The Chocolate Church Arts Center/Seguinland Institute interns. Courtesy of Chocolate Church Arts Center

“Community” is a word that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Coming from a small but vibrant college town, where the people and businesses tend to come and go on a regular basis, I’m used to seeing people missing a sense of community. I’m lucky enough to have grown up alongside smaller communities within that town, but even I notice that lack of connection to where I’ve lived my whole life.

This is why, perhaps, I chose to take part in a joint one-month internship through the Seguinland Institute and the Chocolate Church Arts Center. And in the brief time I’ve been here, it has already felt like a way to see and participate in a space that is fueled almost entirely by its community. As I write this, I haven’t even been here for two weeks, but every day I see the ways the CCAC impacts the people of Bath and the ways the people of Bath impact the CCAC.

One of my fellow interns, Kitty Smith, has been delving into archives.

“It’s clear how torn Chocolate Church founder, Jack Doepp, felt leaving the bustling theater scene of New York to found the Chocolate Church in 1977,” she told me. “Ultimately, he fell in love with Maine and kept creating and working here for the rest of his life, resolving his tension by helping facilitate a vibrant creative hub in a rural area.”

In a Sept. 8, 1980, Times Record article about the nascent CCAC, Doepp evoked his intention of putting aside material values for the sake of finding fulfillment in the contribution to a community.

“Some of his friends keep insisting, ‘Admit it Jack, your Maine idyll is over. You’ve got to come back to the big city where you can earn a decent living,'” The Times Record’s Jane Lamb wrote. “On the other hand, the waters of the New Meadows River, lapping the shore in front of his Gurnet home, keep reminding him: ‘A decent living? What about a decent life?'” Feeling the vibrancy flowing through the CCAC, that legacy is clear. The legacy is all the more clear seeing how people care to preserve this building and respond to the programming held within it.

A few days into my internship, after putting up flyers in a local cafe, a few of us decided to get some coffee. As we waited for our orders, a man passed by and noticed our flyers, specifically one for an upcoming dance ensemble’s performance. He immediately struck up a short conversation with us about how excited he was for the show, especially because his granddaughter would be performing. This led to a meaningful conversation about the art form, generations and community. Although we were complete strangers, even just we interns putting up flyers led to a treasured interaction.

To me, this was the perfect encapsulation of the Chocolate Church Arts Center. It’s not just a venue for local artists but a gateway for everyone to interact with a myriad of artistic expression and, most of all, their own creativity. This comes most to mind with the Art Lab, where supplies donated by the community can be used by anybody to make anything they want. In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve seen several cases where a parent will bring their kids to make art, and the parent will start making their own art as well. The space invites creativity from all those who enter it, to use what they want and give what they can. In that way, a place like the CCAC isn’t just the perfect example of sharing art within a community but a microcosm of how a healthy community can grow.

Our cohort is here doing all we can to learn from and support this place, from painting, to cleaning, to seeking funding opportunities, to outreach. And although we are only here for a month, we look forward to continuing to watch this amazing institution’s evolution for years to come.