Confederation Centre of the Arts (french: Centre des arts de la Confédération) is a cultural centre dedicated to the

visual The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight (the ...

and

performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

located in the city of

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlottetown was an unincorporated town until it was incorporated as a city in 1 ...

, Canada.

History

Construction of Confederation Centre, as it is commonly referred to, started in 1960 and

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

officially opened it to the public on October 6, 1964. The institution was originally built with funding by the ten provincial governments in Canada and the federal government as Canada's National Memorial to the

Fathers of Confederation The Fathers of Confederation are the 36 people who attended at least one of the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 (23 attendees), the Quebec Conference of 1864 (33 attendees), and the London Conference of 1866 (16 attendees), preceding Canadian ...

, who met in Charlottetown in September 1864 at what was called the

Charlottetown Conference The Charlottetown Conference (Canada's Conference) was held in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island for representatives from colonies of British North America to discuss Canadian Confederation. The conference took place between September 1 thro ...

. Today its operations are 65% self-funded through ticket sales, memberships, donations, and sponsorships; 25% funded from Canadian Heritage; 6% funded from the Province of PEI; and 4% from other annual granting bodies. The centre has played host to the

Charlottetown Festival The Charlottetown Festival is a seasonal Canadian musical theatre festival which runs from late May to mid-October every year since 1965. Named after its host city Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and its Charlottetown Conference, since its inc ...

every summer since 1965, although there was no 2020 Charlottetown Festival due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. It holds the Guinness World Record for the longest running annual musical theatre production, '' Anne of Green Gables — The Musical'', performed every summer from 1965 until 2019. Hundreds of other productions have been featured. The centre was designated a

National Historic Sites of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...

in 2003. In 2011 the mainstage Homburg Theatre underwent a $17-million renovation to improve acoustics, seating, lighting, and rigging. The project was completed in time for the centre's 50th anniversary in 2014.

Architecture

Confederation Centre was built on Queen's Square in the centre of Charlottetown's business district, immediately west of Province House, Prince Edward Island's legislature and the location of the Charlottetown Conference. The centre is one contiguous structure, however at street level it appears as three separate buildings (hosting a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

and

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

) clustered around "Memorial Hall" which faces east toward Province House. The Confederation Chambre in Province House, where the conference meetings took place, is located on the western side of that building, thus facing directly at Confederation Centre's Memorial Hall. Confederation Centre covers a block in the central business district, bounded on three sides by Grafton Street, Queen Street, and Richmond Street. The structure houses an art museum, and several

venues.

Art museum

Confederation Centre of the Arts, Charlottetown, PEI (89691512)

Opened at the same time as the rest of the structure, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery is an art museum in the northeast pavilion of the Confederation Centre of the Arts. The art gallery pavilion is housed in a three-storey structure, that includes over of exhibition space. As of June 2017, it held over 17,000 works in its permanent collection.

Theatres

The Confederation Centre of the Arts includes a number of venues for the

. These include a 1,109 seat mainstage theatre, the largest theatre mainstage in Canada east of Montreal; and two

studio theatre A black box theater is a simple performance space, typically a square room with black walls and a flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interaction. The black ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Confederation Centre Of The Arts Culture of Charlottetown Buildings and structures in Charlottetown Art museums and galleries in Prince Edward Island Theatres in Prince Edward Island Public libraries in Prince Edward Island Arts centres in Canada Brutalist architecture in Canada National Historic Sites in Prince Edward Island Music venues in Prince Edward Island Performing arts centres in Canada Arcop buildings Government buildings completed in 1964