Deane Center for the Performing Arts

The face of Wellsboro keeps changing, but it's not always a bad thing. I remember Davis Furniture, my uncle worked there for a period of time. It was a good store, but it closed. The building was mostly vacant for a long time, and that's never good for a town. Luckily the Deane Center came into existence.

The building was purchased with a donation and with other fundraising efforts, the Deane Center for the Performing Arts came into being. The Deane Center's mission is to provide a venue for the arts, both community and professional to rehearse and deliver performances that are educational and entertaining. The goal is affordable performances for the area. I took my dad to a Johnny Cash impersonator last December, and he loved it.

There are also music practice/music lesson rooms. From My Shelf Books Vs. The Evil Empire used one of these rooms for the premier of the webseries. It was free to use with a reservation and very much appreciated. There are also several large reception rooms and a board room available for meeting space at reasonable rental rates.

From My Shelf Books recently hosted Jay Paterno, the son of Joe Paterno. It was our first book event that was so big that we couldn't hold it in the bookstore. Luckily, there was the Deane Center. We were going to hold it in the lobby, but it was so big that we needed the Coolidge theatre.

It was a reasonable rate to rent, and we would never have been able to hold as many people as we did without it. It's my hope that we will be able to draw other authors, writers, and public figures in the future, but the thing is, you can too. The Deane Center is there for the public to use, and you are really only limited by your imagination.

Here's to the Deane Center and Tioga County bringing lots of interesting events that are both entertaining and educational to the area.