The Cramer Exchange

The Next Chapter

The Cramer Exchange officially opened in June 2026 with our 35th Anniversary Season! Thank you for helping us realize this dream!

This season, we’ve been treated to learning, deep listening, dancing, and breaking bread at The Cramer Exchange. Our second venue amplifies community connections and plants seeds through a more intimate setting; the patio, bar, and fire ring offered invitations to share music, drinks, and stories. Our practice rooms, brand new Kawai pianos, and recording studio open doors for budding and seasoned musicians. Our first season included magic, comedy, movies, lectures, play readings, arts instruction for young and old, concerts in the round, private events, dancing, and performances paired with food. We also hosted a few post-show parties, game screenings, and celebrations.

In conjunction with our ticketed auditorium Mainstage shows, we’ve presented free concerts on The Okarma Concert Patio and inside The Cramer Exchange. Some of our favorite Door County musicians have helped us christen the new space including Paul Taylor, Lucy Hagen, Billy Dave Sherman, Cathy Grier, Ben Larsen, Ketchup, Jeanne Kuhns, Marybeth Mattson, Terry Murphy, Jay Lang, Eric Lewis, John Lewis, David Cavanaugh, and Heather Ruffolo Kraeuter. Attendees have enjoyed snacks and spirits from Chuck & Chi Chi’s Soda Fountain & Encore Bar. We hosted a dance party with Billy Dave Sherman & The Hedgehog Republic (with a view of Fish Creek's July 4th fireworks from our patio to top it off!) and a Salsa Social with instruction from Elena Santiago. We presented an encore screening of Hundreds of Beavers, a cult classic starring Door County and Northern Sky icon, Doug Mancheski, plus the magic and comedy of Rob Zabrecky. We hosted our first theater event with a play reading by Terry Moran, presented by Door Kinetic Arts Festival.

The venue’s catering kitchen and gathering space supported Peninsula Music Festival’s three-week residency by providing amenities for nine musician lunches, five pre-concert lectures, four sponsor receptions, as well as rehearsals and meetings. Sixty-one kids received meaningful arts instruction through Elena Santiago’s nine dance classes and a weeklong song- and rhyme-writing day camp led by Cactus of Grammy-award winning 23 Skidoo & The Secret Agency. This fall, we opened the Emerson Education Wing with the addition of music lessons in guitar, voice, ukulele, and piano to our programming for students of all ages, and partnered with Boys & Girls Club to offer a safe, creative, diverse space for after-school care.

We are intentionally experimenting with programming, A/V capacities, and audience configuration to gauge what works best in the space. Results will inform future seasons.

As we near the end of our first season, we continue raise funds for ongoing support for our Coda Campaign. Some naming donations are still available; donations of all sizes are welcomed and needed and will be listed alphabetically in the main entrance. We’d love to add your name to our community of supporters.