction, CraftStudies (87 Maple Street) has been teaching pottery, jewelry, metalsmithing, basket-making, and fiber arts to Upper Valley residents for over 70 years. The organization went through a real reinvention a few years ago -- moving from Hanover across the river to WRJ and reopening with a new director. Their studios are genuinely well-equipped: the kind of space where a beginner can start on a wheel next to someone who's been throwing clay for thirty years, and both walk out having learned something. Classes for adults, teens, and kids run year-round.

A few blocks away, Tip Top Pottery (tiptoppottery.com) offers a lower-stakes on-ramp to the same impulse. Paint-your-own-pottery has a reputation as a birthday party activity, and it is that -- but Tip Top has grown into something more. Wheel-throwing lessons, a clay co-op for regulr practitioners, summer camps for kids, and a Cork and Canvas sip-and-paint night. Run by Tyler, who grew up coming here and bought the place in 2017.

Over in Lebanon, AVA Gallery and Art Center (11 Bank Street) is the region's largest arts facility -- 40,000 square feet in the old Carter Jean Factory building. What looks like a gallery from the outside is actually nineteen artist studios, five exhibition spaces, four teaching studios, woodworking and metal workshops, a ceramics studio, a sculpture garden, and a green roof for pollinators. AVA has served the region since 1973 and reaches 61 communities across NH and VT. Their Bank Street Gallery sells member-made work -- paintings, pottery, jewelry, fiber art -- and is open Monday through Saturday.

These three places share the same underlying premise: that making things is not a hobby for specialists, and that the Upper Valley has taken that seriously for a long time. If you've been thinking about a ceramics class, learning metalsmithing, or just an afternoon at a wheel with no expectation of producing anything good, one of them has something starting soon.

And in the meantime, Saturday's Community Day at the Hood is free.

The outdoor market season is underway. Norwich Farmers Market is back at its Route 5 South location this Saturday -- 9am to 1pm, rain or shine, 55+ vendors, live music, SNAP/EBT accepted. One of the oldest farmers markets in northern New England (founded 1977). Pick up garden starts while you still can.

The Lebanon Farmers Market at Colburn Park opens for its outdoor season on Thursday, May 15 -- 4 to 7pm in downtown Lebanon. Mark the calendar. Hartland, Woodstock, and Canaan markets follow later in May.

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