Confederation Centre of the Arts
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The Confederation Centre of the Arts is a Canadian centre dedicated to the visual and performing arts located in the city of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
Confederation Centre, as it is commonly referred to, started construction in 1960 and opened to the public on October 6, 1964[1] (http://www.confederationcentre.com/faq.asp). It is funded by the 10 provincial governments in Canada and the federal government as Canada's National Memorial to the Fathers of Confederation, who met in Charlottetown in September 1864 at what was called the Charlottetown Conference.
..."[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."- Prime Minister L.B. Pearson, Opening Ceremonies for the Confederation Centre of the Arts, October 6, 1964[2] (http://www.confederationcentre.com/history.asp)
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 provincial legislature building and location of the Charlottetown Conference. The centre is one contiguous structure, however at street level it appears as 3 separate buildings (hosting a theatre, art gallery and public library) 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 an entire city block, bounded on three sides by Grafton Street, Queen Street, and Richmond Street. As part of its mandate to showcase the best in Canadian visual and performing arts the centre has played host to the Charlottetown Festival every summer since 1964, with a tribute to its host-province by playing Canada's most popular and longest-running mainstage musical Anne of Green Gables - The Musical.
The art gallery hosts numerous travelling exhibits and its own permanent collection. The public library is administered under the provincial library system and is Charlottetown's principal library.
External link
Confederation Centre of the Arts - official website (http://www.confederationcentre.com)