Theres been a Stampede in New London New Hampshire of Gnus. Not to worry though, these Gnus were invited by the folks of New London, NH with open arms. And there are of the non-wild kind of Gnus. They are helping to keep the Town folks and the small Town its self safe.

If you would like to go to New London and join in on the Theres been a Stampede in New London New Hampshire, you can go to this link to get a walking map showing where to find the friendly Gnus in Town. The link will open up in a new window.Or you can stop in at the New London Chamber of Commerce to pick up a map also. As you fallow the map be sure to stop in at the businesses that you find the Gnus at, and get a stamp. After you have gotten 18 of the 22 stamps, go back to the Chamber of Commerce to get yourself a Gnus of Gnu London pin and be entered for the grand prize, which is dinner for 4 at the Inn at Pleasant Like. Now that sure is a fine grand prize to be entered in for.

The businesses with the stamps are marked inside with a red star. Some of the businesses evern have more than just one stamp. Now this sure does sound like very fun way to do a bit of exploring in the Town of New London.

While being part of the Theres a Stampede in New London New Hampshire, be sure to ask the stampede participants, if they are offering a Gnu special discount.

Would you like to give one of these friendly Gnus a good home, will on the 11 th of October you very will could. All you need to do is go to the Gnu Gala Auction that will be held at the New London Historical Society, Boston Comedian Jim Colliton will be the Auctioneer. And the NYC’s Famed Tavern on the green will be catering and theres going to be dancing in the barn after the auction.

Tickets for the auction will be available after the 15th of August, for only $125.00 each. And the tickets are going to be limited to only 200 folks.

The money that is raised from the auction of the Theres been a Stampede in New London New Hampshire, will be going to the New London area Center for the Arts, this is a non-profit which brings arts programming and workshops to the New London area.

High on a hill was a colorful gnu herd … 27 gnus, to be exact, and eight of them turn out to be members of the extended Colby-Sawyer family.

In nature, gnus, or wildebeests, are categorized as one of two species – blue or black – but on May 30, 2009, a herd of them charged into town, sporting every color imaginable as part of the community-based art project Gnus of Gnu London. Conceived over a year ago as a fund-raiser for the Kearsarge Community Center (KCC) by New London Inn owner Bridget LeRoy, the gnus were sponsored by businesses and individuals, and painted by local artists including Colby-Sawyer students and alumnae Alison Vernon ’90 and Annie Ballin ’82. They will be on display through October 1 and auctioned on October 11 to raise additional funds for the KCC.

Colby-Sawyer alum Alison Vernon ’90 painted two gnus, including this ‘Gnu with a View’ for the Inn at Pleasant Lake.

Colby-Sawyer President Tom Galligan and his wife, Susan, sponsored a gnu that is home on the range of the college’s front lawn. Painted by students in Assistant Professor of Fine and Performing Arts Rebekah Tolley’s printmaking class, the gnu is an expression of independence versus prescription, freedom versus tradition and ritual.

“Susan and I got excited about the project when we heard about it because we thought it would be a lot of fun for the town, and we really wanted to support the community center,” says President Galligan. “We also thought it would be exciting for our students to do the design and art work since they have gnu and fresh ideas. We could not be more pleased with the result; I love looking out my office window and seeing our gnu.”

Professor Loretta Barnett, chair of the Fine and Performing Arts department, describes the creation process for the Colby-Sawyer gnu: “The gnu was first incised with rotary and engraving tools to create a carved design on the surface much like a traditional copperplate engraving, and then coats of acrylic paint were applied in an expressionist style. The gnu was then masked and spray-painted to expose under painting in place, which creates a sense of ambiguous space, and the gnu begins to float.”

The Galligans love what the students did with the gnu. “Everything about it is great – it would take pages to egnumerate all its positive qualities,” enthuses President Galligan. “The colors and the golden horns give it a mythological look – ours is no gnu-age gnu but a timeless gnu, a sun and fire gnu, rather than a gnuclear age gnu. People ask me what it’s name is – Gnucomb? Gnuberry? Gnute? – and I tell them we haven’t decided yet. Susan and I also like gnudling around town to look at all the other gnus.”

The variety and creativity of all the gnus makes walking the town a special treat these days. It’s clear that some gnus are painted with a theme directly related to its sponsor, but the Colby-Sawyer gnu was a blank canvas that the students were free to make completely their own.

“Tom and Susan gave us no parameters on their gnu and trusted us completely,” says Professor Barnett. “We appreciate their confidence, and especially their confidence in our students’ abilities to think critically and creatively. The students did an amazing job and worked on the project with any chunks of time they could find between their Student Exhibition, Scholar’s Day Presentations and their Senior Exhibition. The project came at a very busy time for our students, but they were committed and followed through.”

John DeGray graduated from Colby-Sawyer this May with a B.F.A. in Graphic Design and painted ‘Cowmunication’ for Echo Communications. He completed his internship at Dorling Kindersley in London, England, where he designed a children’s book and served on the design team in charge of the DC Comics Encyclopedia and the James Bond Encyclopedia.

From her office in Colgate Hall, Tracey Perkins, director of Admission Counseling, has a clear view of the gnu and says, “We love having the gnu outside our window to gaze at on the front lawn – he is like our personal pet now and we feel he is a great addition to campus. With the entire town of New London supporting the project, it is great that we get to be a part of it.”

A gnu painted by graphic design major John DeGray ’09, called “Cowmunication” and sponsored by Echo Communications, is staked out on Pleasant Street. DeGray’s black gnu with under colors of red orange and blue features dots and rings. Professor Barnett says that DeGray’s favorite quote, from the movie “Forrest Gump,” is “Simple is as simple does,” and says of the artist’s style, “John’s graphic design philosophy comes from a grounding in the history of graphic design and his study of such artists as Ian Tschichold and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy. John does not feel that unnecessary decoration on a page is helpful and that a good design can be busy and simple at the same time.”

Alison Vernon ’90 painted “My Gnu Secret Garden” for Tracy Memorial Library and “A Gnu with a View” for The Inn at Pleasant Lake. Looking out over the lake toward Mt. Kearsarge, the inn’s gnu enjoys an idyllic location and features a day scene of the view on one side, and a night scene on the other that evokes the song Kate Smith made famous in the 1930s, “When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain,” reportedly written at the inn.

Colby-Sawyer alum Annie Ballin ’82 is the executive director of the KCC and painted three gnus, including ‘Peace Gnu’.

Vernon moved to New London in 1982 and started painting after the birth of her three children. Her use of palette knives in combination with vibrant colors and fresh subject matter has made Vernon a favorite of private as well as corporate collectors.

Annie Ballin ’82 is the executive director of the KCC and painted three gnus. Sponsored by Mark Loehr, “Gnucleus” stands outside the Chamber of Commerce Information Booth; the New London Agency’s “Peace Gnu” features John Lennon-style glasses and the lyrics to his song “Imagine,” and the “Love Gnu,” sponsored by the Friends of the New London Shopping Plaza and located near the entrance to MacKenna’s Family Restaurant.

Adjunct Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Education Hilary Cleveland co-sponsored “Sir Isaac Gnuton,” a wigged beast painted by the English artist Jane Prophet that is suspended from a Main Street maple tree and weighted by, of course, a giant apple. Prophet’s work includes large-scale installations, digital prints and objects. Her art has been shown all over the world and reflects her interest in science, technology and landscape.

Renowned installation artist Jane Prophet painted ‘Sir Isaac Gnuton,’ sponsored by Adjunct Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Education Hilary Cleveland, David Cleveland and Robert Jensen.

Visitors and residents alike have a couple more months to enjoy the Gnus of Gnu London. Stop by the Chamber of Commerce Information Booth to pick up a walking map of the gnus’ locations. Collect 18 of 22 possible stamps along the stampede trail, and return to the chamber office for a free gift. You’ll be entered to win the grand prize of dinner for four at the Inn at Pleasant Lake, and you certainly don’t have to be a gnu to enjoy that view.

A herd of gnus is invading sedate New London. There’s no need to fear though – these gnus are of the artistic, creative, and non-wild kind, and they will be keeping the sidewalks of the small town safe until they are auctioned off in October. Monies raised will benefit the planned Kearsarge Community Center, slated to open in the fall.

The concept is not a new one — Many towns throughout the country have had cows on display – but this may be the first time that gnus are given the run of a community. “Gnus of New London” just had a certain ring, says Bridget Leroy, who dreamed up the project more than a year ago.

Technically, the animal’s name is pronounced Ga-new, but it seems easy enough for the town to – temporarily, anyway – think of itself as Ga-New London. The gnu is also known as a wildebeest, but really, wildebeest is not a name that lends itself to easy rhyme or alliteration. And so The Gnus of New London were born.

“I am very happy to be behind this project – I am not on the board of the Kearsarge Community Center – but I thought of this on Valentine’s Day last year and it’s really fun,” said LeRoy, who owns the New London Inn with her husband Eric Johnson. “By now, though, honestly, I am a just a little over all the plays on words with the word gnu!”

There are 27 gnus in all set to invade the streets of New London this weekend – a preview party last weekend brought in over 150 visitors to see the full herd for the fist time. From now until October, the gnus will greet visitors and possibly protect townspeople from predator attacks at businesses around town who have sponsored the gnus. Come October, a gala auction will take place at the New London Historical Society, at a benefit hosted by Boston comedian Jim Colliton.

“The auction will run something like a real cow auction, only a little more upscale – it’ll be barbecue, but barbecue done by a James Beard-trained chef,” said LeRoy, who works hard to mix the highbrow with the ridiculous.

LeRoy knows a bit about getting news out the public and publicity – she is a former New York Times reporter and founded the East Hampton Independent News in New York before settling in New London with her family in 2004.

Once she had the gnu idea stuck in her head, LeRoy quickly focused on the planned community center as a beneficiary for her project. Then she set out to draw artists and sponsors into this Gnu World.

“We were lucky because we had all of our sponsors lined up last year before the bottom fell out of the economy,” LeRoy said. “The support out there has been tremendous and ongoing.”

All artists were given a basic, plain white gnu mold to build on. From there, artists had the freedom to create whatever whimsical form of Gnu Animal they wished. The result is a mix of the beautiful and the absurd, the colorful and the earnest. Almost all feature those never-get-old gnu-puns.

Jan Marvel’s work “High Gnoon” offers a western theme, based on the movie of the almost same name, showing four gunfighters riding into town. Jane Prophet’s “Isaac Gnuton” offers a plethora of apples. Margaret Dwyer’s “New Hampshire Quilted Sampler” – she chose to stick with the traditional spelling of ‘New’ – offers a gnu covered in different squares of quilting patterns. And Annie Ballin’s “Peace Gnu” is a simple and compelling blue-themed gnu, with the lyrics of John Lennon’s “Imagine” printed along with several peace doves.

Two well-known artists were invited to participate in the Gnu Show: local children’s author and legend Tomie dePaola, and Tony Walton, the celebrated, award-winning Broadway and motion picture designer who happens to be LeRoy’s father-in-law. Each work is expected to bring in big money come Gnu Auction time.

LeRoy said that as she started her project, nobody was clear on what a gnu looked like. She said she reminded folks that it was the wildebeest stampede that caused the death of Mustafa in The Lion King. Real wildebeests are slightly less cuddly than the gnus of New London, who do not have the mane of hair along the chin or head. Still, the invasion of wild gnus was a little hard on her own family, who stored the painted gnus at their house as they were finished.

Come join the stampede! 27 painted Gnus will adorn the businesses around New London this Spring and Summer.  The Inn at Pleasant Lake has sponsored a gnu entitled Gnu with a View painted by renowned local oil painter, Alison Vernon of Little Brook Gallery in New London. Visit the YouTube video of Alison Vernon painting Gnu with a View this past February.

Saturday, May 30, 2009 through October 2, 2009 ~ Gnus of Gnu London Stampede: Join the stampede! Get a passport and map of the locations of the decorated gnus (wildebeests) from the Chamber of Commerce Booth on Main Street.  Visit participating locations and collect 18 of the 22 stamps, then return to the Chamber office and receive a free gnu button and sign up to be entered for the grand prize. Some business will be offering a special while your getting your passport stamped at their business.  Plus if you get 18 or more stamps you may enter into a drawing to win the grand prize to be drawn in October, 2009…. a five-course dinner for 4 at the fabulous New London restaurant, The Inn at Pleasant Lake!Have fun, learn about art and never, ever again wonder….”What’s a Gnu???”

Benefit project for the community of New London, NH.

Proceeds to benefit transforming the historic New London Middle School into a community center.  Gnus painted by local artists – to be placed in stores all over town!  To generate business in New London, create community.

May 24th kickoff party at the New London Inn, Main Street, in New London, NH!  It will be the first public viewing of all the newly-painted gnus!  Also, the only time the gnus will be all together – great photo and video op! Come one, come all!