Programs & Events
CAE supports arts programming that connects people with nature and to this unique landscape.
In the coming years, we plan to program events like these:
Music Workshops that model active listening to the sounds of nature as inspiration for communal song-writing
Mandala making
Open air theater performances that feature the Desert of Maine landscape
Fireside and star gazing song circles
Contact improv and ecstatic dance classes and jams that incorporate nature into the event
Note: We are committed to developing programs that center queer and BIPOC composers, voices that have been creating fantastic art for a long time, but have been excluded from the canon
Our educational programming has brought hundreds of school children to the Desert thanks to collaborations with local organizations including The Telling Room, 317 Main Community Music, and Classical Uprising. We ran a 10-week home school program through a partnership with Through the Trees. We're planning more educational programs in partnership with Wolfe's Neck Center in 2024.
Past Performances 2023
In 2023, we hosted five events which helped us home in on our mission to focus on Nature-Centric Arts.
Juan Wauters
Founding member of Queens-based garage act The Beets, Wauters has spent the better part of the last decade on the road as a solo artist, traversing the US and Latin America to collaborate with other musicians. This was his first time performing in Maine in over a decade and this "destination concert" in our historic Farmhouse was a memborably special standing room-only affair.
The Sand Princess
High drama and low comedy featuring clever scoundrel who threatens the future of an empire in the sand. The show contained magic, masked creatures, and evocative music performed live out on the dunes.
Kat and Brad
Drawing from 50s and 60s pop, American Songbook standards, and much more, this vibrant duo channels and fuses these influences through two voices, a guitar, and violin to bring you a mixture of original songs and dusted off covers from the past.
Classical Uprising Presents,
Choose your own Musical Adventure
A bold rethinking of the classical music experience through an immersive event which stations musicians at different areas of the Desert of Maine landscape to encourage audience participation and ask questions like–will you be the conductor, the drummer, a singer, or a music critic?
Sarah Quintana
A rare solo performance from a singer-songwriter from New Orleans with a background rich in jazz, folk and popular music. This was her debut concert in Maine.