03/10/2021
It is with growing optimism and gratitude that PopUp NH believes it is appropriate to withdraw our proposal for a 2021 season. We wholeheartedly look forward to performances at other venues this season, everyone getting vaccinated, and for Portsmouth to come roaring back better than ever.
According to the Americans for the Arts, economic impact of the nonprofit & culture industry calculator, our socially distanced outdoor performance venue alone pumped $292,697 into the local economy in 2020, which is a six-fold return on the $47,370 that the City directly invested into infrastructure for us to operate last season. In anticipation of the coronavirus not relenting and to avoid any unfortunate mishaps by our elected leaders, we applied to the IRS to become a 501(c)(3) and to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office to be able to accept tax deductible donations without a Fiscal Agent. We then submitted to the City Council an initial proposal for a second season, that was then further refined based off solicited feedback from surrounding businesses, our beloved arts organizations, and the City Council’s priorities.
Several arts organizations said a 200 plus socially-distanced outdoor performance venue would be beneficial. Therefore, PopUp 2.0 proposed to be just that in three quarters of the Worth Lot when operational. Our stage would have been built over the Vaughn Mall’s brick stage and we would have brought back just two sheds. One for catered drinks and one for audio visual operations. All dining would have been takeout run from downtown restaurants. Handicap parking, reserved parking, and curbside pickup parking would have been consolidated at the Maplewood entrance and always remained open. Our tables, chairs, and metal barricades would have been stored alongside our two sheds in the fourteen parking spaces in front of the Whalin Wall. This would have allowed for deliveries to the businesses, access to the dumpsters, and for the remainder of the lot to remain open for parking.
We planned on offering all of Portsmouth’s fifteen to twenty arts and non-profits organizations the ability to use our stage a minimum of twice each, meaning our venue would have operated once to twice a week. However, many of these organizations are understandably intensely focused on their upcoming seasons at their own venues. Portsmouth will not only see the return of the Music Hall’s Live Under the Arch Series and 3S Artspace’s Loading Dock Series in 2021, but Strawbery Bank will be bringing back Tuesdays on the Terrace, PMAC is erecting their own tented outdoor performance venue, and Pro Portsmouth is planning their Summer in the Street series. But what I am personally most excited for, after the Health Department develops phased benchmarks for social-distancing requirements, is the highly anticipated return of the Prescott Park Arts Festival and possibly further collaboration with a reopened Press Room! Please let us know if any such organization could use a shed built to code or kitchen equipment.
Additional measures to make Portsmouth an outdoor city would be to everyone’s benefit this season and our elected leaders should ensure planning is underway to make our progress permanent. Not only would Café Mediterraneo, the Friendly Toast, and La Maison Navarre significantly benefit from outdoor dining on Congress Street, but so many of our downtown streets could be closed to non-emergency vehicular traffic to everyone's benefit after certain hours, and many ideas from the Portsmouth Design Professionals Alliance were never incorporated this past season. Further, the redesigned Cabot House will yield a multi-directional stage in the Vaughn Mall, bringing Portsmouth closer to having a Worth Plaza between a refurbished Vaughn Mall and repurposed Bridge Street Park. Imagine stepping out from the glass atrium behind Jimmy’s on Congress into a vibrant plaza after a phenomenal jazz show.
We hope to see you at any one of Portsmouth’s upcoming outdoor performances this season. Help Portsmouth come roaring back better by getting vaccinated the first opportunity you get, continuing to wear a mask, and remaining socially distanced until everyone else gets vaccinated!
Josh Denton, President, Board of Directors, PopUp NH, submitted this Guest View on behalf of the board.
It is with growing optimism and gratitude that PopUp NH believes it is appropriate to withdraw our proposal for a 2021 season.
