Confederation Centre of the Arts facts for kids
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| Address | 145 Richmond Street |
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| Location | Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1964 |
| Architect | Ray Affleck, Hazen Sise, and Dimitri Dimakopoulos (of Arcop) |
| Official name: Confederation Centre of the Arts National Historic Site of Canada | |
| Designated: | 2003 |
The Confederation Centre of the Arts (also known as Centre des arts de la Confédération in French) is a special place in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. It's a big cultural spot for enjoying art and shows.
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A Place for Canadian History and Arts
The Confederation Centre, often just called "the Centre," started being built in 1960. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened it on October 6, 1964. This important building was created to remember the Fathers of Confederation. These were the leaders who met in Charlottetown in September 1864. Their meeting, called the Charlottetown Conference, helped create Canada.
The Centre was built with money from all ten Canadian provinces and the federal government. Today, most of its money comes from ticket sales, memberships, and donations. Some funding also comes from the Canadian government and the Province of PEI.
..."[The Fathers of Confederation Memorial Building] is a tribute to those famous men who founded our Confederation. But it is also dedicated to the fostering of those things that enrich the mind and delight the heart, those intangible but precious things that give meaning to a society and help create from it a civilization and a culture."
Since 1965, the Centre has hosted the Charlottetown Festival every summer. In 2020, the festival did not happen because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The Centre holds a Guinness World Record for its musical, Anne of Green Gables — The Musical. This show was performed every summer from 1965 until 2019. Many other shows have also been featured here. In 2003, the Centre was named a National Historic Sites of Canada.
In 2011, the main Homburg Theatre got a big upgrade. This $17-million renovation improved the sound, seats, lights, and stage equipment. The project was finished in time for the Centre's 50th anniversary in 2014.
Building Design and Location
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The Confederation Centre is located on Queen's Square in downtown Charlottetown. It is right next to Province House. Province House is where Prince Edward Island's government meets. It was also the place of the Charlottetown Conference.
The Centre looks like three separate buildings from the street. These buildings house a theatre and an art gallery. They are grouped around "Memorial Hall," which faces Province House. The Confederation Chambre inside Province House, where the historic meetings took place, looks directly at Memorial Hall.
The Confederation Centre takes up a whole block in the city center. It is surrounded by Grafton Street, Queen Street, and Richmond Street. The building has an art museum and several places for performing arts.
The Art Museum
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The Confederation Centre Art Gallery opened at the same time as the rest of the building. It is an art museum located in the northeast part of the Centre. The art gallery is in a three-story building. It has over 3,250 square metres (35,000 sq ft) of space to show art. As of June 2017, the gallery had more than 17,000 artworks in its collection.
The Theatres
The Confederation Centre of the Arts has several places for performing arts. These include a large mainstage theatre with 1,109 seats. This is the biggest mainstage theatre in Canada east of Montreal. There are also two smaller studio theatres for different kinds of shows.
