At first look, “The Fierce Females Project,” a sharp, concentrated installation of portraits by the Sharon artist Finnie Trimpi that went on view Tuesday at Artistree Gallery in South Pomfret, reads like its exterior, a grid of small square frames painted a metallic gold.

A viewer has to really peer inside those frames, which seems odd for a show with “fierce” in its name. But it makes sense that a show like this should test a viewer’s powers of observation. It stands in for a question that loomed over me, a middle-aged man, as I looked at this pop-up show: Why, as a culture, do we require women to declare that they’re fierce? (My fellow men, that’s a question for you to consider.)

Trimpi, 47, made this show with women in mind. “The idea came to me in November, after the election, when I was just feeling personally devastated,” she said in a phone interview Wednesday. She listened to an interview with a woman who’d been active in protests after the 2016 election and took away from it “that we still have a lot in us,” and that it was time to recharge before getting back to work.

“We need to go back inside and find our own strength before we help others,” Trimpi said. That strength is something women often overlook in themselves, and she wanted to celebrate it, and to bring women together.

She started with a self-portrait, taken from a selfie that she reduced to its outlines, transferred to a piece of paper and then washed it with watercolor and painted the space around the figure. In all the portraits, the women’s lips are painted red, a nod to the Suffragettes of the 1920s and away from the Third Reich’s feminine ideal of housebound, submissive women.

Sewn to the portraits are garlands of dried grasses, flowers, seed pods and berries that Trimpi gathered on hikes, most of them local.

The portraits themselves seem more friendly than fierce. Three consecutive portraits, Nos. 37-39, feature young women in alpine ski gear.

Some are exuberant: No. 24, a woman identified in the show’s guidebook as “Bonnie,” holds her arms aloft in front of a CircleK mini-mart. The guidebook tells her story: “I am fierce because my mom just passed away and I took care of her or 14 years with cancer. I am just existing every day and getting up every day and surviving. So here I am!”

Why, a viewer might ask, must one feel fierce in America just to get up and get through the day? There’s something wrong here. Or maybe fierceness is more quotidian than it seems.

Two portraits next to each other present a great counterpoint: Hope Yeager said, “There is a strength blooming inside of me. I can feel it run down my spine and out my toes.” Her portrait neighbor, Christina, said, “I’m just fn’ scrappy.” Amen to that.

Trimpi debuted her project in Reading, Vt., on International Women’s Day, March 8, and many of the women who saw it that day were moved to declare their own fierceness. So the project might extend beyond the Artistree show, which is on view through April 5. Though she has no specific plans, as more women come forward, Trimpi plans to keep painting.

“The Fierce Females Project” is on view through April 5 at Artistree Gallery in South Pomfret. A reception for the gallery’s annual mud season show and for “Fierce Females,” is scheduled for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 14. For more information, go to artistreevt.org.

Cultural wealth

The model for this column has long been to find a primary event to write about and then add a few other, or many other noteworthy events. Sometimes, though, the profusion of events is such that it’s hard to create that hierarchical structure. So, in no particular order, here’s a list that gets at the wealth, the riches, of the Upper Valley’s cultural output.

■Northern Stage opens its production of “Waitress” with previews on March 13 and 14 and opening night on March 15. Tickets for the previews are a bargain, particularly for March 13, which is a “pay what you can” deal. A movie turned into a hit Broadway musical, “Waitress” features songs by Sara Bareilles and a storyline that gets at the country’s class pressures, particularly as they affect women. For tickets, go to northernstage.org or call 802-296-7000.

■Also in White River Junction, Two Rivers Printmaking Studio shows work by a longtime member and former manager Sheri Hancock. “Home” features recent prints by the Nova Scotia native. A reception is planned for the evening of April 4, and Hancock will teach a solarplate printmaking workshop on April 6. For more information, go to tworiversprintmakingstudio.org or call 802-295-5901.

■A couple of prominent local artists have shows outside the area that would be worth the drive.

Bunny Harvey, who has spent a big chunk of each year in the White River Valley since childhood, has a show of recent landscape paintings at Burlington City Arts, through May 24. “Worlds Within Worlds” comprises paintings that express qualities visual art seldom accounts for. Harvey gives a talk about her work from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on May 8.

And Stephen Gorman, the Norwich-based photographer and writer, has a show of photographs on view at Anderson Yezerski Gallery in Boston through March 22. Gorman focuses on far-flung places, in this case Greenland. The show’s title says it all: “Not for Sale.”

■Matt Brown Fine Art in Lyme starts a series of monthly events with a talk from 1 to 3 Saturday afternoon, March 15, about how art can help steady us in uncertain times, with artists Todd Binzen, Maureen Burford, Matt Brown and Jennifer Brown.

■Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph hosts Ethan Setiawan & Fine Ground, a bluegrass quintet, on Friday evening at 7. The band also will hold a workshop for musicians from 5 to 6. Tickets are $10-$40, or “pay what you can,” and while the show is planned for the Chandler’s intimate Esther Mesh Room, it will move to the main hall if it sells out of that space. For tickets and information go to chandler-arts.org or 802-728-9878 x104.

■Anonymous Coffeehouse goes Celtic on Friday evening, in anticipation of St. Patrick’s Day. The Northeast Kingdom quintet Fifth Business gets the ball rolling, followed by the family trio Footworks. If You Must Know, the wife-husband duo of Rachel Clemente and Dan Houghton rounds out the free night of music (and baked goods), which starts at 7:30 at Lebanon’s First Congregational Church.

Alex Hanson can be reached at ahanson@vnews.com or 603-727-3207.