Parkersburg Art Center

Founded in 1938 by members of the Parkersburg WV Woman’s Club, the Art Center is the oldest arts organization in WV in continuous operation! Now in its fifth home, the Art Center is located on a busy corner right downtown. The facility houses six separate gallery areas (including one just for kids!) that can be used individually or in tandem, and those galleries hold an average of 16 exhibits each year. Shows range from the works of internationally known artists though art by area schoolchildren, and there is ALWAYS something interesting to see. The ghosts here are transplants from the former haunted Camden Theater, which once stood on this site. The theater burned down in 1928, and its resident ghosts remained to haunt the land where the theater once stood. When the Parkersburg Art Center was built, the “homeless” ghosts moved right in. According to witnesses, the phantom smell of popcorn wafts through the air here, and large heavy objects are moved or dropped by invisible hands.