Since its incorporation in 1968, the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania is a nonprofit organization that exists to serve students and artists in Centre County, the adjacent counties, and beyond. Today, the Art Alliance has approximately 350 members, all of whom are dedicated to recognizing, developing, and supporting visual arts. It has art exhibitions, art education for all ages, and an extensive outreach program.
Adult classes, workshops, and short-term exhibits take place in the Art Center building at 818 Pike Street in Lemont. Children’s classes and summer camps are held in the walkout lower level of the adjacent building at 824 Pike Street.
Marie Doll has been executive director of the Art Alliance since 2005 and is responsible for raising funds through grants and donations from individuals and businesses. Originally from Lansdale, she came to State College when her husband, Clyde, was finishing his bachelor’s degree in business at Penn State in 1959. Clyde, who has since passed away, was a wood sculptor and a sidewalk sale artist for many years in the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.
In addition to her work with the Art Alliance, Doll is a board member of Penn State Centre Stage and a committee chair for the Pennsylvania Special Olympics Summer Games.
Town&Gown founder Mimi Barash Coppersmith sat down with Doll at the Corner Room in State College to discuss the first Arts Festival, the people who helped make it happen, and how the Art Alliance evolved from it.
Mimi: Welcome Marie! You’re here because we both survived long enough to remember the first festival. This is the 50th edition of the Arts Festival, so why don’t we start with you briefly telling us some of the little details that you remember from that first festival.
Marie: When I think back to that first festival, it was kind of a joyful time when a lot of talented people put their heads together to get this first festival in the books. The Pennsylvania Council of the Arts had just been formed the year before, and they offered grants to communities that wanted to do an arts festival. So people from the College of Arts and Architecture got together with the Chamber of Commerce and they decided that they would have a festival — it would be a town-and-gown event.
Mimi: Two important names are Jules Heller, who ended up being very famous, and Wally Lloyd, who achieved his own fame in this community.
Marie: Right. So it’s really amazing when you think that they started from zero and, in just a few months, had put this event together.
Mimi: Now did they get the grant?
Marie: $2,000, which today seems like a drop in the bucket. You couldn’t do much with it today, but boy they did! Of course, because of the university, there was already a lot of art going on — the visual arts, dance, music, theater — so it just needed to be transported to the event.
Mimi: The only thing I clearly remember from that first festival was the row of booths. We’re sitting in the Corner Room and I’m pointing to the row of booths along that part of College Avenue in front of Old Main, and it went from Allen to Pugh — and that was it.
Marie: And that was it! And there was a fence all along, and fortunately the wall was available for 3D work. And some of the artists, instead of hanging their paintings on the fence, just stood them up against it — and it worked out beautifully.
Mimi: I remember Bill Coleman was in the first spot. I was told by one of the people who has exhibited at every festival, Dick Brown, that you had to get there early in the morning at the earlier festivals, so you got a good spot.
Marie: There were no spots assigned. My husband was a wood sculptor, and so he exhibited in that first festival. We would arrive as early as possible, toting all four kids, and set up his booth.
Mimi: When did the festival go up Allen Street and down Fraser? When did all that happen?
Marie: It just kind of grew each year, particularly as the sidewalk sale grew. Not only did local people know about it, but artists from other communities that wanted to come and exhibit here.
Mimi: Sy Barash, Guy Kresge, Wally Lloyd — people jumped into the fold early. The dream was, “Let’s get some people to State College in the summer.” It was dead!
Marie: Now for some reason we decided to do it nine days. It was two weekends and then the weekdays during the week. Well during the week, for most people this was like their second job, so there weren’t a lot of artists there during the week. … One of the most exciting things was that Ray Shafer, governor of Pennsylvania, came to open the first festival and landed in a helicopter on Old Main lawn.
Mimi: Well Ray Shafer loved to come to State College. He was here a lot, especially during the football season.
Marie: That’s why many people come to State College, but now they have another reason to come: the Arts Festival!
Mimi: Getting back to the beginning. I have always believed in my heart that Dee Blumenthal really was the person that got the festival going. In her lifetime, she has never really been formally acknowledged. And if nothing else, this column will do that. Talk a little bit about Dee Blumenthal and her art.
Marie: She was a wonderful artist, in her own right. She was a painter, and painted I think what she would call abstract paintings, but they were very strong. They were very deep, and they just hit you right in the face. She was friends of some of the people in the College of Arts and Architecture and other visual arts people. So when this idea came about, they were smart enough to bring Dee into that.
Mimi: I’m not sure that she wasn’t the one that brought the idea to the table. Apparently my recollection is that they had an Arts Festival in Altoona, and she came to some meeting and said, “If they can do it in Altoona, we can certainly do it in State College.”
Marie: I can certainly hear her saying that. And she may have found out that there were grants available, and the new Pennsylvania Council of the Arts was encouraging communities to do this.
Mimi: Out of her passion for art evolved, after the festival, the Art Alliance. How did that happen?
Marie: There were several people, including Dee, after the Arts Festival who said we should have a year-round nonprofit community-art organization dedicated to the promotion of the visual arts. Of course, she took the ball and ran with it. About 12 people met in her living room. She had recruited these people. Some were artists, some were business people. So the idea for the Art Alliance was formed, and she quickly decided that we needed a building.
Mimi: That’s where I come in.
Marie: That’s where you come in. What she really wanted was that big stone house on Pike Street that has now been made into apartments. It’s directly across from the building we got, but we didn’t have the money for it. But we did find this little building that had belonged to the Lemont Band Association. It had originally been the YMCA building on campus, behind Old Main. We had a picture — you could see the back of Old Main and this little building on campus and a big sign, YMCA. At some point, they didn’t need the building anymore. The Lemont Band bought it, and it was cut in half and moved from behind Old Main to Pike Street in Lemont.
Mimi: There was a story about this in Town&Gown a great number of years ago.
Marie: And community bands at that time, and this was in the early 1900s, were very popular. Every community had a band that played at everything. The old-timers in Lemont can remember in the summer [the band] would leave the door open when they were inside practicing, and people would just sit on the grass.
Mimi: Like it was a concert.
Marie: That was before Pike Street became the busiest street in the county. But at some point the band disbanded, and the building was not really used for many, many years. It was used as a voting precinct for a while, but then it was pretty dilapidated. It was for sale for $5,500, so Dee and I went to the bank in Bellefonte.
Mimi: I think it was Bellefonte Trust. And who was the man we met?
Marie: Mahlon Robb.
Mimi: President of Bellefonte Trust, which is now M&T Bank.
Marie: He said, “Well, what’s your collateral?” And Dee just sat up real straight and said, “We have 120 paying members.” Like that was collateral. And he said, “Okay!” I’m sure he had to take it back to their board or whatever.
Mimi: How much did we need to raise to remodel it.
Marie: It was $7,000.
Mimi: I think we raised more than that.
Marie: It was so sorely needed because the heating system was an old furnace that no longer worked. There was no kitchen or bathroom. There was an outhouse! The floors needed to be redone. Everything needed to be redone — everything you could possibly do to a building. Some of it we did with volunteer help. In fact, my oldest son, who walked into the Art Alliance recently, said, “I remember as a kid I helped paint the inside of this building!”
Mimi: I think many art organizations hold together because of the passion of the people involved, and I think Art Alliance is an expression of the passion that exists in creative minds and bodies.
Marie: It really is, and the networking between the artists is a beautiful thing to see. I often get a call from someone who says, “I’m moving to State College and I’m an artist, and I want to meet other artists.” So we invite them in, either to a class or to one of our receptions, and right away they network with people.
Mimi: So with the anniversary of the Arts Festival, something incredible to celebrate, it’s also incredible to celebrate how all of the artists are stepping up to the plate here. Why do you think that happened?
Marie: I think it’s because of the people who live here, and when you have a museum like the Palmer Museum, which is, as everyone knows, such an outstanding museum. When you’re looking at that kind of quality … that is why I am not surprised that our Arts Festival is considered one of the best in the United States, and it’s still here 50 years later and still doing great. It doesn’t surprise me in the least, and it’s because of the people in this community.
Mimi: We keep integrating new people who rise to the task, which doesn’t always happen.
Marie: Our younger, new members are wonderful.
Mimi: How can the festival get even better? Any thoughts?
Marie: I think it’s fun when new ideas come into the festival, and I think that’s really important because many people, not just people in Centre County but people from everywhere, come every year.
Mimi: What are the challenges facing arts organizations going forward?
Marie: All nonprofit organizations face financial challenges. When the economy tanked, funds were cut from the National Endowment for the Arts, affecting state art organizations such as Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and that trickled down to cuts on the local level. We all depend on support from individuals and businesses, and in this community, they are very generous. We wouldn’t be at this level without them.
Mimi: A lot of the businesses are tremendously generous to the arts. They wouldn’t be at the levels that they are without them. They encourage more people to participate in the organizations that make this a great place to live, work, and play.
Marie: Because that gets you involved in the community. Even though you just moved here, you’re suddenly part of the community.
Mimi: On behalf of the whole community, I want to thank you as one of a number of great leaders of the arts community in Happy Valley. And as we celebrate the 50th festival, you and I can bask in the glory that we were here when it really started!
Marie: Thank you! This has been fun!
