Chelsea Center for the Arts

Developing, fostering and promoting music and visual art in Chelsea, Michigan and the surrounding communities.
Chelsea Center for the Arts   |   400 Congdon St.   |   Chelsea, MI 48118   |    Tel: (734) 433-2787  |    Contact Us    |   Register

Who We Are

Connecting Community Through the Arts

Chelsea Center for the Arts (CCA) is a community ideal wrapped around three elements: 

  • Belief that the ability to express one’s self creatively enhances not only individual lives but also the quality of life collectively     
  • An historic school given second life as a home for creative and artistic endeavor
  • A management infrastructure that brings together community members engaged in creating, producing, teaching, and learning the creative and artistic disciplines

CCA is the only professionally staffed arts center (2.25 FTE) in Washtenaw County outside Ann Arbor, serving primarily the communities of Chelsea, Dexter, Grass Lake, Manchester, Pinckney, Saline, Stockbridge and other nearby areas. It organizes instruction, individually or in groups, by highly accomplished practitioners for learners of all ages. It manages and maintains space for an art gallery, teaching studios, theatrical rehearsals, and occasional special lecture or performance events. It also provides artist-recruiting, administrative, and marketing services to other Chelsea-area organizations engaged in producing community cultural events and public art projects.  

Program Highlights

  • Enrollment of approximately 150 students, primarily school-age, in individual music lessons. Chelsea’s public school music ensembles are consistent award-winners.
  • Group instruction for beginning string instrument students 
  • A new early-childhood music program, Music Together, serving an initial group of 20 - 25 families.
  • Art classes and workshops with registrations of about 100 each term.
  • Eleven summer weeks of Sounds & Sights on Thursday Nights in downtown Chelsea, providing artist-management and administrative services in partnership with local merchants and the Chelsea Chamber of Commerce. 
  • Incubator for the Michigan Pops Choir, a new adult choral group drawing members from throughout southeast Michigan.
  • Incubator for Art Meets Business, a nascent program designed to provide advice, instruction and coaching on business practices to artists and performers.
  • Investment of nearly $100,000 in improvements since 2007 to CCA’s historic building funded half and half by grant awards and donated in-kind services.  
 


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