Home 2020
The Eastport Arts Center (EAC) nurtures and promotes six year-round constituent groups engaged in theater, art, music, film, education and community outreach. The EAC is available for rental and serves as our region’s premiere venue for an array of special events and visiting artists and performers. Our mission: “To stimulate and nurture an appreciation of the visual and performing arts and the creative process, and to provide a home and an environment within the community where they can prosper.”
Please note: the Arts Center building is currently closed to the public until we find that it is safe to resume sponsoring social gatherings for our patrons. In the meanwhile, we present an array of online events, exhibitions and activities to continue to provide a place where creativity and community meet, for our Washington County community and beyond.
Learn more about the EAC here.
Do you like what we’re doing? We depend on contributions from our community and patrons to help keep the Arts Center open. Please consider showing your support by donating, or get involved by volunteering.
EAC VIDEO PRESENTS (Check out our videos here!)
Whether brand new or ‘from the vault’ we present here a collection of videos for your enjoyment—musical offerings, including Quoddy Voices virtual choir pieces and Eastport Gallery’s ‘Music on the Deck’; PBSO’s ‘Get to Know Us’ series; KinderArts Craft along workshops; our Virtual Concert & Keyboard Talk; EAC Video’s … [Read More]
Upcoming Events
Mindfulness & Yoga with Lilli
Lilli Danaea, RYT, will offer a Thursday morning class—Mindfulness & Yoga—via Zoom, from 9 to 10 am. Fee is by sliding scale; no one will be turned away for lack of funds. For more information or for the link to join the class, please contact Lilli at lillireally@gmail.com.
Mindfulness & Yoga with Lilli
Lilli Danaea, RYT, will offer a Friday morning class—Mindfulness & Yoga—via Zoom, from 9 to 10 am. Fee is by sliding scale; no one will be turned away for lack of funds. For more information or for the link to join the class, please contact Lilli at lillireally@gmail.com.
Gentle Flow Yoga with Katie
Katie Wilson, leader of EAC’s Gentle Flow Yoga, has brought her weekly session online at her usual time—Saturdays from 8:30-9:30 am. Please contact Katie—anchorandbalanceyoga@gmail.com—for information about how to participate.
Drumming with Noel Brennan
Expanding EAC’s online education to include music, the center will offer a free four-week Drumming class for teens and adults on Mondays, May 3, 10, 17 and 24, from 7:30-8:30 pm, with Noel Brennan. Originally from Robbinston, and currently Program Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Brooklyn Conservatory, Brennan has … [Read More]
Mindfulness & Yoga with Lilli
Lilli Danaea, RYT, will offer her usual Tuesday morning class—Mindfulness & Yoga—via Zoom, from 8:30 to 9:30 am. Fee is by sliding scale; no one will be turned away for lack of funds. For more information or for the link to join the class, please contact Lilli at lillireally@gmail.com.
Portrait Drawing Group
EAC’s drawing group, led by Anne Hopkins, has moved online! For portrait Wednesdays, participating artists take turns holding 5-20 minute poses for each other. Each artist—whether amateur or experienced—will have a turn to draw. The group would be interested in having a musician to participate by performing for the artists … [Read More]
EAC News & Recent Activities
Covid Creations Online Exhibition Unveiled
The much anticipated Covid Creations exhibition, a project of EAC’s Washington Street Gallery, has arrived! Please click here to visit the show. “Being laid off shook my habit of returning to the same few locations. They satisfied me plenty, but exploring was no longer a “waste” of precious painting … [Read More]
May’s Craft-along Served Up Alongside Slice of EAC History
Our KinderArts workshop series continues this week with ‘May Flowers’, an EAC Video Craft-along with Nia. In this month’s video, instructor Nia Aretakis demonstrates simple techniques for creating blossom-inspired prints from everyday household items: Q-tips and paper tubes. The video also features original music by John Cashore, a guitar, … [Read More]
April Break Campers Create Upcycled Art in Video Recap
Children from Calais, Eastport, Perry and Whiting took part in EAC’s Earth Day-themed April Vacation Arts Camp led by talented art teacher Devon McPhee. The first project used upcycled materials to create a pencil cup with a collaged-on sunlit forest scene. Next, campers created 8-sided mandala drawings with more … [Read More]
Skriletz Celebrated with Return to ‘In Person’ Theater
On Saturday, May 1, Stage East and Indivisible Washington County celebrated the life of Jay Skriletz through a staged reading of his play, Houdini’s Secret. The event was part memorial and part fundraiser for the new Jay Skriletz Scholarship Fund, which will support youth and young adults interested in … [Read More]
Eastport Gallery Calls for Artists for Annual Community Show
The Eastport Gallery will open for the summer season on June 5 with the annual Community Show. This year, the show will be presented both live in the gallery on Water Street and online in the virtual gallery. Artists near and far may submit work online no later than May 28, … [Read More]
Poetry Night a Bright Spot in the Zoom Landscape
For the EAC community, April 30 was a night filled with poetry readings. Local poets Catherine Lee, Jnana Hodson, Valerie Lawson, Michael Brown, Loretta Boyer McClellan and Debra Baldwin were joined by Portland’s poet laureate Linda Aldrich and interested listeners in a festive end to National Poetry Month, revised … [Read More]
Eastport Gallery Welcomes Back JoAnne Houlsen
The Eastport Gallery welcomes back an old friend as it looks ahead to the 2021 summer season. JoAnne Houlsen was a gallery member for about 15 years before taking a break a few years ago; we are glad she has decided to return, filling our single member opening this … [Read More]
Quoddy Voices’ Latest: ‘Rushing River’ Released for May Day!
With many voices raised—via digital means—in a rousing Spring-coming chorus, Quoddy Voices’ latest, director John Newell’s composition “Rushing River,” has been released for all to enjoy. Newell, who is leading the chorus in their second virtual session, was inspired by the Dennys River near his home. “It’s different every … [Read More]
EAC ‘Culture of Food’ Celebrated via Poetry & Pie Zoom, Upcoming Cookbook
“Many would think that food has been as much a part of the arts at the EAC as the arts themselves!” enthuses Chris Grannis, EAC Director. “In fact, food must be an art.” The Center’s culture of food, celebrated again and again at exhibition openings, concert receptions for the … [Read More]
Poetry & Pie Night is April 30!
Eastport Arts Center invites all to an informal online gathering in celebration of April as National Poetry Month on Friday, April 30 at 7 pm. The Poetry & Pie Night will begin with a reading by Linda Aldrich, Poet Laureate of Portland, Maine, and continue with local poets Catherine … [Read More]
Drumming Classes Begin May 3
Expanding EAC’s online education to include music, the center will offer a free four-week Drumming class for teens and adults on Mondays, May 3, 10, 17 and 24, from 7:30-8:30 pm, with Noel Brennan. Originally from Robbinston, and currently Program Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Brooklyn Conservatory, Brennan has … [Read More]
Sara Myrick to Teach Beginning Basketry
Next in EAC’s popular series of online workshops is Beginning Basketry with Sara Myrick, 1-3 pm, Sunday, May 2. Geared for ages 12 and up, the workshop will be a fun and interactive tutorial in making a box-shaped basket using a form and twine. Sara will also show adaptations … [Read More]
Gallery Features Joan Lowden
This week’s featured Eastport Gallery artist is gallery president Joan Lowden. “My main artistic passion is music, jazz bass in particular, but I had explored visual arts in my youth and developed a renewed interest when I discovered encaustic painting several years ago. Encaustic, (from the Greek ‘to burn’), … [Read More]
Staged Reading, Scholarship Fund Organized in Memory of Jay Skriletz
On Saturday, May 1 at 7:00 pm, a virtual celebration will take place to launch The Jay Skriletz Scholarship Fund to support youth and young adults in the theater. The scholarship is inspired by the life of Jay Skriletz and his belief in the potential and power of young … [Read More]
April’s Apt Rainstick Craft, Plus Bonus Music Video, Is Here!
EAC KinderArts video workshop series continues with ‘Craft-along: Make Your Own Rainstick.‘ In this month’s video, instructor Nia Aretakis demonstrates a technique for creating a child-sized rainstick out of simple household materials, and encourage participants to experiment with different ‘fillings’ for their sticks to create different sounds. The video also … [Read More]
EAC Video Instructor on Wearable Art & Making a Shirt for the Shoot
Did you notice the homemade Earth shirt KinderArts video instructor Nia Aretakis was wearing in this month’s Craft-along video, ‘Make Your Own Rainstick’? Nia shared some images and thoughts about her process of making the shirt for the shoot. As as an artist, she has long enjoyed experimenting in … [Read More]
All Posts Archive →
The work of Eastport Arts Center is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.