The annual kick-off fundraiser for our summer season!

The once-a-year chance for the public to visit the home of Hogfish’s Artists-in-Residence and the internationally recognized rose garden of historic Beckett Castle. This year a magical floral display will be installed on the tower by Taylor Morris Floral Design Studio in honor of Beckett Castle's 150th anniversary!

From 5-6pm: enjoy local brews or a glass of wine while wandering the garden at peak bloom which features over 70 varieties of heirloom roses. From 6-7pm: be serenaded by our 2024 artists-in-residence in an unforgettable Maine summer outdoor concert accompanied by the crashing ocean waves.

Many thanks to local award-winning Allagash Brewing Company for providing the beer at Kegs & Roses, Devenish Wines for providing the wine, Taylor Morris Floral Design Studio for the floral installation on the tower, and Lynn Shafer Landscaping for shepherding the garden over the past 40 years.

WHY WE ARE FUNDRAISING

Help us build an artistic sanctuary and body of work that restores creative and physical health to individuals, our communities, and our earth.

The majority of our annual budget goes to giving our artists-in-residence a living wage and making tickets affordable for our community to witness their extraordinary art. The ticket price of our events does not cover half these costs. This fundraiser helps to make the Hogfish 2024 season possible.

Want to join us at a level you can afford?

We are committed to making all of our events accessible to those who wish to join us. If you would like a “Community Ticket” at a price that you can afford or in exchange for volunteering, please email us and we will work something out.

Unable to attend and/or want to support more?

We need your help to make Hogfish sustainable and continue bringing regenerative productions and work to Southern Maine and beyond. Please consider donating today. Hogfish Maine is a 501(c)3 organization, and your contribution is fully tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Donate today! Any amount would be appreciated. Even the smallest pebble makes a big ripple.

Join Hogfish's Regenerative Arts CSA (Community Supported Arts) and get two tickets to all Hogfish events this summer (over a $1500 value) plus more, with a tax-deductible contribution of $1000

All 2024 Regenerative Arts CSA members receive the following benefits:

• invitations to private coffee/tea walks in the rose garden, dinners and informal soirées with Hogfish artists-in-residence in Maine
• a season pass with two complimentary tickets to all Hogfish 2024 summer events (an over $1500 value), and much more.
• listing and acknoweldgement in Hogfish 2024 summer event programs and other materials.
  
  Contact our Executive Director Bettina Mehne to become a 2024 Regenerative Arts CSA member today at bettina@hogfish.org.

Interested in volunteering?

If you are interested in volunteering, we have a variety of volunteering needs that match all interests. It takes a village and we welcome you to be a part of ours. Contact our Executive Director Bettina Mehne at bettina@hogfish.org today!

Beckett Castle at 150! (1874-2024)

In 1874, lawyer, poet, amateur ornithologist, and spiritualist Sylvester Beckett built the first summer residence in Cape Elizabeth, Maine: a stone cottage with a three story tower perched on top of jagged rocks and crashing waves with a one hundred eighty degree view of the Atlantic Ocean and five lighthouses.

“Beckett Castle” quickly became the pre-eminent gathering spot for writers, artists, and society folk. Beckett was a spiritualist like Rudolph Steiner who founded the Waldorf School, and Beckett had a deep belief in the connection between the living world and the after-life. When Beckett died, many stories maintained that Beckett’s soul continued to live in the castle and by the 1970s there were numerous published reports of supernatural activities in the haunted castle.

Beckett Castle languished until social-worker and amateur rosarian Nancy Harvey won the castle at an auction in 1981. Harvey restored the property, and with the help of gardener Lynn Shafer, spent the next thirty years creating a private rose garden that was eventually featured in the final book of Peter Beales, the royal rosarian to the Queen Mother.

In 2018, Edwin and Matt Cahill purchased Beckett Castle with the dream of joining Nancy Harvey’s vision of a magical rose garden on the rocky cliffs of Cape Elizabeth with Sylvester Beckett’s castle hermitage for artists and thinkers, where the next generation can create new works and performances to inspire the communities in Maine and around the country.