The announcements of two unexpected closures in the past week have left a hole in Bangor’s arts and culture scene.
The Bangor Arts Exchange — known colloquially as BAE — and Queen City Cinema Club both announced in online posts last week that they’re closing their doors for good. BAE will close later this year, while Queen City Cinema Club is already permanently closed.
While the two closures are not related, both institutions were valuable pieces of downtown Bangor’s diverse arts and culture landscape. The artists who relied on those stages are now wondering where they’ll go to keep performing for the community.
“I’m very worried about the state of performing arts in the city,” said Jen Shepard, Penobscot County Theatre executive director. “Losing the mid-sized venues of BAE and Queen City is a massive loss to our nightlife and drawing people downtown.”
BAE opened in 2017. It’s jointly run by local arts nonprofit Launchpad and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and has hosted a variety of events including concerts, comedy shows and lectures.
Its closure comes a year after Tom Bourdeaux purchased the property as he prepares to renovate and redevelop the building, including the historic ballroom that hosts performances, said Berney Kubetz, Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s president. Attendance at the symphony orchestra’s performances and the venue’s revenue stream has nothing to do with the closure.
“It’s all about the new owner, who I’d describe as benevolent and very fair,” Kubetz said. “Changes in the use of the building are wholly legitimate and, from our point of view, very understandable.”
While it’s losing its rehearsal and performance space, Kubetz said the Bangor Symphony Orchestra will not dissolve or change in any way. It simply needs to find a new home.
“We’re exploring all opportunities to continue having an active presence in Bangor and nothing about the physical move of our offices or the ballroom will change that,” Kubetz said.
Hope Eye, a local artist who recently held her first art show at BAE, said the smaller space was essential for budding artists to get their first taste of public exposure.
“The Bangor Arts Exchange used to host all these cool, new, avant-garde events,” Eye said. “Without those, I don’t know where those groups will go.”
Queen City Cinema Club on Main Street opened in 2018 and operated as a bar, restaurant, private movie theater and live entertainment venue that welcomed a wide array of performances.
It wrote in a Facebook post that its abrupt closure was the result of not enough customers coming in to keep the business afloat.
Anthony Brown of Ballistic Booking, which arranged most of the live music performances in Queen City Cinema Club since 2019, said the space would be full of people on performance nights but virtually empty on evenings with no events.
“I think people took them for granted,” said Brown, who’s also a guitarist in local metal band Forked Tongue, which played at Queen City Cinema Club. “Don’t assume your favorite places will always be around. You could be the deciding factor that keeps your favorite place open.”
With the closure of Queen City Cinema Club, Brown said Bangor lost a space that welcomed everyone from heavy metal bands to drag queens. It was an affordable option that diversified the types of performers area residents could see.
“Not everyone can jump in their car and drive to Portland,” Brown said. “Our focus was serving the person who doesn’t have a lot of money or a reliable vehicle. We were trying to bring worthwhile things to them.”
Both venues also allowed local groups to practice in their buildings, Shepard said.
“It’s an unseen loss,” Shepard said. “Where are local choirs going to rehearse now? Where can film students show their capstone projects?”
Both Brown and Shepard said they’ve watched new eateries and entertainment make a home in downtown Bangor, diversifying the nightlife options for residents in the last decade. The closures of BAE and Queen City Cinema Club makes them wonder whether that positive momentum has stuttered.
“I felt the shift and we’re not done with the renaissance of this area, but it feels like we’re on shaky ground,” Shepard said.
Shepard said she believes people got out of the habit of going to live performances when the pandemic shut down theaters.
For example, 40,000 people came to watch shows at the Penobscot Theatre every year before the pandemic. In 2023, 32,000 people came to a show, which led to a budget deficit the theater is still trying to recover from.
If more people don’t visit venues across the city, Shepard said Bangor risks losing more art spaces and, by consequence, the diversity of performance choices.
“I just hope that people realize that by not coming out, you’re making a choice about the community you live in,” Shepard said. “Come out and get involved.”
