NH Institute of Art Uses $75,000 Grant for Renovation Project

St. Anne's Church at 382 Beech St. in downtown Manchester. Photo: Manchester Link

The NH Institute of Art (NHIA) in Manchester received a $75,000 grant from Boston-based Jane’s Trust to bolster the college’s Youth Arts program. The grant will assist NHIA in completing the $750,000 renovation of the former St. Anne’s Church at 382 Beech St. in downtown Manchester into a new Youth Arts Lab for middle school and high school students.

The St. Anne Church building was originally donated to NHIA in 2009 by Brady Sullivan Properties in Manchester with a goal of transforming the long dormant church into a youth arts education lab serving the surrounding community. NHIA received $367,250 in Community Development Finance Authority tax credits, which were purchased by area businesses. The Youth Arts Lab will finally be completed this summer and fully operational by the fall.

The lab will allow offer middle school and high school students throughout greater Manchester increased access to arts instruction year round, including:

• An after-school program offering Manchester-based teens ages 12-18 art, design and writing instruction, regardless of a family’s ability to pay.
• One- and two-week summer arts day camps designed to allow teens to explore the latest in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) as well as traditional approaches to artmaking.

Kent Devereaux, president of NHIA, says the college aims to "actively connect with our community to create a more vibrant, creative, and economically sustainable Manchester. We are extremely pleased and grateful that Jane’s Trust has joined with us to help make this vision a reality.”