About us:
Eastport was the cultural center for the area during the 1800s and early 1900s. Professional performers from Boston and New York as well as amateurs, made theater, operas, and musical performances commonplace here. In the late twenties and thirties, George Pierce Ennis ran a summer branch of his famous New York City Grand Central School of Art in Eastport.
After a long period of economic struggle for this historic sea coast community, that cultural tradition has re-established itself. In 1985, a small group of local artists opened a gallery in downtown Eastport, occasionally offering concerts and films. Artists, both visual and performing, began to move to town, and in 1990, Stage East's community theater was born. Artists and people wishing to live in a culturally rich community continued to make Eastport their home, and the Eastport Arts Center was incorporated as an umbrella organization for these and other newly forming and innovative programs.
In early 2005, the Eastport Arts Center purchased a permanent home, an 1837 church, formerly known as the Washington Street Baptist Church. Its 9,200 square feet houses six of the nine constituent arts organizations as well as space for community use. With great excitement, we at the Arts Center feel that we have embarked upon a venture that will provide a place where the arts can flourish and continue to enrich the lives of individuals and our community.
