When you walk into Pam Bartlett’s studio in Loudon, you’re greeted by an explosion of color.
The shelves of her basement-turned-workshop are piled with fabric she's hand-dyed all shades of the rainbow, like a textile version of a hardware store’s paint swatch rack.
These threads are a key ingredient to Bartlett’s craft: rug hooking.
The tradition became popular in the 1800s. Back then, people were getting scrappy — literally. To keep drafty farmhouses warm, they’d use old grain bags, cloth scraps and bent pieces of metal to create rugs.
Since 1983, Bartlett has relied on traditional arts apprenticeship funds from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts to pass the craft of rug hooking onto new generations. Those modest grants have allowed her to mentor local artists, some of whom have gone on to train others.
The state arts council has also helped to amplify her artistry – and supplement her income – in other ways. They’ve put her in contact with libraries and museums to run community workshops and showcase her rugs.
“As my father famously once said, ‘Artists don’t make any money.’ Well, they can, if they have the right training and they have the right opportunities,” Bartlett said.
Last year, Bartlett was one of 17 artisans to receive funding through the state's folk art apprenticeship program. But now, that funding is on hold, after state lawmakers cut the arts council's budget from about $1.4 million to $150,000 for the next two years.
Commissioner Sarah Stewart leads the state agency that oversees the arts council, the New Hampshire Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. She spoke out against the funding cuts, but the Legislature and the governor were the final authority.
Now, Stewart says there's not enough money to keep the folk arts apprenticeships going.
“Fly-fishing, canoe-building, basket-weaving…just, you know, the real traditional skills that need to be passed down generation to generation that aren’t accomplished by reading a book or trying to learn this on our own,” Stewart explained.
Stewart said the program isn’t important because of how many artists get trained or the number of crafts that get produced, but because of the way that it cultivates an appreciation for — and preservation of — the state’s cultural heritage.
“A thousand dollars here, nine hundred dollars there, might not seem important to the overall budget in New Hampshire," she said. "But it accomplishes so much more value than the dollar figure."
Back in Loudon, Bartlett cautioned that the loss of state support doesn't just affect the livelihood of individual artists.
“It’s not just me, it’s who I buy from,” Bartlett said. “Wool is the primary fabric that we use in materials – that comes from a store in New Hampshire. So it’s not just one little thing, it all spiderwebs out.”
To Bartlett, rug hooking is more than a source of income. She described it as 10% crafting, and 90% therapy.
“I had a son with disabilities, so when he came along, I had to stay home,” Bartlett recounted. “So I waitressed at night and took care of him during the day and did hooking so I wouldn’t lose my mind.”
With the future of the arts in New Hampshire up in the air, Bartlett plans on coping the way she always has: with hook in hand.
