| Last updated on October 18, 2007 |
Mill Pond Center for the Arts offers high-quality programs in the visual, performing, and language arts to the community. Mill Pond Center for the Arts' unique residential, studio, and performance facilities encourage both beginning and advanced artists to practice, create, and exhibit their work in a vibrant, aesthetic environment. Mill Pond Center for the Arts enriches local culture by attracting community and national talent and partnering with complementary regional arts and educational organizations. Open to the public and nestled on 17 acres in Durham, New Hampshire, Mill Pond Center for the Arts' historic grounds are protected by conservation easements ensuring a lasting, natural legacy.
Description:
The Mill Pond Center for the Arts' Board of Directors envisions an organization and campus that is alive with year-round arts, environmental, and educational programming, where people of all ages can not only experience and see exhibits and performances at the highest levels, but also have access to education and participatory community programming on a daily basis.
The campus serves as a resource to the region - a place where parents, children, adults and artists can walk or drive to participate in dance, music, or art classes, see a community performance or a world renowned artist, listen to a recital, walk along preserved trails, or study a unique ecosystem at a seminar or summer camp.
By reaching out and working with other arts centers, artists, and performers worldwide as well as locally and regionally, the center hopes to create a vibrant cultural and educational experience for all members of the community.
In addition to expanding existing programs, Mill Pond Center envisions bringing in new programs and non-profit organizations under its umbrella that will add to the critical energy and vitality of the MPCA as a true community arts center. At the core of this program is a focus on education and involvement in the local schools. Through our educational outreach program, we anticipate developing significant community participation in the Center's programs.
History:
Mill Pond Center for the Arts was founded in February 1981 when Lewis and Judith Roberts purchased the 300-year old former inn at 50 Newmarket Road, Durham. Surrounded by 17 acres of rolling fields and woods, and bordered by Durham's historic Mill Pond, from its earliest days, this scenic setting provided artistic vision and inspiration for its future in the arts.
Its true emergence as a community arts center began when Judith Roberts, a dancer, carefully refurbished the turn of the century barn to create both a dance studio with a sprung floor and a 90-seat theater in the former rafters of the historic barn. Shortly thereafter, classes and performances started at the fledgling center. A small board of community leaders came together to support the center, and Mill Pond Center was born.
Now an established non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, the center has hosted dancers, choreographers, directors, actors, set designers and many dedicated volunteers. The theater has hosted the Durham Stage Company (now called Durham Centerstage) and other serious non-commercial theater. The MPCA has also been host for eight years to The Mill Pond Modern Dance Collective, performing the works of its members and numerous guest choreographers. At its height, the dance program served 300 children and adults with classes including ballet, jazz, yoga, tai chi, and ballroom dance.
In July 1997, Wilburn and Deborah Bonnell took over ownership of the Mill Pond Center facilities. The Bonnells expanded the scope and vision of the Center by initiating a chamber music series and creating an art gallery. They worked diligently with the Board of Directors of the Mill Pond Center to transfer ownership of the buildings and grounds to the non-profit operating group in order to assure that the legacy and contributions of the Center would continue. In March of 2002 this transaction was completed.
The goal of the Board is to create a vibrant and self-sustaining organization that will meet the widest possible range of cultural, educational, and social needs for the citizens of Durham and the region, and that will collaborate with - not compete with - University of New Hampshire, Town of Durham, and area arts organizations. To achieve these goals, the introduction of new programs and enhancements to the existing facilities to allow for greater community participation will take place over a period of years.
This year Mill Pond Center for the Arts is host to several organizations including Ballet New England, Audubon of New Hampshire, Artists In Residence, (for teenage girls), and University of New Hampshire's community music education program, PEP. In the coming years MPCA will greatly expand its programming both through greater utilization of the existing facility and by expanding the campus to include a theater, art exhibition space, and classrooms.
Mill Pond Center for the Arts is also committed to preserving the open view sheds that allow visitors to enjoy the landscape in all seasons, and is currently working with the Rockingham Land Trust and other entities to place nine acres under conservation easement.
Contact person: Katie Muth, Executive Director, (phone), (email)
Office fax number: (603) 868-6651
Address:
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P.O. Box 25
Durham, NH 03824 |
Web Site: http://www.millpondcenter.org
Miscellaneous Information
| Name of Executive Director (or equivalent) if not listed above: |
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Katherine Muth
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| Type of organization |
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Nonprofit 501(c)3
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| Is your organization a Health and Human Service agency? |
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No
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