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July 2, 2004 From the Director
On our second birthday July 1, this fledgling community museum takes stock of year two. By the numbers, we served some 11,000 people, 5,000 of them adults, 5,000 schoolchildren, 1,000 in outreach visits to schools, retirement communities, and civic groups. We sponsored multicultural performances for the public every Sunday at 2pm and every First Friday at 7pm, as well as twelve rotating gallery exhibits by artists and photographers and additional exhibits in our window gallery. We also held community balances on the equinox and solstice with educational kinesiologist Eve Kodiak. All performances were donated by wonderful people such as Nancy Knowles and Frank Wallace, storytellers Sebastian Lockwood, Jo Putnam and Gerry Halgrimson, jazz vocalists Nanette Perotte, Mike and Laura Kolodny, French-Canadian music by Glori B. Luebberman and Ken Cloutier, and many, many more. Our part-time staff has grown to include Cherie Morris, coordinator of just about anything needing coordinating; Jessica Sewell, bookkeeper and poster designer; Max Sewell, webmaster; Nadiya Petrova Weidman, site coordinator; Anne Thomas, events organizer and publicist; receptionists Kaitlynn Carter, Neeley Cohen, and our newest member, Sopheavy Mao. Our super reliable volunteer staff are Susan Kranz, Community Sunday hostess, emcee, and trouble shooter; and Marge Hobbes, textile curator. My husband, David Blair, and I continue to present school programs with the assistance of volunteers including Anne Stoops, David Morgan and Roselle Weingarten. Thanks to the sponsorship of Monadnock Community Bank and Joseph's Coat PeaceCrafts, we have distributed free reusable family passes to the museum for patrons of 100 school libraries and 50 public libraries, all in Cheshire and Hillsborough Counties! We have realized our dream of bringing the ocean to Peterborough, in our new saltwater aquarium designed with great care by Andy of Paul's Pet and Aquarium Center. We are seeking monthly sponsors for the maintenance cost to keep Nemo, his papa, the anemones and corals, an underwater intoxication you may not find closer than Boston, in good health. Alongside what we had christened "Charlotte's Aquarium," there developed accidentally a small exhibit appropriate for young people and adults about a courageous girl, Charlotte Elmowitz, now a grandmother, who survived the Holocaust as a hidden child in the woods and farmer's root cellars. "Who is Charlotte?" includes a photo of her with her classmates near Lvov Poland in 1938 and an excellent article for young readers in FACES magazine. A friend of the museum, Mrs. Elmowitz recently donated a magnificent gold threaded vintage wedding kimono to the museum, which overhangs the main gallery and performance space, as elegant as Charlotte herself. We also inaugurated exhibits about Nepal/Tibetan Sacred Arts and China: Then and Now. The latter is designed particularly to serve the many immigrant families from Asia and those with adopted Asian children. On our birthday, we received wonderful gifts from our volunteers: a magnificent butterfly birthday cake with cherry antenna from Tammi Vezina and twins Maddelyn and Isabel; birthday books from many generous souls including Christy Greene who remembers us every year; and new Genie and Pinocchio puppets for our puppet corner from Joseph's Coat PeaceCrafts. We honored our corporate sponsors, including those mentioned above plus Judy and Dave DeWitt of Time Frame, Al and Rolande Roy of Roy's Markets, Bill and Liz Littles of Steele's, Dave Belletete of Belletete's Hardware, Deirdre McGrath of Copies & More, Tom and Bev Westheimer of Compucare, Willard Williams of The Toadstool. Our celebration was graced by the presence of our first artist in residence, Segun Olorunfemi and wife Seyi from Ibadan, Nigeria, who conducted sandpainting crafts for children. Vicky Garcia of Manila, The Philippines, brought birthday books in Tagalog for our multilingual children's section. One of the founding board members of Mariposa, Helfried Zrzavy, who wrote our beautiful mission statement, returned to enjoy the Pestle Dance performed by his daughters Mara and Arianna, with Nawyn Meas and David Ros, as part of our Cambodian-American dance performance directed by Samnang Hor of Lowell's Angkor Dance Troupe. A highlight of the happening was Sam's magnificent athletic dancing along with his six Peterborough students in the Monkey Dance {and 21st century breakdancing update}. First grader Johnny Yoeup, Nawyn Meas & Middle Schoolers Danny Meas, David Ros and their friends Cisco Pucciarello and Rhyland performed in the museum's new monkey costumes, complete with tails and masks, direct from Cambodia. Warm applause and laughter accompanied the presentation of certificates, badges or butterfly corsage to our sponsors, donors and volunteers, with an anecdote about the contribution of each one. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to sustain and grow a vision like Mariposa. Last night, the Mariposa community gathered to appreciate each other and celebrate our joint accomplishments in only two years. Thank you, old friends and new. Mariposa is no longer a dream. It is a very part of the weft and warp of life in the Monadnock Region - its crossroads with the world. Please take part in our next community event - Art in August, a silent auction of art, photography, folkart and fine crafts/antiques, August 1-21 in the gallery, with accompanying musical events! Sincerely,  Linda Marsella, Director Mariposa Museum & World Culture Center 26 Main Street Peterborough, NH 03458 "From the Director" Archive New Year Celebrations Around The World - December, 2005 Holiday Message - December, 2005 Miscellaneous - October, 2005 Miscellaneous - September, 2005 Letter of Thanks - August, 2005 Mariposa at the Crossroads - July, 2005 Call for Entries - July 2005 Ark Sets Sail in spring floods! - April 2005 New Year Around the Globe - February 2005 Mariposa Turns Two! - July 2004 other cultures, the world will know more peace and less war. 
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