• Coordinating, Communicating and Advocating for the Arts in the Lehigh Valley

    Art Around Every Corner

  • CCA Announces Public Artist Call for DaVinci Science Center Mural Project

    Semi-Permanent Mural at 813 Hamilton Street Location

    Artists are to submit proposals for designing and installing a mural at the location of the future DaVinci Science Center building

     

    • Mural must be inspired by Da Vinci’s “Notebook Sketches of Science” drawings and integration of science and the arts.
    • Mural will be semi-permanent and will be removed at a later date in 2023.
    • Mural will be installed on an exterior wall and will be designed in separate movable panels that may be installed at additional locations after the initial installation ends in 2023.
    • Mural must have a minimum three-year outdoor life cycle.
    • Wall dimensions for the mural.  The property, adjacent to the PPL Plaza, is 119 feet long. The mural will be positioned towards the front of the building. 69 feet wide by 25 feet high is the area for the mural.
    • Mural will be positioned at a minimum height of 10 feet from ground level.
    • Installation of the movable mural at this location will be the responsibility of the artist and how the mural is designed.
    • Artist is responsible to secure all permits.
    • Artist is to have up to date liability insurance coverage.
    • Artist compensation for the mural and installation is $22,000.
    • Artist will retain mural copyrights and CCA and The DaVinci Center will retain rights to use the image for marketing purposes.

     

    Eligibility:

     

    This. Artist Call is open to individuals in the region, with preference given to those who live and work in the Lehigh Valley.

    Artist must have professional experience in mural design and execution.

     

    Submission requirements

    Proposal must be submitted by email to by February 4, 2022

    dearte2@verizon.net and Sharonesmith2295@gmail.com

     

    Please type “Da Vinci Mural Proposal” in the subject line of your email.

     

    REQUIRED INFORMAION

    • Email entries must contain artist contact information:  name, address, phone number, and email.
    • Artist statement to include a bio, images of artwork, and references.
    • Artist to include sample sketches of mural design ideas.
    • Artist to include sample budget covering all costs including, materials, installation costs and artist fee.
    • Time Frame - Mural to be completed and installed by May 2022

    Selection

    Each proposal will be reviewed and selected by CCA and the DaVinci Science Center and panelists representing the Allentown community. Notifications of first round selected artist will be contacted via email or phone for additional information. (3) Finalist artists will be compensated $500 for their efforts. All others not selected will be notified by email.

     

    Thank you for your submission.

  • Covid-19 Lehigh Valley Arts & Culture
    PHASE 2 Survey results released

    The Cultural Coalition of Allentown (CCA) today announced the results of the Lehigh Valley Arts & Culture Covid-19 Relief Fund Phase 2 Survey. The findings are dire. The Lehigh Valley’s artistic and cultural community is unquestionably in economic crisis due to the pandemic. In response, CCA

    launched a fundraiser at lvarts.org to address the immediate urgent needs for arts organizations and individual artists.

     

    CCA conducted a Covid-19 Initial Impact Survey in April—within a few weeks of the statewide shutdown—establishing a benchmark on the immediate impact of the pandemic. A more- detailed second phase survey followed, May 11–15.

     

    In total, more than 200 individuals and 50 arts and cultural organizations from throughout the region and representing a wide range of fields completed surveys. Results show that the arts and culture sector, which previous research estimated has an impact of $185 million annually on the region’s economy, is now bracing to lose up to two-thirds of its activity and revenue.

     

    According to the data, nearly all (97%) of artists had work canceled due to the crisis, with nearly 70% of those who rely on non-arts related jobs losing income. With the collapse of outlets for their work, Lehigh Valley artists, on average in the Phase 2 survey, reported they expect to lose $20,000 and 56% report their annual income will be cut by at least half. Even more grim, nearly one-third of artists expect to lose more than 75 cents of every dollar they would usually earn for the year. Particularly hard hit are women artists. Already paid less than their male counterparts, women artists in the Lehigh Valley are more than 50 percent more likely to report the biggest income losses.

     

    As a result, insecurities among Lehigh Valley Artist in paying for even the most basic needs rose in May, compared to April. More than half are finding acquiring supplies a challenge. Especially troubling, more than two in five Lehigh Valley artists surveyed now report trouble paying for housing and food.

    Similarly, dire, the finances of arts and cultural organizations are rapidly deteriorating. Indeed, the crisis appears to be literarily an existential one for a significant share of the most beloved non-profits. Fully 100% of the organizations had to canceled events in the previous 30 days.

     

    Looking forward, on average Lehigh Valley arts and culture organizations project they will lose nearly two-thirds of their audience and more than half of their annual revenues. Yet the region’s non-profits are ill-prepared to weather the crisis much longer. By May, fewer than 2 in 5 had rainy day funds with more than half the funds remaining. Only 1 in 6 had funds designed to last more than 3 months.

     

    For employees of these arts and culture organizations the reality is already poor, and the outlook getting worse. Nearly four in five organizations have reported staff layoffs or furloughs, with nearly 60% of paid staff being laid off. Moreover, two-thirds of organizations have made or are planning to make salary reductions for remaining staff. Many of these future salary or staff reductions will occur when CARES-Act funding runs out. Yet only slightly more than half of surveyed organizations had received any CARES-Act funding. And that funding averaged only about 6% of usual annual operating budgets, small compared to the anticipated drastic revenue loses.

     

    The impact will be felt not just by artists and the employees of these institutions but also via reduced overall quality of life in the region. The survey estimates suggest losses could amount to $100–150 million in direct economic benefits that the local economy would have received from arts and culture activities and related tourism and educational support.

     

    Supporters of arts and culture institutions in the Lehigh Valley can assist in addressing these

    catastrophic losses with a contribution to the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation’s Lehigh

    Valley Arts & Culture Relief Fund. Contributions of emergency funds for individual artists

    made via the GoFundMe campaign at lvartsfund.org.

  • Business & The Arts: Session 3

    Over 50 business leaders in Allentown joined CCA for the third session of Business & The Arts focusing on the The Creative Economy & Allentown on October 8 in the Lyric Room of Miller Symphony Hall, presented in partnership with the Cultural Coalition of Allentown and the City of Allentown. The event focused on the creative economy in Allentown’s future and introduced new opportunities to leverage the cultural diversity of our communities to drive business, retain talent and expand economic prosperity.
     

  • Allentown Students Ready to Release Debut Films to the Community

    It’s a Monday afternoon in the middle of the summer. School is out and the “summer slide” is in
    full swing. But at Community Bike Works, a youth-centered non-profit in Allentown’s Promise
    Neighborhood, students from the Allentown School District are sitting around a table learning,
    collaborating, and speaking their stories into existence.
    On October 26th, seven short films from emerging student filmmakers were released to the
    public for the first time. The kick-off of the films’ community-wide tour began at
    Muhlenberg’s Multicultural Center (2252 W Chew Street, Allentown, PA), with a Saturday
    afternoon of artist-led workshops for youth, followed by a screening at
    6:30 pm and a moderated panel with student directors immediately following the screening.
    Students’ imaginative, genre-defying short films are produced by a new program, Collaborative
    Media Expressions (CME), that aims to engage, support, and cultivate youth voices through
    digital storytelling.
    Grant funding to support the immersive ten-week filmmaking workshop was awarded by Upside
    Allentown and managed by The Cultural Coalition of Allentown with a generous donation by local activist Daniel Poresky, to support a filmmaking program that is focused on shifting narratives in Allentown by centering and empowering young storytellers in the community.

    The Classroom on North Madison Street

    Photo by Nasheera Brown


    As Allentown students from across the city sit together at the table, their stories emerge and take shape. Non-fiction and fiction blend together as Nasheera (16) imagines what her poem about systemic racism looks like as a film.

    Her brother, Sharif (13), storyboards an experimental narrative about a friendship that is shared through a passion for bike riding. Avery (14) - who Sharif asks to act in his film - tries to take the language of a poem he wrote and turn it into
    something communicated solely through visuals. Christian (15) expresses concern about the recent spike in gun violence and drafts questions to ask local activists. Vannity (16) brings her notebook in from home with ideas sprawling across the page. Baraka (13) dreams about being the best soccer player in the world and maps out how that looks and feels on the screen. Erick (16) brings in ideas that seem endless and all possible, but his story really begins to take shape as a local climate protest approaches. In this classroom on North Madison Street, students share their stories in imaginative, vulnerable, and collaborative ways, as their ideas are only possible if they trust each other and
    work together.

    Shifting the Narrative(s)

    Photo by Charles Stonewall

     

    “I didn’t think this was for us”. This remark emerges when the equipment arrives. The students, who have grown up fully immersed in the age of technology, adapt quickly to the complex new systems. But they still comment openly on the quality of the equipment and the ability of the technology to fully realize the stories they are imagining. The cameras, filters, cords, lights, and sound equipment pass from hand to hand as students explore their new tools.

    This filmmaking equipment has historically been inaccessible in their city - a reality the students in the room feel as more stories about trust and access and experiences fill the space.

    CME was proposed to the Coalition’s Authentically Allentown Artist in Residence Program in response to this issue of access and trust with Black and Latinx students in the city of Allentown. It is an issue that is deeply rooted in the history of filmmaking and one that actively shapes the narrative(s) of the city students call home. This also makes it an issue that must be actively and intentionally decolonized.

    This collaboration - between Allentown, Community Bike Works, and the Parris J Lane Memorial Foundation - is a small part of the many converging solutions rising up from the community to do this work and to reshape the narrative(s) of Allentown.

    “Do Nothing Without Intention”

    Photo by Sharon Smith

    Lead educator, documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and local basketball coach, Drew Swedberg, designed the program after three years of teaching film and media in after-school settings and witnessing how film could be a powerful vehicle for self-expression, community engagement, and youth empowerment. Swedberg’s experience as a filmmaker and educator converged with the mission of Shalon Buskirk, who has consistently and actively advocated for youth in her city and works every day towards a space that would allow young people to express themselves, communicate with each other, have access to critical resources, and build community. She anchors this work in the memory of her son, Parris Jerome Lane. Swedberg knew the program would be partnered with Shalon’s emerging non-profit and the two are working together daily to make that space a reality.

    With CME’s debut program, Drew hoped to take the after-school program a step further. He proposed a class that would invest in equipment that could match the aesthetic ambitions of his students, give his students enough time to create, compensate local artists for bringing their experiences into the classroom, and celebrate his students’ accomplishments through a series of community screenings.

    The ten-week course he arrived at introduces students to an array of filmmaking techniques, innovative films, and local artists. The work is informed and forever indebted to the work of mediamakers, creatives, activists, and educators that came before him from Allied Media, Young Chicago Authors, PhillyCAM, and Scribe Video Center; to bell hooks; to the educators, peers, creative collaborators, and students in his life from Muhlenberg College, Lafayette College, Lehigh University, LVAIC Documentary Storymaking, and ASP’s Mass Media classroom; and most critically to the countless hours of instruction with students from Allentown at Jefferson Elementary, McKinley Elementary, Trexler Middle, Casa Guadalupe, and students across the Valley that have participated in ArtsQuest’s programming.

    A Classroom to Dream In

    Photo by Sharon Smith

    Lead educator, documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and local basketball coach, Drew Swedberg, designed the program after three years of teaching film and media in after-school settings and witnessing how film could be a powerful vehicle for self-expression, community engagement, and youth empowerment. Swedberg’s experience as a filmmaker and educator converged with the mission of Shalon Buskirk, who has consistently and actively advocated for youth in her city and works every day towards a space that would allow young people to express themselves, communicate with each other, have access to critical resources, and build community. She anchors this work in the memory of her son, Parris Jerome Lane. Swedberg knew the program would be partnered with Shalon’s emerging non-profit and the two are working together daily to make that space a reality.

     

    With CME’s debut program, Drew hoped to take the after-school program a step further. He proposed a class that would invest in equipment that could match the aesthetic ambitions of his students, give his students enough time to create, compensate local artists for bringing their experiences into the classroom, and celebrate his students’ accomplishments through a series of community screenings.

     

    The ten-week course he arrived at introduces students to an array of filmmaking techniques, innovative films, and local artists. The work is informed and forever indebted to the work of mediamakers, creatives, activists, and educators that came before him from Allied Media, Young Chicago Authors, PhillyCAM, and Scribe Video Center; to bell hooks; to the educators, peers, creative collaborators, and students in his life from Muhlenberg College, Lafayette College, Lehigh University, LVAIC Documentary Storymaking, and ASP’s Mass Media classroom; and most critically to the countless hours of instruction with students from Allentown at Jefferson Elementary, McKinley Elementary, Trexler Middle, Casa Guadalupe, and students across the Valley that have participated in ArtsQuest’s programming.

    Collaborative Media Expressions

    The workshop met twice a week for the first seven weeks. Students started by consuming and engaging with work from photography giants such as Roy DeCarava, Carrie Mae Weems, and Deana Lawson, as well as contemporary photographer Diego Huerta and emerging photographer Sade Ogunjimi. The focus stayed (throughout the entire program) on providing students with “toolbox skills” that cultivated their creative agency by allowing them to react and relate to a variety of styles, ideas, and creative expressions.

     

    In the first week, Lehigh graduate student, photographer, music producer, and filmmaker, Donterrius Walker, kicked off the series of guest artists by bringing his photography into the classroom and allowing students to engage with both the work and the artist behind the work.

     

    In the second week, Annie Diaz - who is currently the editor for Kristal Sotomayor’s Philadelphia-based documentary, “Expanding Sanctuary”, a film that follows the victory of Latinx activists at Juntos ending police communication with ICE via PARS - brought her intimate documentary film, “Para Ti”, into the classroom to talk about identity and cinematography.

     

    As students transitioned from photography to film - engaging with films from RaMell Ross, Solange, Barry Jenkins, Adepero Oduye, Tania Hernández Verlasco, Terence Nance, Vernon Jordan III, and Ashley Omoma - they started to pitch ideas and develop their own stories.

     

    In the third week, accomplished local photographer, Charles Stonewall, helped students develop their understanding of light in an intensive and generous hands-on workshop that moved indoors and out, producing a series of remarkable portraits that students actively crafted.

     

    As students finished up the planning of their stories and moved towards shooting scripts, the force that is the spoken-word poet, activist, and founder of Lehigh Valley Soul Sessions, Justice Davis, came in to help students embrace the power of their voices in an engaging workshop.

     

    When it was time for production, students took on different, rotating roles on each film. A single film had a director, a cinematographer, two assistant directors, a sound recordist, a gaffer, and an extended team of production assistants who all worked together to accomplish the director’s vision. Their teamwork was tested at times - as no collaborative creative work can occur without difference - but each time they collectively found a way to accomplish their goals for the day. In the words of Mariame Kaba, “ nothing that we do that is worthwhile is done alone." And students found this to be absolutely true over the summer, as each director exhaled an exhaustive sigh of relief and accomplishment at the end of their respective production day.

     

    As the school year kicks back in, students finish the process by editing at in small teams at Community Bike Works, Muhlenberg College’s Multicultural Center, and the Baum School of Art. As these ambitious, imaginative, and powerful films reach their final cut, each student director will soon be able to see their work on the big screen and begin dreaming about what the next story might be.

    Collaborative Media Expressions

    To find out more information on screenings across the city and for all updates, you can visit @collaborativemediaexpressions or @communitybikeworks on Facebook. Or visit this website for details

  • ROSEMARY GESECK DEBUTS NATIVE AMERICAN MURAL AT CENTRAL ELEMENTARY

    Allentown artist and educator Rosemary Geseck recently debuted the latest CCA Authentically Allentown Artist-in-Residency mural featuring the Native American culture at Central Elementary School in Downtown Allentown.

    Rosemary's vision was to execute a mural in downtown Allentown depicting an extended family of Original People of Allentown, the Lenape native Americans. The mural was set in the 'woodlands' of Allentown several hundred years ago, during the Contact period, circa 1750 and includes forest animal, birds, insects and plant life.

    A key component to each CCA Artist-in-Residency project is an educational or community engagement for the residents and students to learn more about the subject matter and have a first-person experience with art and creativity.

    Rosemary, along with representatives from the Lenape Museum played a role in several workshops for students at Central Elementary to learn more about the Lenape culture and it's impact on the Allentown of today.

  • Matt Halm Queen City Mural

    CCA joined with Ron Coleman to fund the Queen City installation by Allentown muralist Matt Halm at the property on Ninth Street in Downtown Allentown. The mural will be completed in early spring 2019.