Jan.
22, 2007: Where Art And Business Collaborate
Photo and Story by Joe
Zlomek
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Reading, 60 miles northwest
of Philadelphia. In less than 18 months, it has attracted national attention as a venue to see, and buy, creative products of local artists in almost every medium.
“This is our attempt to re-gentrify Reading, and it’s working!” says the beaming Viener, who with his wife Sue operates the
Outsider Folk Art Gallery on the fifth floor of GoggleWorks’ main building.
“We’re beginning to be known all over the country,” Summons agrees. A sculptor who works in metals, gypsum and
clay, he runs a studio on the second floor with partner and fellow artist Sandra Kaye.
Reading can use the help. Its economy relied heavily through the 1930s on rail freight traffic, which declined, and then through the 1960s on textile mills and related industries, which moved south. In the 1970s it used the former mills to reinvent itself as the
Outlet Store Capital of the
World, a concept so successful that it was duplicated elsewhere and made Reading obsolete by comparison.
City business leaders declared themselves unwilling to quit. Their vision for a major center in which artwork can be created, shown and sold was “fueled by the proven success of similar adaptive reuse arts center projects,”
according to GoggleWorks’ publicists. Like the outlet stores, it began with a makeover of industrial real estate (in this case, a former manufacturer of eye safety goggles and gas masks) into gallery and retail space.
Dalloz Safety closed its eyewear plant near the heart of Reading in 2002, but its buildings presented prime opportunities, Summons said. Turning them into a reality, however, demanded three years of hard work, a hefty infusion of state funds, and agreements between community arts organizations – some of which compete for similar audiences – to be housed under one roof.
With its lofty ceilings, exposed structural steel beams, sandblasted brick walls, and refinished wood floors, GoggleWorks compares favorably to artists’ havens in much larger cities. It houses
34 artists’
studios, a 4,000-square-foot woodworking shop, a 131-seat movie theater, dance studios, a ceramics studio, a jewelry studio, a glass-blowing facility, and
the offices of 26 different cultural
groups.
Moreover, it’s open to the public seven days a week without an admission fee. That fact has made it a major East Coast attraction for cultural tourism. The
Washington Post
and U.S. Airways magazine have given it extended news coverage, and bus companies regularly schedule excursions to it.
“The exposure we artists get to the outside is priceless,” Summons notes. Viener, who was in shirt manufacturing for years and knows the history of Reading’s textile business first-hand, indicates that open houses
GoggleWorks holds on the second Sunday of each month
occasionally draw
crowds that rival the shopping outlets.
Now the city’s task is to make a good thing even better. A new parking garage and more retail space is going up on an adjacent lot.
Public officials and developers also have announced plans to begin renovating a currently unused
building, connected to GoggleWorks by a three-story pedestrian bridge, into apartments and more theaters during 2007.
They’re calling it GoggleWorks II. |
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