Arts & Entertainment

ArtsQuest Center Dedication in Pictures and Quotes

Performing arts venue opens to the public this afternoon

At 4 p.m. today, the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks will throw open its doors to the public for the very first time.

On Thursday, during which Bethlehem and Lehigh Valley leaders celebrated a landmark step in revitalizing the neighborhood left barren by Bethlehem Steel’s departure in 1995.

The featured speakers at the event were Pennsylvania’s First Lady, Susan Corbett; Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan and the driving force behind the project, ArtsQuest founder and President Jeff Parks.

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Here, we have put together some of their quotes with reactions we gathered from Lehigh Valley leaders about what this opening means to the Southside, to Bethlehem and to the region.

Susan Corbett, who in addition to being Gov. Tom Corbett’s wife, is chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts:

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“The ancient and medieval worlds have what travel writers call stately ruins. They’re old castles in Ireland. They’re abbeys in France. They’re temples and stadiums in Greece and Italy. For the most part, people visit, they snap a picture and then they move on.

"I’d like to think, because we’re Americans, that we don’t care so much about stately ruins. We take the remains of our lost days: our old factories, our beaten-up railroad stations, our abandoned buildings and we find new uses for them. Americans accept trial and change, but they don’t settle for ruination. We prefer things that rise from the ashes, even long after the fires of blast furnaces have gone cold.

"So it’s hard not to think of this place and the people who have remade it and feel a bit of pride in the people of our commonwealth. Pennsylvanians don’t tear down. They move on, they keep the best of the past and find new ways to make it the future. For over 140 years, workers, men and women melted ore, mixed in coal and coke, and turned something from below the earth into the girders and rails that built a nation and kept it moving.

"And the arts are their own kind of construction. They melt words and ideas and emotions and they turn it into plays or music or great writing. So think of this hulk of a steel mill behind me as a metaphor, a symbol of building and don’t think of it as a remnant of what was. Think of it as the ore and iron of what is about to be."

Northampton County Council President John Cusick:

“I think it marks a transition point from what used to be a place that employed a lot of people making steel to a place where now we’re going be making music and bringing tourists from across the country, hopefully, to this beautiful venue.”

Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan:

“I think we all recognize that the Bethlehem Steel site was a very special place – special because of its past and always seemed to be more special because of the past. It represented 125 years of steelmaking industry in this community. The products that were built here built, defended, transported this country and the world. We certainly believed in the site, but it always represented more of the city’s past and not necessarily the future. But I think today is a very real realization of just how bright this city’s future, this region’s future is and will be.”

“It would have been easy to knock these buildings down. It would have been easy to cap this site and build a lot of big boxes here. It would have been a lot quicker than it would have been over the last six or seven years. But that’s not what Bethlehem is about. We weren’t that way in the Colonial Days. We still have buildings that were made back in 1741 in our downtown and I don’t see why we should treat these buildings any different. We’ve always recognized how special this place was, how important this place was. And maintaining that sense of place and respecting our past while building a future and building a future around our past; that’s what this project represents more than anything.”

Former mayor and current Councilman Gordon Mowrer:

“This is a new beginning. This is a chance to show something that’s been in the makings for quite some time. And we’re here to celebrate.”

Walt Keiper, ArtsQuest vice president for finance and administration:

“It’s incredible. It’s been 18 months of construction and to finally get to this point is just incredible and we’re having a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to a great opening this weekend.”

Bethlehem City Councilman J. William Reynolds:

“This is the culmination of a lot of years of hard work from a lot of people. And I think when you look around, you can’t really explain it, you can’t put it into words, when you see the blast furnaces behind you. It’s going to mean everything for the revitalization of the Southside.”

ArtsQuest founder and President Jeff Parks:

“Arts and cultural organizations and their programs are the leaders in the revitalizations of communities. From York to Scranton, Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, it is the arts that have led the way for repopulating downtowns with residents that are seeking access to culture. You have heard me use the term 'canary in the coal mine.' That’s what ArtsQuest is here right now in the middle of all these empty buildings. That metaphor is for our venture here at SteelStacks. If the canary’s vibrant song – believe me as a alumnus, to talk about canaries, is a big deal – attracts patrons from near and far within a very short amount of time, it means the Bethlehem Steel site would have been adaptively reused by private investors who will complement our programs and enhance the site as a destination for the Lehigh Valley and beyond.”

President Robert DeSalvio:

“It’s a great day in the Lehigh Valley to see that the cultural complex energized with ArtsQuest, with soon-to-be PBS, with what’s going on in all the plazas on the outside effort. It’s truly a great day for the Lehigh Valley. It takes this complex and really brings it to life now at both ends. We work so hard at the Sands to energize the eastern end of the site, bring more visitors. The expected visitors that are coming through at this end of the site, now I think it will give other developers and folks that are interested in property in and around here a chance to come in and join the vision. And so the real hope is that over the next whatever 5, 10 years, you’re going to see much more development in and around the site.”

Bethlehem Area School Director Michael Faccinetto:

“It’s the true beginning of the Southside revitalization. You had the casino go in, but it’s just the casino. This is what’s going to develop the rest of the property because everybody wants to live around something like this. You have the arts. You have the entertainment, movie theater. You have a bar. You have music, a place to go for free outside. Why would you not want to live here?”

Parks:

“A fully completed campus will represent over $70 million in investment in public and private funds. A campus with five buildings, three plazas and one of the most dramatic backdrops in all of North America, all with programming 365 days a year. This is an achievement befitting Pennsylvania’s third largest metropolitan area.”

“But more important than buildings and plazas, ArtsQuest is about the programming that will be offered. The buildings and plazas were designed to meet the cultural needs of the fastest growing region in our state. As the Lehigh Valley continues to expand its economic base, we need to offer the amenities that will attract the creative work force of the 21st century. The economy of this century will require creativity and innovation. This campus and ArtsQuest’s Banana Factory are designed to provide both programs that will draw creative people to the Lehigh Valley and inspire those who are here to reach their creative potential.”

Donald M. Bernhard, manager of community and economic development for PPL:

“PPL is a big believer in economic development and in some sort of new schools of economic development. Jobs are going to follow smart, young people to the places they want to live. And there are a couple of drivers of that. Young people like recreation and outdoor opportunities. But they certainly like the arts and cultural opportunities that they want. And that’s been limited in the Lehigh Valley. And this is a game changer. I think this really brings a huge universe of things to the Lehigh Valley that haven’t been here and the impact, I think, goes way beyond people just coming here to have fun. I think it’s a long-term proposition, but over time, this is a transformational thing for the Lehigh Valley.”

Lee Butz, chairman of the board, Alvin H. Butz Inc., Allentown:

“This is a game changer. This is one of those things that is so special that it takes the Lehigh Valley to another level from an arts standpoint.”

Northampton County Executive John Stoffa:

“It’s a great vision that has come to be realized. I have to give Jeff Parks a lot of support. He wears glasses, but he has great vision. And I think for Bethlehem, for Northampton County, for the Lehigh Valley, it puts us on the map. It’s a great day."

Once again, Parks, on being a "visionary:"

“I’d like to correct the record. I think one of the very brilliant architects who worked within this project corrected the term visionary. I cringe when people say that. I’m not a visionary. It sounds like an ancient medieval thing. He said, ‘You’re not a visionary. You’re a great editor. You see things in your travels and around the world and figure out what can you edit from what you’ve seen and bring to your community.’ And I think that’s more accurate.”

“Before I saw the blast furnaces illuminated in Germany, I was one of the people saying ‘tear the things down.’ Once I saw the amazing things that they did elsewhere, I edited that and as Bob DeSalvio can tell you, I have been eagerly encouraging them to light the blast furnaces.“

“I’m not that much of a visionary. I borrow things.”

Bethlehem Area School Board President Michelle Cann:

“What I like is how it’s drawing families – a place for kids, a place for young people. I’m looking forward to the farmers market.”

Kassie Hilgert, ArtsQuest vice president for advancement:

“It feels like the night before Christmas because what we really want to do is have a concert in here. What we really want to do is open this place up. We’ve been preparing, building, raising funds, doing everything we had to do to get here. This is like Christmas Eve when you can’t go to sleep the night before. I want to see a show here, so I’m amped for that.”

We give the final word to Bethlehem’s first lady of philanthropy and the arts, Marlene “Linny” Fowler:

“To use the brown fields and have such an exciting thing, the art, the music and have the view of the Stacks. My room has a view of the Stacks. It’s really very exciting. So I’m really very proud of Jeff Parks and all the others for all the work they’ve done to make this a reality. It’s gonna be a swingin’ place.”


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