Centre for Performing Arts

Centre for Performing ARTS, Montague Regional ARTS Centre, located at 239 Valleyfield Road, Montague  is home to many artistic endeavors and entities all located under one creative umbrella. Founded and created by Virginia Winter in 2004, the Centre has met its mandate of providing affordability, accessability, and availability of the ARTS to PEI, most notably down east. CPA continues forward with the newly formed Regions East Arts Culture Heritage (REACH Project) extending our demographic outreach to all communities in Eastern PEI.

In 2005, the Centre headquartered itself in the former Yeo’s Theatre in Montague, once a hub of family entertainment in the early to mid 20th century, and began its mandate. The Centre, with the help of many visionaries and volunteers, breathed life into the darkened stage and hallways once again by providing local, regional and global live talent, illumination into the giant restored silver screen, as well as growing into a full fledged performing ARTS school. The future includes a community radio station, low powered FM broadcast providing Eastern PEI with a voice to the airwaves.

In summer, 2009, the Centre for Performing ARTS took a bold step forward by acquiring, moving, and expanding the organization into a 5300 sf, existing infrastructure facility, once the home of Holland College in the last century. This allowed dedicated space for classrooms in music, dance, theatre, and visual arts, a dedicated art gallery space, known as ARTS Space East, as well as two performance theatre rooms, Actors’ Studio, and The Cavern, the musical performance venue space.

The School for Performing ARTS includes schools of dance, music, theatre and visual arts providing artistic educational outreach to all ages in ARTS programs. Affordable programs in arts education are available for all ages, toddlers through senior adults, in a wide array of programming in dance, music, theatre, and visual arts as well as crafts.

 The ARTS Space East Gallery is the visual and creative arts outreach featuring all mediums of art with displays from all over the world as well as our own backyard pool of artists. Local and visiting artists will have an opportunity to showcase their works of art while providing patrons the ability to appreciate them.

Youth outreach programs provide the ability for the eastern region to participate in arts programs not currently offered as well as experiential learning and involvement in the cultural sector which is neither abundant nor offered elsewhere.  Students who volunteer their services in grades 9-12, can be registered by the organization to receive a $500 bursary scholarship for post secondary education.

The Cavern is the live performance stage home to many local, regional, and visiting artists who proudly bring their skills and crafts to our stage. Performing artists ranging from garage bands to Chuck and Albert stretching to the land down under have graced the stage bringing their unique talents and styles to the communities down east. Patrons now have the ability to enjoy the types of culture offered without having to travel great lengths and at great expense to afford. The Cavern recently played host to Maritime Idol allowing local artists the opportunity to be part of a unique cultural event close to home. Plays, skits, coffee houses, theatrical presentations, dessert and dinner theatre all allow the stage to gain notoriety for excellent production and afford a cultural experience to those who might not otherwise benefit.

The newly launched and recently revitalized Screening Room will provide countless hours of entertainment and enjoyment to young and old alike featuring both contemporary as well as classic films and to showcase local film makers and artists’ works. Family movie nights, cartoon Saturdays, matinees, theme nights as well as director’s debuts and premiers of local filmmakers are all on tap at the Centre’s Screening Room.

The final mandate of the initial mission statement calls for providing eastern PEI with a community FM radio station. Plans and applications are in the works for bringing airwave accessability a little closer to home. It is the hope and dream that eastern PEI will soon have the ability to tune into CMON-FM on their radio dial and hear community news, weather, local sports as well as a plethora of local programming.

There is always something exciting going on at the Centre for Performing ARTS where there is no time for boredom, complacency, or stagnation. ART is Alive and It just grows!  The Centre for Performing ARTS, “Montague Regional ARTS Centre” bringing the ARTS within REACH of PEI East~a non profit Canadian registered charity since 2004~