Garde Arts Center

About Us

The Garde Arts Center is a non-profit cultural organization created in 1985 by a regional, volunteer network of leaders in business, arts, education and philanthropy. Their mission was to save and transform the historic Garde Theatre, one of the few remaining historic movie palaces in Connecticut, and create a performing arts center in the heart of downtown New London serving Southeastern Connecticut, a region rich in geographic, economic, ethnic and cultural diversity.

Today, The Garde owns and operates a complex of four adjacent buildings in downtown New London, the centerpiece of which is the 1,472-seat Garde Theatre, an historic movie/vaudeville house (1926). Built in 1926 during the golden era of the motion pictures and vaudeville theatres, the recently restored Moroccan interior of the Garde Theatre, along with the new seats and state-of-the-art stage equipment, provide a very audience-friendly theatre venue in a warm and beautiful atmosphere. Today the Garde is becoming nationally recognized for its unique architecture and multi-faceted programming.