POTTSTOWN PA – Pottstown Community Arts (PCA) and The High Street Music Company have been thinking about how to foster creativity. For months they’ve considered ways to promote collaboration and enthusiasm between artists, art-related businesses, and residents in and beyond the borough.
Their answer?
It’s the first Pottstown Arts In The Park event, planned for May 11 (2024; Saturday) from noon to 3 p.m. in Riverfront Park on College Drive. It is intended not only to showcase the wealth and diversity of local artistic talent, but also to create and strengthen local arts connections.
“There are so many opportunities for us to work together,” PCA Chair Marie Haigh observes.
“Everything’s already here,” Kristyn Rieger of The High Street Music Company agrees. Haigh calls Rieger the “visionary behind the project.” Arts workers – a term loosely encompassing a variety of business owners, arts educators, gallery managers, and artists themselves in any medium or discipline – “are also already here,” Reiger says. “We can be supporting each other.”
Arts In The Park is currently planned to blend Pottstown area organizations, arts and crafts vendors, artists, and visitors in a relaxed and casual atmosphere across one of Pottstown’s most scenic venues. It is envisioned with two stage areas for live performances and demonstrations, and a “street area” where the public can explore artworks for sale and personally meet artists who created them.
Activities already scheduled include music, dance, and theatrical performances, visual arts workshops, and a lengthy list of things to engage budding artists of all ages. Food vendors will be on hand too.
The concept is not new, of course. The four-day Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in State College PA, held annually during July, is one of the best known of its type in the state. It attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year.
The far smaller but equally well known Summer Arts and Crafts Show in historic Stockbridge MA weaves its vendor and visitor tents and stages partially though the town’s small park. It then continues down the street scape made famous by painter Norman Rockwell, with stops on the front steps of several businesses.
The Arts in the Park event has the potential over time to become a similar regional attraction, organizers believe. “We’d like to involve everything that’s creative and brings joy,” Haigh explains, and they hope this year marks the start of a longer history of Pottstown’s success as an arts place-to-be.
So, too, do those who have already signed on to participate:
- Pottstown Community Arts, which is part of the Mosaic Community Land Trust, will demonstrate flower crafts;
- The High Street Music Company will present several live music performances;
- Pottstown Dance Theater will present dance performances;
- Art Fusion 19464 will demonstrate make-and-take arts;
- The Hill School Art Department will bring supplies for visitors to make a “passport” that they can have stamped at participating tables and later redeem for a small prize;
- Red Royal Diamond Dancers will offer dance performances;
- Denise of Hippie Girl Art Company will demonstrate glitter tattoos and balloon art;
- The Pottstown Regional Public Library will display its new Story Walk in the park;
- Centro Cultural Latinos Unidos, which will offer kids an opportunity to participate in its eighth annual graphics contest; and
- ARTEC, the Pottstown community maker space, also will have a presence.
Craft and food vendors currently include Hooked by Alannah, Bug and Bean Boutique, Anne’s Art, Sweet Bliss, 2 Redhead Sisters, Queerly Made, Kayla Ackelson, Beadiful Designs, Carnival Cravers, Soap by Pat, Phil’s Woods, Becx by Design, Trauma Martha, RAD Art, RenaRoos Nails, and JCM Designs.
If it sounds like local businesses, organizations, or other artists not already mentioned would benefit from the inaugural edition of Pottstown Arts In The Park, consider them already invited, PCA suggests. For more information, call Haigh at 610-574-8016 or e-mail Pottstown Community Arts at ToPottstownArts@gmail.com
Graphic provided to Travels With The Post by Pottstown Community Arts
Photo by Tetiana SHYSHKINA on Unsplash, used under license
Resurfacing Planned Next Week in Green Lane, Marlborough