The Marion Art Center was founded in 1957 by a group of amateur actors and members of St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Marion. The minister, John Albert, was very interested in the theater, and he organized and directed several plays put on by young members of his church who called themselves the Hornblowers. The group performed multiple plays as fundraisers for the church before they began renting the Universalist church in Marion in 1957. Today the art center owns the church building and continues, among other things, to produce plays and sponsor art exhibits in its Cecil Clark Davis Gallery. Marion Art Center documents the rich history of the center that became an active and vital part of the community.