Events happening this week in downtown Wilkes-Barre: Feb. 3-9
Every Tuesday, the Downtown Wilkes-Barre Business Association and Diamond City Partnership release a list of events happening in downtown Wilkes-Barre. Subscribe here to receive this list via e-mail or just check NEPA Scene each week.
Downtown events
Tuesday, Feb. 3
Event: Wyoming Valley Art League Artists Social
Time: 11 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Location: Wyoming Valley Art League (130 S. Franklin St., REAR)
The Wyoming Valley Art League introduces its Tuesday Art Social! Come and go as you please. Bring your own art and materials and work while enjoying the company and inspiration of other artists! Members only – but anyone can come and purchase their membership the same day.
More information: wyomingvalleyartleague.org or 570-288-1020
Wednesday, Feb. 4
Event: Campion Literary Society Writing Workshop
Time: 3:30 p.m.-5 p.m.
Location: King’s College Sheehy-Farmer Campus Center, Room 115 (West Jackson St.)
Students, faculty, and members of the community get together informally to complete writing exercises and discuss their own creative writing. Workshops are student-led, last about one hour, and are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
More information: kings.edu or 570-208-5900, ext. 5487
Friday, Feb. 6
Event: Osterhout Free Movie Friday: Romance Is in the Air
Time: 2 p.m.
Location: Osterhout Free Library (71 S. Franklin St.)
The Osterhout presents free movie matinees every Friday during February! This week’s feature is “You’ve Got Mail” starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (1998, rated PG) at 2 p.m. Free and open to the public.
More information: osterhout.info or 570-821-1959
Friday, Feb. 6
Event: Leadership Wilkes-Barre Midwinter Cocktail Party
Time: 5 p.m.-8 p.m.
Location: Westmoreland Club (59 S. Franklin St.)
Support Leadership Wilkes-Barre at its annual Mid-Winter Cocktail Party. Enjoy food and live entertainment and celebrate community leadership. Win one of five great trips in the popular LWB “Get Out of Town” raffle. Cost is $40 per person; jacket and tie are required.
More information: leadershipwilkes-barre.org or 570-823-2101, ext. 135.
Saturday, Feb. 7
Event: One More Row Knit & Crochet Group
Time: 10:30 a.m.-noon
Location: Osterhout Free Library (71 S. Franklin St.)
Learn, share and knit or crochet! All ages and beginners welcome. Free and open to the public. Call 570-821-1959 to register.
More information: osterhout.info or 570-821-1959
Saturday, Feb. 7
Event: What Does the Affordable Care Act have to Do with Your Taxes?
Time: 1 p.m.
Location: OOsterhout Free Library (71 S. Franklin St.)
The Affordable Care Act has made healthcare a tax issue and is going to make filing your taxes more complicated this year. With 46 changes, this is the single largest change to the tax code in decades. You need to know if your taxes will be impacted. Representatives from H&R Block will answer these and other questions. Light refreshments will be served. Free and open to the public; please call to make a reservation.
More information: osterhout.info or 570-821-1959
Downtown exhibits
Luzerne County Historical Society Museum
(69 S. Franklin St.)
The Luzerne County Historical Society Museum is closed during the month of February for collections management and the installation of new exhibits.
King’s College Widmann Art Gallery
(Sheehy-Farmer Campus Center, between N. Main and N. Franklin Sts.)
Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
Exhibit: Jim Gavenus: “Marchers of the Movement”
Dates: Jan. 12 through Feb. 26
Jim Gavenus is an internationally recognized documentary photographer. His intimate images and poignant storytelling are evidence of our time focusing on the human condition, social injustice, and civil rights.
More information: kings.edu or 570-208-5900, ext. 5328
The Sordoni Art Gallery at Wilkes University
(Stark Learning Center, 150 S. River St.)
Exhibit: 2014–2015 Dr. Roy E. Morgan Exhibition, Dale Threlkeld: End of Illusion
Dates: Jan. 27 through May 17
The work of contemporary American artist Dale Threlkeld is the subject of this retrospective exhibition, organized in conjunction with the Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University. Threlkeld’s “breakthrough moment” occurred in the early 1990s, leading to the signature painting style he is known for today. Meet Dale Threlkeld at an Artist’s Opening Reception at the Sordoni Art Gallery on Thursday, Jan. 29 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. to celebrate the exhibition opening.
More information: wilkes.edu/arts/Sordoni-Art-Gallery or 570-408-4325
Wyoming Valley Art League’s Circle Center for the Arts
(130 S. Franklin St.)
Hours: Tuesday, 1:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m.; Third Friday Art Walk, 5 p.m.–8 p.m.
Exhibit: Members exhibit
WVAL members are currently exhibiting their works in the Member’s Gallery on the second floor.
More information: wyomingvalleyartleague.org or facebook.com/wvartleague
Walk Wilkes-Barre
This week’s historic site is:
Wilkes-Barre City Hall
40 E. Market St. (1893)
The hive of honeybees illustrated in Wilkes-Barre’s distinctive diamond-shaped city seal, depicted in stained glass over City Hall’s front door, is emblematic of the city’s 19th-century boast that it was “busy as a beehive.” The stained glass window is only one of the many interesting late Victorian details incorporated in this, Wilkes-Barre’s first and only purpose-built municipal building. When it was built, City Hall presented an unusual combination of architectural styles: a redstone Romanesque base, Victorian banded brick and terra cotta upper floors with gargoyles and balconies, and Queen Anne towers and gables at the roofline. At the time, one regional newspaper called it “one of the finest city halls in the State, and probably the handsomest of any inland city.” Though its towers and turrets are no more, having been felled in a truly regrettable renovation, City Hall remains a building of substance and architectural distinction. The architects were Benjamin Davey, Jr. and William W. Neuer.
