We encourage and celebrate
the creative and performing arts
that enrich the human spirit
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.
We look forward to welcoming you to the Arts Center.
OAC Golden anniversary
It has been just a short fifty years since the concept and first exhibition, classes, and musical performances started the Owatonna Arts Center in 1975. To celebrate its golden anniversary, the OAC would like to feature an exhibition of the talented individuals and artists of Steele County - from the past to the present in 2025. If you are one of those artists or have a work from one of the artists who is no longer with us, we would like to include it in the 2025 exhibition. Please contact the OAC if you have some art to share.
I was honored to have Al Smith draw my portrait. There was an unveiling at the Art Center and a celebration of my 75th birthday. Thank you to all the beautiful people who attended . I am honored and humbled by all the love the community gave me. A very special Thank You to Al Smith for the extraordinary portrait he drew of me. I am honored.
- Silvan Durben
Maxine Ronglien, co-founder of the State School Orphanage Museum, wrote about the beautiful stained-glass windows in the Owatonna Arts Center (former Children's Dining Hall).
The windows were installed in 1878 in the original Methodist church on Main Street. It took four years to construct and ship the glass. Coincidently, this was the church of State School Superintendent Galen Merrill and his family.
The legend goes that when the church was being torn down in 1974, Marianne Zamboni Young (one of OAC’s first Board members) threw herself in front of the wrecking ball and stopped the demolition for two days so the windows could be carefully removed. The newly formed Owatonna Arts Center wanted them!
Wenger Corporation constructed the metal frames that hold them now. Thanks to Mrs. Young, the windows were saved and became the iconic symbol of the Owatonna Arts Center.
