Sanctuary Arts

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See Liturgical art for information on the topic of art in worship and Sanctuary Art Center for information on the Seattle based arts center for street-involved youth.

Sanctuary Arts is a center for the visual arts in Eliot, Maine, United States. Located in a converted 1861 New England church, it houses private and teaching studios, living spaces, a library, and a gallery.

The center was founded in 1997 by Christopher Gowell, who is its administrator, and co-owned by her with Robert Wallis, who helped finance the center.

Gowell is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and holds an M.F.A. from Boston University. Primarily a figurative sculptor, she has been a member of a number of art faculties. Recent commissions include a six-foot commemorative Franco-American mother and son sculpture in bronze for a riverside park in Nashua, New Hampshire, and a bronze fire-fighter’s memorial for Manchester, N.H.

Since 2000, the center has offered classes in the visual arts at all levels, under a co-operative agreement with the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, N.H. They also offer a small number of business classes for artists and mount exhibitions in their gallery space.