The purpose of Playhouse Arts is to use the arts as a tool to build a community that is inspired and empowered to work together for the common good.
Venues
Arcata Playhouse
Presenting a wide array of events including live theater, music, variety arts, poetry, speakers, and films, the Arcata Playhouse is a cultural hub for the community. The venue is regularly used by local organizations for everything from weddings to elementary school plays to environmental documentaries.
Makers Space
Within the Playhouse venue is a makers space equipt with tools, paints, space, great light, and a helpful team. This space has been used by many talented local visual and theatrical artists for art projects. This space is equipt for many artists with a wall of windows that brings in great natural light for painters, table saws, wood, and drills for sculptors, plus giant puppets hang from the ceiling to inspire the imagination. This space is available to rent.
Humboldt Hot Air
Humboldt Hot Air is a new platform whose mission is to support a local audio studio which in turn will facilitate and promote the creation of audio content by local artists and technicians that embrace and reflect the unique community of the Pacific Northwest. Hosting the brand new recording studio “The Annex” we will aspire to create podcasts dedicated to the arts in our community.
Youth Programs
Apprentice Entertainment
The Playhouse teen program is an afterschool program for teens that gives them experience in all aspects of mounting an event, from design and scripting to casting and stagecraft to promotion and execution of the final production.
Family Fun Series
Since 2007 the series has brought performers from California, Oregon, Washington, Maine, Canada, Australia, Scotland, France, and England to perform for Humboldt County children and their families. The series strives to bring young people in contact with the performing arts in a safe intimate setting and host high-quality artists in a low-cost environment.
Youth Theater Workshops
Arcata Playhouse offers youth workshops in creative theater-making with a variety of focuses including mask, puppetry, pageant performance, clowning, and more. Our workshops range from ages 6-18 and take place in the spring and summer.
Playhouse Artists in Schools
The Artists in Schools program partners with local elementary and middle schools to celebrate the importance of early exposure to all aspects of performance art – both on stage and behind the scenes – for students from kindergarten to 8th grade.
Community Public Art
Playhouse Arts, Arcata's Local Art Agency, is engaged in empowering the community through community public art. Partnering with the City of Arcata, in 2020-2021 Playhouse Arts brought public art shows, and sculpture installations in the Creamery District to the streets of Arcata.
View Strategic Arts Plan draft here.
Funding has been provided by California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
