As the first hints of spring seem to finally be trickling into the region these days, the thoughts of many Greater Nashua folks are turning once again toward the annual celebration of the arts known as the Nashua International Sculpture Symposium.

Although the upcoming NISS, which opens May 12 and runs through June 4, marks the widely-anticipated event’s 15th year, preparing for this year’s event has been a joint venture of both joyous celebration and solemn, fond remembrance.

Celebration, because that cussed pandemic is all but behind us, allowing the symposium to return to the glorious pre-mask, pre-distancing, pre-isolation days, and solemn, fond remembrance, because this will be the first symposium without one of the event’s staunchest supporters, generous benefactors and a symposium co-founder, the late Meri Goyette.

When fellow arts advocate and supporter Kathy Hersh nominated Goyette several years ago for the state Council on the Arts’ Individual Arts Patron Award, she referred to Goyette, who passed last summer at age 95, as “the Grand Dame of Arts in Nashua.

“Meri’s fingerprint is on everything ‘art’ throughout our city and beyond,” Hersh wrote in her nomination letter.

(Courtesy photo) Anna Alvina Miller, of New Haven, Connecticut

So what could be more fitting for this year’s symposium than coming up with a title, or theme, that evokes memories of and pays tribute to that “grand dame”?

Organizers did just that, choosing “Merriment,” which, according to symposium president and The Picker Artists building owner Gail Moriarty, was initially written “Meriment.”

“We figured people would think we misspelled “merriment” so we decided to leave in the second “R,” Moriarty said with a laugh. Organizers were confident, she added, that people who knew Goyette and her strong ties to the arts scene – which is probably the vast majority of Nashuans – would instantly see the connection.

The public is invited to the opening reception, and from the sounds of what organizers have planned for the closing ceremony, it will be well worth attending.

In a departure from most previous years, when the completed sculptures were installed upon pedestals in, for instance, public parks, along walking and biking trails, in the center of roundabouts and near the entrances to the city called “gateways,” the works created this year will become part of the rail trail that runs along a section of East Hollis Street, across Commercial Street and along the northern boundary of Nashua Fire Rescue Station 4.

(Telegraph file photo) Meri Goyette, who died last July, was a co-founder and staunch supporter of the Nashua International Sculpture Symposium. She is shown at the December 2017 unveiling of a sculpture that she and her husband, the late Charles Goyette, donated to the city.

The logistics are still being worked out, Moriarty said, such as exactly where the sculptures will be placed.

Historically, the beginnings of what would grow into today’s Nashua International Sculpture Symposium go back to 2007, when Hersh and Goyette drove out to Brookline to meet with acclaimed sculptor John Weidman in his studios at the Andres Institute of Art.

Inspired, the trio recruited other like-minded folks to join the project, and the proverbial ball was soon rolling along quite smoothly.

Some 15 years later, as folks involved in the event like to mention every now and then, Nashua is still the only city in the United States that hosts an annual international sculpture symposium.

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(Courtesy photo) Brent Howard, of Jersey City, New Jersey

IF YOU GO

The Nashua International Sculpture Symposium is hosting its 15th annual symposium this spring.

Titled “Merriment,” the symposium’s opening reception is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 12, at The Picker Artists building, 3 Pine St., Nashua.

The closing ceremony will take place Saturday, June 4, at a time and location to be announced.

Members of the public are invited to visit and watch the three sculptors work daily, except for Sundays, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. from Tuesday, May 24 through Saturday, June 4.

(Courtesy photo) Corinna D'Schoto, Greater Boston

Organizers are also looking for volunteers to provide meals for the sculptors. For details on how to do so, go to www.nashuasculpturesymposium.org, scroll down to the “Prepare a Meal” icon and click on it.

For addtional general information on the symposium, its history and other background, go to nashuasculpturesymposium.org/2022-symposium.

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MEET THE ARTISTS

• Anna Miller, New Haven, Connecticut

Anna Alvina Miller was raised in Tucson, Arizona, and primarily makes kinetic and interactive sculpture.

She graduated with a BFA in 2017 from the University of Arizona and earned a MFA from Yale School of Art in 2020.

In addition to her sculptural practice, Anna has worked in ceramics, drawing, painting, and custom fabrication. She was an associate of the Boathouse Gallery in Tucson and has had shows in Arizona galleries, as well as exhibitions along the East Coast.

She currently lives with her partner on a sailboat in New Haven, where they are creating a traveling artist residency on a boat.

• Brent Howard, Jersey City, New Jersey

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Brent Howard received a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a MFA from Hunter College, where he studied under the minimalist Robert Morris.

Upon arriving in New York City to study, Brent assisted and befriended Louise Bourgeois. He helped her produce many of her large-scale metal sculptures from 2000 until her passing in 2010.

Brent also owned and operated Soapstone Studios in Brooklyn from 2002-2007. In 2009, he was hired at Yale University School of Art in the sculpture department, and became director of the wood and metal shops. He joined the faculty full-time as a lecturer in 2012.

Brent now resides in Jersey City, where he is focusing full-time on his career as a sculptor.

• Corinna D’Schoto, Greater Boston

Based in Boston, Corinna DíSchoto works across painting, sculpture, installation and performance,exploring object-body relationships and the power dynamics and inter-subjective realities within constructed space.

Corinna’s exhibitions include Haul Gallery, Brooklyn; Mall Galleries, London; The Market Gallery, Bolton, UK; the Projektraum, Berlin; Galerie Bipolar, Leipzig; and The Glue Factory, The Pipe Factory, and the Trongate Gallery, all in Glasgow.

Corinna attended Glasgow School of Art, receiving an MFA in 2018, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design, earning a BFA in 2013.

She has been an artist-in-residence at Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Rockland, Maine; Monson Arts, Monson, Maine; Prenzlauer Studio/Kunst-Kollektiv art gallery, Berlin, Germany; the Pilotenkueche art studio, Leipzig, Germany; along with fellowships at a neo gallery artist residency and the Vermont Studio Centre, Johnson, Vermont.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.