Arts Fest Offers New Exhibit Featuring Centre County Photography

While many of this year’s Arts Fest attractions will be familiar, there is one new aspect for folks to enjoy.

New to the event is a three-part photography exhibition, including a show featuring images photographers captured in Centre County.

The festival’s “Seeing America: Centre County in Photographs” exhibit can be found at the Art Alliance, 824 Pike St., Lemont. The display features 48 photos, which photographer and juror Barbara Houghton narrowed down from 141 entries.

Drew Frank, a State College photographer, has four photos featured in the exhibit. Frank, who professionally photographs weddings and portraits, says he stepped outside of his element for the contest by using a different camera and capturing landscape images.

“I didn’t want to be anything people had already known me for, so I picked up a new camera and forced myself to try something new,” Frank says.

Frank’s photo of a pile of mailboxes at the Penn State mobile home park received an award of merit. Still, something even better happened as a result of the show – his work is hanging next to his mentor and high school photography teacher Robert Baumbach.

“That act means more to me than winning any award,” Frank says. “He was one of my mentors growing up. To not only enter into a competition with him, but for both of us to get pictures accepted … it was very cool.”

Marie Doll, executive director of the Art Alliance, says Centre County has wonderful artists in all mediums, including photography.

“It’s an excellent exhibit of high quality work by local artists,” she says. “For any kind of artist, including photographers, this area offers such rich experiences.”

The Art Alliance exhibit is part of a larger, three-part photography event during the arts festival.

Another component is “First Person: Seeing America,” where Ensemble Galilei will perform at 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday at the State Theatre on College Avenue. The musical group will perform while images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art are projected onto the screen and Adrian LaTourelle and Kimiko Gelman narrate.

Most performances are free events, however, this event requires a $10 button, which can be purchased at many downtown State College businesses or you can click HERE.

The third photography component is “Seeing America: Photographs from the Permanent Collection,” at the Penn State Palmer Museum of Art. The exhibition, organized and curated by Joyce Robinson, examines the people and places of America as captured by notable photographers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

For more information on the photography exhibits, click HERE.

The 48th annual Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts will be held Wednesday through Sunday in downtown State College. Founded by the State College Chamber of Commerce and Penn State’s College of Arts and Architecture, the festival draws roughly 100,000 visitors.

The festival features a nationally recognized Sidewalk Sale and Exhibition, a juried gallery exhibition, Children and Youth Day, the Downtown State College Italian Street Painting Festival, educational opportunities, music, dance and theatrical performances in a variety of outdoor and indoor venues.

For more information, including a schedule of events, click HERE.

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