Local organizers tell finance committee arts grants helped scale New Hampshire Book Festival and Holidays at the Estate

At the public hearing portion of the June 1 finance committee meeting, organizers described how municipal event-arts grants helped launch or expand major cultural events that draw visitors and support downtown businesses. Emily Burek and Lucy Hodder said the New Hampshire Book Festival used city seed grants to attract top authors and bring more than 5,000 attendees to a downtown festival day and a school-author program that served 1,300 children from across the state. “We are just incredibly thankful for this grant money and we are very happy to be here to tell you what we've done with that,” one organizer told the committee.

Kimball Jenkins’ executive director, Martha Lamir, reported that Holidays at the Estate ran a 21‑day free program with illuminated grounds, art exhibits and performances and drew more than 3,000 visitors in its first season; roughly 40% of attendees came from outside Concord, she said. Organizers credited grant seed funding with making initial programming attractive to sponsors and the public. Several councilors thanked speakers and noted the events’ economic activity for restaurants, hotels and retail in downtown Concord.