Best Performing Arts Venue
Sunset Center
908 San Carlos St., Carmel
(831) 620-2048
In 1926 – the year Charles E. Ringling died – the beautiful campus of what now is the Sunset Cultural Center came into being as a school. But when the school got its performing arts venue three years later, the fate of the building changed. More and more coveted as a space of concerts and lectures, with the Carmel Bach Festival and other annual initiatives growing each year, the center eventually became what it is now: a performance space that also houses lecture halls, important gallery spaces and more. Sunset Center just launched a “Century of Creativity,” a five-year journey to its theater’s centennial in 2031, honoring the center’s remarkable evolution from schoolhouse to performing arts landmark, with a series of events beginning in the fall of 2026.