There was color, movement and art Friday evening at a ribbon-cutting officially opening the outdoor Art Park at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts.
The event held in the facility’s newly completed courtyard drew a crowd of community members, local leaders and sponsors.
The festivities included interactive family-friendly activities and refreshments.
Many in the group held aloft colorful paper and fabric puppets resembling mythical butterflies, fish and dragons.
Levi Landis, president and executive director of the art center, kicked things off with a little background. The idea of transforming a former loading dock into an outdoor art park took root in 2019, he said.
“We were thinking at GoggleWorks a lot about what we could do differently, how we could engage the community in new ways,” he said. “And out of the doors into the alleyway, there stepped a young girl named Maria, and she asked a question, ‘Why is there no art out here?’ Well, today there is, there’s art out here.”
Those attending marveled at the transformation of the once-neglected space into a dynamic, vibrant cultural hub.
Part of the project involved paving what had been the former factory building’s loading dock area with a geometric design, relieved with landscaped beds.
The curves in the hardscape temper the angles of the block-like buildings on the GoggleWorks campus, said Sandy Solomon, CEO of Sweet Street and chair of GoggleWorks and the Art Park committee.
“Our team set out with the goal to soften the geometry of the site with curves and circles,” she said. “And as happens, the geometry took on a look much larger meaning for all of us on the design team as the design unfolded.”
Solomon said the sectioned circles, filled with rectangle, square and fan shapes of different colors and textures squares, was laid in a purposeful and artistic way. The various parts come together to form a whole design in a way not unlike those in the Reading community.
“I’d like you to take time to understand and look at the complexity and sort of wind into that feeling of what we’ve created here,” Solomon said. “It’s all about the unity that we’re experiencing today across an entire community.”
Landis thanked all those who support the project, including the city of Reading and Berks County elected officials. The city and county contributed $500,000 each in American Rescue Plan Act funds.
He also thanked the nonprofit arts organization Barrio Alegria and the Daniel Torres Hispanic Center for partnering with the GoggleWorks in reaching out to the local Latino population.
Speakers at the event included state Sen. Judy Schwank and state Rep. Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz, who started her restaurant Mi Casa Su Casa in the Goggleworks café 19 years ago.
Other speaker were City Council President Donna Reed and Councilman O. Christopher Miller; Michael Toledo, executive director of the Hispanic Center; Berks County Commission Dante Santoni; Edvard Philipson, vice chairman of GoggleWorks; and Marlin Miller, co-founder and former chairman and CEO of the multi-billion-dollar Arrow International, who with the late Albert Boscov and some others founded the art center.
Miller said when the former goggles and safety glass closed about 20 years ago, former Mayor Tom McMahon was in office.
“(The owners) walked into his office and said, ‘we’re leaving town. Here are the keys to this place,’” Miller said. “And poor Tommy didn’t know what to do about it.”
To make a long story short, Miller said, he, McMahon, Boscov and some others successfully developed a strong arts community in the old factory.
McMahon and Toledo particularly singled out Boscov as the visionary behind the arts center.
A highlight of the event was the Bread and Puppet Big Band parade, featuring large-scale puppets created by teaching artist Suzanne Fellows and her students from Reading Area Community College.
The puppet procession captivated the audience as it made its way to Lauer’s Park Elementary School for a stage performance.
GoggleWorks staff also collected community feedback as part of the Lauer’s Park Neighborhood planning initiative, sponsored by the Regional Foundation, which works to improve the quality of life in low-income communities.
For more information about future programming and events, visit goggleworks.org.
Source: Berkshire mont