One of the great thing about living on the Seacoast over the last few years is that it has become a haven for all sorts of new art forms. First theater, then film and now photography shows are popping their heads up, taking their rightful places in a community filled with people who choose to express themselves through art.

The Seacoast Winter Arts Exhibition took a lot of work from a lot of people. According to playwright Jacquelyn Benson, it was the brain child of Heather Bourbeau, proprietor of Ocean Boulevard Photography and employee of Exeter’s Burlingame Gallery.

“I’m sure there have been art shows, but this was a first for all of us as a group,” says Benson, who has collaborated with Bourbeau on several projects, including this year’s incredible “Interference,” the psychological thriller that had fans lining up at the Players’ Ring door in October.

At the first meeting of the new art collective, Benson said, the owners of Burlingame said they would love to have a show of work by new local artists before Christmas. There was just one tiny little glitch—it left the organizers and artists only two weeks to pull it off.

As it turns out, two weeks was just enough time.

Held at the Burlingame Gallery, at 111 Water St. in Exeter, on Monday, Dec. 17, the exhibit wasn’t just an alternative to tired old holiday doings—it went over better than either of the art directors could have hoped for.

“I think what made this event really exciting comes right back to what makes the notion behind the collective so exciting,” Benson said enthusiastically. “When you get a whole bunch of creative people in a room, amazing things start to happen. There’s a lot of cross-fertilization,” she laughed.

One of the most thrilling things about the exhibition was the diversification of the art on display.
“We had such a variety of art forms being displayed at the show,” Benson said, “from oil paintings to watercolors to assemblage pieces, photography and driftwood sculptures.”

That is one serious smorgasbord of artistic expression. And, best of all, it accomplished just what art exhibitions are supposed to: people might have come to see one thing, but they saw a whole lot more, and stayed longer than expected.
“All the work was absolutely unique,” Benson revealed. “Given that the show was put together in only two weeks, most of the pieces being displayed had already been made by the artists long before the notion of the show even surfaced. But, the notion of getting such an eclectic group of people to work around a common theme is a really exciting one that I hope we get to explore with future events.”

Featured artists at the show included Benson, Bourbeau, Amanda Jones, Sara Argue, Matt Ganotis and Neil Collins, who just returned from New York, where he got his master’s in fine art. The work was eclectic, to say the least, and made statements of all kinds in various forms and manners.

“Neil Collins has just finished his master’s degree in fine art and has been painting and showing work for years. Amanda Jones and Sara Argue have both been making a name for themselves around the Seacoast over the last year or two, with shows in Seabrook, Portsmouth and Dover. But this was my first show, and I think only the second show for photographer Heather Bourbeau. So there was a nice mix of more established and newer artists,” Benson said.
Best of all was the positive response from the public.

“Public reaction—at least from the people I talked to who were there—was very enthusiastic,” Benson said. “I think people are excited to learn about how much creative activity is actually taking place in our area. I know it really blows me away, how many talented, original people I’ve encountered living here on the Seacoast.”

Asked if, after the smashing success of the first exhibit, there is a Seacoast Summer Arts Exhibition in the works, Benson responded with a resounding “ABSOLUTELY!!”

Anyone with questions or further interest in futures show should contact Heather Bourbeau at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it