..." 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 The centre has played host to the Charlottetown Festival every summer since 1965, playing Canada's most popular and longest-running mainstage musicalAnne of Green Gables — The Musical. It also inspired the production of the musical, Anne and Gilbert. Their most successful second mainstage show to date is Mamma Mia!. The centre was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2003. In 2011 the mainstage Homburg Theatre underwent a $7-million renovation to improve acoustics, seating, lighting, and rigging. The project was completed in time for the Centre's 50th anniversary in 2014.
Architecture
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 legislature and the location of the Charlottetown Conference. The centre is one contiguous structure, however at street level it appears as three separate buildings 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 a block in the central business district, bounded on three sides by Grafton Street, Queen Street, and Richmond Street. The structure houses an art museum, public library, and several performing arts venues. It also includes a public library administered under the provincial library system and is Charlottetown's principal library. Mavor's Restaurant is located right off the lobby and hosts a wide selection of wines.
Art museum
Opened at the same time as the rest of the structure, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery is an art museum in the northeast pavilion of the Confederation Centre of the Arts. The art gallery pavilion is housed in a three-storey structure, that includes over of exhibition space. As of June 2017, it held over 17,000 works in its permanent collection.
Theatres
The Confederation Centre of the Arts includes a number of venues for the performing arts. These include a 1,109 seat mainstage theatre, the largest theatre mainstage in Canada east of Montreal; and two studio theatres.
