Bath arts center to host Smithsonian cultural heritage event

Bath’s Chocolate Church Arts Center will put local residents inside a Smithsonian-linked conversation about who tells Maine’s stories and how those traditions are shared. The venue will co-host Gather: Folklives & Foodways on Saturday, June 13, 2026, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., bringing a community meal, musical performances, dance and a panel discussion into one Midcoast Maine gathering.

The event is Maine Humanities’ contribution to By the People: Conversations Beyond 250, a Smithsonian Folklife program built around community-led events exploring 250 years of American cultural life and where that story goes next. Smithsonian materials say the broader 2026 initiative will travel through more than 30 organizations in 27 states and two territories from March through November, placing Bath on a statewide stage with national reach.

Maine Humanities’ lineup centers the people and traditions that often sit closest to the state’s cultural memory. Featured participants include blues musician Samuel James, Penobscot Nation performer Firefly the Hybrid, the Al-Mashreq Ensemble, which presents music of the Arab East, and Jasmine Tintor of Katahdin Kitchen, described by Maine Humanities as a Penobscot co-founder. The mix gives the evening a clear local consequence: Wabanaki, Arab, folk and storytelling traditions will share the same room, and the panel discussion will put those voices in direct conversation rather than presenting them as separate performances.

That matters in Bath because the Chocolate Church is not just a performance hall; it has served Midcoast Maine for more than 40 years. Maine Humanities says it has worked statewide for 50 years, and the Smithsonian says By the People is designed with humanities councils and local partners, making the June 13 program a public-facing example of how those institutions can widen access beyond major museums and big-city audiences.

The Chocolate Church has also recently broadened entry to its events through library ticket passes with the Bath and Brunswick libraries, including Patten Free Library and Curtis Memorial Library. That kind of access helps make a Smithsonian-connected program feel less like a special presentation from far away and more like something rooted in Sagadahoc County, where residents can see their own community reflected in foodways, music and oral tradition before the summer calendar moves on.