By By Noah Diedrich Sentinel Staff

Copyright keenesentinel

PETERBOROUGH — Tucked under Steele’s Stationers in Peterborough is a new spot for local artists to showcase and sell their work.

Behind the cerulean door, art aficionados and neophytes alike will find the Blue Fern Artists Collective Gallery, a three-room exhibition space that features the works of artists who live and work in the Monadnock Region.

The gallery at 40B Main St. held its grand opening on Sept. 9.

“Promoting local art is key to our mission,” board member Deb Caplan said of the group. “We’ve really created a little gem here.”

The group is a New Hampshire nonprofit, and is working to gain federal nonprofit status, Caplan said.

Caplan and fellow board member Sue Ann Hum, both of whom are professional artists, said the organization is an exercise in collectivism. Hum is a painter, while Caplan draws and creates clay sculptures.

The gallery is a project a year-and-a-half in the making, Caplan said. She conferred with local artist Pelagia Vincent, and attended an eight-week Hannah Grimes Business Lab workshop in Keene to prepare for starting the collective.

She also sought advice from the Harmony Gallery in Brattleboro she said. Eventually, about 20 artists came together to form the collective.

The artists in the collective work in all manners of media, Hum said. They are painters, sculptors and photographers. They woodwork, draw and use digital platforms to create. Some use less conventional forms, like felt or found materials to make something unique.

As part of the admittance process into the collective, each artist pays a buy-in fee of $250 and monthly dues of $85 — which go towards overhead and event funds — and sits in at the gallery once a month.

Most galleries ask anywhere for 30 to 50 percent of an artist’s take from a purchase, Caplan said. At Blue Fern, the gallery only asks for just under 20 percent, leaving the majority for the artists themselves.

The group already has a waiting list for collective members, Caplan said.

The name “Blue Fern” relates to the plant that populates much of New Hampshire’s natural areas, combined with the color the group thought was snappy, the two board members said. It’s the product of months of discussion and the last of 25 to 30 monikers that were in consideration.

The botanical title is a perfect fit, Caplan said. A single frond on its own is something to marvel, but it is more beautiful when each frond is considered as part of the whole fern.

The community of the collective has creative benefits, according to Hum.

“Artists feed off other artists,” she said. “Every artist has work in every room [of the gallery].”

Blue Fern also partners with MAXT Makerspace, a creative studio in Peterborough, a bond that includes MAXT having artists featured at the gallery for a period of time, Hum said.

“We’re trying to offer not only a variety of styles, but a variety of price points,”’ Caplan said of the displays inside the gallery.

The gallery features sculptures that go for $1,500, and stickers that go for $5.

“We’d like people to think of us as a source for unique gifts,” Hum said. “They’re always going to find something different.”

The artists are also available for commissioned pieces, the founders said.

The gallery is looking to host events for the community in the coming months, such as pumpkin painting or art history lectures in the gallery spaces, Caplan said.

Blue Fern is now open four days a week, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays.