Borough celebrates the arts
If you took a walk around Pottstown Saturday, you probably noticed area businesses looking a little more artsy.
Pottstown held its second Arts Walk to celebrate and embrace the arts in the area. Those who got free tickets to the event were able to experience different kinds of art at different locations throughout town in a “pub crawl” format.
“This is our spring Arts Walk,” said Lauren Pearson-Swanson, director of development for the Steel River Playhouse. “We’re doing Arts Walk three times per year in an effort to bring wonderful new people to High Street and Pottstown and to have people see what the businesses have to offer and what the arts organizations have to offer.”
And there was plenty to see on Saturday.
Inside Steel River Playhouse, Russ Ferrara, a guitarist with the two-person band Gray Dog Down, helped kids learn how to play the ukulele in between performances in the lobby. Guests who visited the playhouse also got a chance to tour the building and get a sneak peek at a rehearsal for the upcoming performance of “The Little Mermaid.”
“These events are all free, which is family friendly and welcoming to everybody in the community. There’s no reason for any kind of ticket to be charged all the time,” Pearson-Swanson added. “We’re so happy to open our building to the community.”
If participants were looking for more live musical performances, they could make their way to Montgomery County Community College where the school was celebrating 20 years in Pottstown with food and music from
Jordan White, Hexwork, Madam Ink, Another Day Dawns and Red Hill Rambler. The college also featured a screening of Rogue One later in the day and an art gallery at it’s North building.
Live music was also being performed at The High Street Music Company, 135 E. High St., by The Craig Clemens Jazz Trio.
In addition, interested visitors could take a walk down the street to Smith Family Plaza, where they could enjoy tents set up by the Pottstown Historical Society, Beverly’s Pastry Shop, Lily’s Grill and All about the Wood.
“I’m here representing the Pottstown Historical society with a table because we figured there may be a lot of people coming through who would be interested in the historical society,” said Deb Penrod of the Pottstown Historical Society. “We also have an event coming up on Monday, May 15, at 7 p.m. at the historical society where Mike Yannessa will be talking about the history of the automobile in Pottstown.”
In addition to the tents set up, live music was also being performed in the plaza for guests to enjoy.
“The Arts Walk was an initiative started by Art Fusion, Steel River, local artists and what PDIDA did was work on some windows,” said Sheila Dugan, executive manager of PDIDA. “So we started doing window art so that empty windows became more attractive. Instead of seeing them empty, they would see artwork.”
Artwork could be seen on buildings including Audio Video Junction at the intersection of North Hanover and East High streets, where now instead of a plain window, passersby can see a painted gray and black skyline.
Other businesses including Connections on High, iCreate Cafe, Juan Carlos, Grumpy’s and High Street Music also hosted events featuring art of some kind. From 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Weitzenkorn’s showcased artwork from two local artists and Art Fusion 19464 hosted the Keystone Dreams art show from 12 to 6 p.m.