Best Cultural Center Wilmington Near Me

4worldlovers: For more than half a century, the Hannah Block Historic USO Building has facilitated the coming together of generations, providing children with programs that challenge them creatively, and enhance the quality of life for residents throughout the region.


Located in the Hannah Block Historic USO at 120 South Second Street in historic downtown Wilmington, NC, our multi-use facility features five studios (including dance studios) that are available to nonprofit organizations for rehearsals of plays, musicals and recitals.

The studios are also used for classes in a variety of artistic disciplines. The building is home to the Orange Street Potters and the Hannah Block Second Street Stage, an auditorium with a stage and technical loft used for rehearsals and performances. The facility includes a kitchen and may also be rented for corporate and private functions.

The HBHUSO/CAC is owned by the City of Wilmington and managed by the Thalian Association Community Theatre. The City Council appoints a seven person volunteer Advisory Board to oversee the building activities and make recommendations to the management and the City of Wilmington.

Patrons of the HBHUSO/Community Arts Center can park in the surface lot conveniently located next to the building.

For more information about Wilmington and the arts, please visit The Arts Council of Wilmington, another organization dedicated to helping establish our area as an arts destination and to promote arts-driven economic development.

4worldlovers:
Official ticketing provider for Wilmington NC’s Wilson Center – Broadway tours, national touring concert & comedy acts, rentals, and spectacular events.


The College does not discriminate against guests, applicants, students, vendors, volunteers, or employees in any programs and activities provided on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy and sexual orientation), gender (including gender identity and status as a transgender or transsexual individual), disability, religion, age, genetic information, veteran status or any other protected status.

4worldlovers: The Minnie Evans Arts Center features a 955 seat proscenium theater with working catwalks, fly system, and full stage removable acoustic shell.

Built in 2001 by the New Hanover County Schools, it is the host to most of the school systems All-County performing arts events. The arts center is also used by several of the schools within the NHCS system for concerts, theatre arts productions, and other events. The arts center is available for paid use by community organizations wishing to present a performing arts event. Community use information and technical specification are linked in the following pages. Please contact the General Manager with any specific questions you have for using this venue.

"She was just doing what the Lord told her to do. She was more interested in pleasing God than people."


~Minnie Evans (Jones) was the only child of Joseph Kelly, a farmer, and Ella Jones in Pender County, North Carolina.

~ Minnie Evans attended school through the sixth grade, dropping out in 1903 because of the family's economic hardship, finding a job as a "sounder" selling shellfish door to door.

~In 1908 she quit to marry Julius Evans. For eight years she was a full-time housewife. The couple had three sons.

~The Evans family lived on Jones's 2,200-acre hunting estate, "Pembroke Park," known today as the subdivision Landfall.

~Evans began drawing on Good Friday, 1935. She said "I had a dream, its voice spoke to me: ‘Why don't you draw or die?' ‘Is that it?,' I said, ‘My, My.'"

~That morning she completed a pair of small pen-and-ink drawings on paper; these works, dominated by a pattern of concentric circles and semicircles upon a background of lines, became greatly significant to her in her later life.

~Most of her earliest pieces were executed in wax crayons; she later turned to colored pencil and, in the early 1940s, oils.

~Earlier, when Evans's world was dominated by the greenery of Pembroke Park, her paintings were full of shades of green. But, after 1948, her work began to bloom in colors and in images of actual flowers, for Minnie Evans was then the Airlie gatekeeper - collecting admissions and selling her artwork on the side.

~In 1961, she had her first formal exhibition of drawings and oils at a gallery in Wilmington.

~In 1966, Evans' had her first New York exhibit and, in 1975 a major Minnie Evans exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art became the talk of the town.

~Evans died December 16, 1987, leaving more than 400 artworks to the St. Johns Museum of Art (now the Cameron Art Museum) in Wilmington.

Evans' drawings were inspired by her dreams and filled with many colors, possibly inspired by her work at Airlie Gardens. Her designs are complex, with elements recalling the art of China and the Caribbean combined with more Western themes. The central motif in many pieces is a human face surrounded by plant and animal forms. The eyes, which Evans equated with God's omniscience, are central to each figure. In addition, God is sometimes depicted with wings and a multicolored collar and halo and shown surrounded by all manner of creatures.

4worldlovers: “I think there are three great theatres in the world, the Drottningholm Theatre in Stockholm, the Theatre Royal in Bristol England, and Thalian Hall in Wilmington, North Carolina. "

4worldlovers:
At DREAMS Center for Arts Education, we believe every child has the right to creative self-expression and should be given the opportunity to grow into the person that they are and wish to become – trying new things in a supportive space where they are encouraged to take creative risks, embrace their inner uniqueness, and reach for the stars. The arts are foundational to the well-being and personal growth of all people, and we believe every barrier to access and participation should be removed, especially for youth and teens. Big dreams thrive here!

The mission of DREAMS is to create a culture of confidence for youth and teens through equitable access to arts education supported by the values of respect, family, and community.

Established in 1997, DREAMS of Wilmington is a youth development organization that is dedicated to creating a culture of confidence for youth and teens, through equitable access to arts education, supported by the values of respect, family, and community.

In 2007, DREAMS received the Coming Up Taller Award, given annually by the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities to the nation's top after-school and out-of-school arts and humanities programs.

Today, we provide free-of-charge arts programming to more than 600 young people and their families each year. We offer more than 40 classes per week at 6 different sites in the Wilmington, NC area, including our newly renovated, 12,000 square foot inner-city center on Wilmington’s North Side. This space features our 4,000 square foot performance venue and multipurpose space, "The Garage at DREAMS."

You’ll find DREAMS programming at public housing sites, city recreation centers, and in after-school and out-of-school programs across New Hanover County.