Historic Portsmouth landmark will become a new visual arts home for PMAC and the Seacoast community
Portsmouth Music and Arts Center (PMAC) broke ground at the South Meeting House on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, marking a major milestone in the historic Marcy Street building’s transformation into a new visual arts facility for PMAC and the Seacoast community.
The ceremony took place on the front lawn of the South Meeting House and brought together PMAC leadership, board members, project partners, city officials, and community supporters. Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern was present for the occasion, along with multiple current and former City Councilors, as well as representatives from the Schleyer Foundation, Chinburg Builders, and ArCove Architects.
“This is an ambitious vision to expand access to arts education and creative opportunities for everyone in our community,” said PMAC Board President Bill Durling. “That vision is only possible because of the generosity, energy, and support of so many here today and throughout this campaign. We are deeply grateful for their support.”
For PMAC, the project represents both a response to growing demand and a major step toward expanding access to creative opportunities across the Seacoast.
A City That Believes in the Arts
Mayor McEachern spoke about the project in the context of Portsmouth’s deep connection to the arts. “Portsmouth is a city that believes in the arts, and the arts believe in us,” said the Mayor. “To be able to have a community gathering place like this is truly remarkable. It’s great that there’s going to be more vitality and more community as part of this project.”
He added that the arts play an essential role in helping communities envision what is possible.
“Collectively, as a community, we try to come together and imagine ourselves in a better place,” said Mayor McEachern. “But to imagine a better world, first you have to imagine a different world. And that’s how the arts really speak to me. Art allows us to look through a window at a canvas and see something that is not yet here today, and allows us to imagine what that world would be. PMAC is one of those organizations that really paints the canvas and opens our eyes to what’s possible.”
Preserving a Historic Community Space
The South Meeting House has served Portsmouth in many ways over its more than 150-year history, including as a school, community space, and home to local organizations such as the Portsmouth Children’s Museum. The building also holds important historical significance as the home of New Hampshire’s first Black church and the site of Portsmouth’s first celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Through this project, the South Meeting House will be preserved and reimagined as a dedicated home for visual arts education, exhibitions, and community engagement. The effort is being made possible through the collaborative partnership of PMAC, the Schleyer Foundation, Chinburg Builders, ARCove Architects, the City of Portsmouth, and other community supporters. Together, the partners are working to preserve the building’s historic character while preparing it for a new era of community use.
“Here in Portsmouth, so much of our community is rooted in the historic buildings we see around us,” said David Schleyer of the Schleyer Foundation. “They connect us with our past. They reflect our shared identity and play an important role in what makes the city desirable.”
Schleyer added, “Today we break ground on a construction project, but more importantly, we begin a new chapter in the life of the South Meeting House, one that will preserve its history while serving this community for years to come.”
Expanding PMAC’s Mission
PMAC Board Member Joe Keefe emphasized that the project is not only about restoring a building, but about expanding the reach and impact of PMAC’s mission.
“PMAC plays a vital role in the social fabric of this community,” said Keefe. “What we’re doing today is not just about a building. It’s about the work of PMAC, and what that work does for people here in Portsmouth, particularly for our young people.”
Founded in 2002, PMAC is a nonprofit community music and visual arts school with a mission to build community through the arts by providing all people with opportunities to achieve their full creative potential. PMAC serves students of all ages and abilities through lessons, classes, ensembles, camps, exhibitions, performances, and free community arts programming.
“Thousands of individuals around the Seacoast have found their creative home at our center,” shared PMAC Co-Founder and COO Katie Grazier. “From youth students to teens to adults, we’re so proud of the impact that our organization has had.”
The South Meeting House project responds to growing demand for PMAC’s programs and the need for additional space. PMAC’s current home at 973 Islington Street will continue to offer music education, while the South Meeting House will allow the organization to expand visual arts programming, create new exhibition and gathering spaces, and provide more opportunities for students, artists, and community members to connect through creativity.
Grazier described how the new space will support that growth, noting that the South Meeting House will include “two art classrooms, a digital classroom for programs like filmmaking, two art lesson studios, and a dedicated gallery space.”
For Keefe, that expanded capacity matters because creative spaces offer something essential, especially for young people growing up amid constant demands on their attention.
“The vision of PMAC is to create community through the arts,” he said. “We live in challenging times, and our young people in particular—the algorithms of commerce want their attention all the time. I can tell you as a PMAC board member what music and art does for them instead. It gives them that refuge, that inspiration, so that they can be creative members of the community.”
With construction now underway, PMAC and its partners will continue the work of preparing the South Meeting House to once again welcome the community through its doors.
Photos: Karina Quintans
