The Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, popularly known as “Arts Fest,” is a five-day event that draws more than 125,000 visitors to Centre County every summer. Since its founding in 1967, the festival has become one of the top arts festivals in the United States. The festival resumes in 2022 after not being held the past two years.
The Bellefonte Art Museum for Centre County showcases the work of artists from Centre County and around the world. It also hosts regular art classes.The museum is in the Linn House, which was built in 1810 by Philip Benner and is in the Bellefonte National Register of Historic Places District.
Public motion picture screenings in Centre County paralleled the growth of the movies as a popular form of public entertainment in rural and small-town America in the first half of the 20th century, and their transformation to part of a wider range of entertainment in the late 20th and early 21st century.
The Palmer Museum of Art, on Curtin Road in the core of the University Park campus, is Penn State’s art museum. Founded in 1972, it is largest art museum between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. After an expansion and renovation, the museum was renamed in honor of benefactors, James and Barbara Palmer.
The Penn State Blue Band is the university’s marching band that performs at football games and other major events. The band, which is comprised of more than 300 members, is open to all students at the University Park campus.
The David House is a historic dwelling in Snow Shoe that is now the home of a museum to preserve the history of the Mountaintop Area. The white-clapboard house was built on North Front Street in the late 1880s by the Lehigh Valley Coal Co. to provide housing for workers.
The Land-Grant Frescoes in the foyer of Old Main are a Penn State landmark that commemorate the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant College Act and the promise of higher education. Commissioned as a class gift from the Penn State Class of 1932, the fresco on the northern wall of Old Main pays tribute to the university’s land-grant […]
Grilled Stickies are pastries that for many years were a staple of Penn State students and particularly patrons of the former Ye Olde College Diner, a favorite student hangout on College Avenue for decades. Although the diner closed in 2018, stickies continue to be made and sold.
John T. Biggers was a muralist, educator, and Penn State alumnus who dedicated his work to establishing a sense of African American identity and pride through art. His murals, portraying rural Black laborers, can be seen at Penn State in the Burrowes Building and the Paul Robeson Center. Born on April 13, 1924, in Gastonia, […]
The Rowland Theatre in Philipsburg is a historic venue that for more than 100 years has been a popular place for Centre County residents to see films and other events. The downtown theater has closed several times during its history, but was saved by the borough and community volunteers who oversee its operation today. The […]