Artist of the Month

By JASON L. LEVAN The Penn’s Woods Music Festival returns in August to the Penn State University campus after a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The music festival offers chamber music and orchestral performances by dozens of professional musicians from across the country performing alongside Penn State School of Music faculty and alumni.…

By Kristen Gimelli Scott Hildebrand makes furniture that has a story behind it. Hildebrand’s Rothrock Wood Project salvages downed trees, turning them into bar tops, coffee tables, end tables, dining tables, charcuterie boards, and grazing tables. “It’s not just a piece of furniture; it’s a conversation piece,” he says. Hildebrand got the idea for his…

Richard Sleigh of Boalsburg has made a life of playing and teaching the harmonica and building custom harps. He’s shared the stage with symphony orchestras and musical giants – Bo Diddley and Taj Mahal, to name just a couple. Sleigh, 69, is known the world over as a master harmonicist, but he traces his inspiration…

Bellefonte is undergoing a revolution – or at least that’s what many of its small-business owners believe. More specifically, Bellefonte seems to be enjoying the opening of many community-focused small businesses. One of these small businesses is Belle Mercantile, a collective marketplace described on its website as a “craft fair meets farmers market.”   The store…

A few weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, we began to realize that it would last much longer than we initially thought. As cases began to soar and our realities changed, it became clear that this would be a time that we would never forget. Patricia House, executive director of the Bellefonte Art Museum for Centre…

For the first time since it closed last March because of the pandemic, Penn State’s Palmer Museum of Art is welcoming visitors inside its doors again. Patrons will notice new coronavirus procedures set in place to protect the community, according to Museum Director Erin Coe. Visitors must reserve a ticket online so that the museum…

Like many retirees, Chet and Carol DeFurio enjoy traveling and seeing the country. Little could they have imagined that on a cross-country train trip, a visit to the H. Driehaus Gallery of Stained Glass at Chicago’s Navy Pier would lead them to begin new careers and a family business. “It blew me away,” says Chet.…