Sanctuary Arts
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 a Master of Fine Arts 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, New Hampshire.
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. They also offer a small number of business classes for artists and mount exhibitions in their gallery space.
Sanctuary Arts is also home to The Green Foundry, known for fabricating Robert Indiana's HOPE installation at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.