What We Do
The Chocolate Church Arts Center in historic Bath, Maine, presents world-class visual and performing arts from a landmark venue, and builds community by cultivating the arts for everyone.
Built on the premise that every community should have a place to revel in the arts, this magnificent building has become a home to musicians, actors, community arts productions, and visual artists. We use art and imagination as powerful vehicles to create a sense of community togetherness, health, interdependence, and belonging.
Our historic venue hosts homegrown, regional, and international performances in a 300-seat proscenium theater and an 80-seat attached Annex, which operates as a club-style venue. We activate spaces beyond our walls with waterfront concerts and large-scale community parades. Art Lab hosts space weekly for new and mature artists of all ages to engage with experimentation and creative acts. And the music education program helmed by Dr. Jane Clukey offers high quality lessons for all ages.
History
Completed in 1847 as the Central Church of Bath, the Chocolate Church Arts Center building is a splendid example of the Gothic Revival movement popularized in America during the nineteenth century.
For a time, declining membership in the mid-1960s jeopardized the fate of the Central Church. A young, theatrical designer named Jack Doepp took an interest in the vacant, venerable Central Church. He bought the building from its nonprofit owner and steward, Sagadahoc Preservation, Inc., and formed the Performing Arts Center of Bath. Led by volunteers, the center began presenting concerts and plays for Midcoast Maine audiences. However, no one would refer to this new venture as the "Performing Arts Center of Bath." A fond nickname is what stuck: the Chocolate Church.
The Chocolate Church Arts Center was incorporated and received 501(3)(c) status in 1977. Since then, the Chocolate Church Arts Center has presented visual and performing arts to broad audiences while also preserving and protecting this remarkable, historic structure.
Take a deeper dive into our
architectural history here.
