Allens Lane Art Center offers classes in dance, theater, visual arts, liberal arts and sculpture.It features an art gallery, which encourages local artists to submit their information for potential exhibition and a theater which offers a variety of shows throughout the year on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Food can be brought into the theater, and dinners and drinks are sold at shows. According to its website, the center "was founded in 1953 by an interracial group of Mount. Airy residents who were concerned about the dangers of increasing community tension. Most were parents of children attending local schools who felt that increasing access to the arts would be a way to bring people together as well as develop individual talents."