(GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA) Tombstone and funeral urn imagery, photocopies, digital printing, and drypoint. The artwork of Carolyn Shattuck uses all of these. Goggleworks will be presenting her work from January 20 through February 29, 2008. Other featured printmakers in the show will be Evan Summer, Carol Nowak, Curlee Holton, Randy Williams, and Melissa Strawser. The exhibit will be in the Cohen Gallery on the first floor of the building and will be shown in conjunction with Street Life, by Eunice Boscov.

Shattuck will be showing a collection of Book Arts and monotypes. The monotypes are a mixed medium, two dimensional art that combine printmaking with painting, collage, pastels, chalks and other methods. Monotyping is a printing process in which the artist creates the image on a sheet of Plexiglas and then transfers it onto paper using a press. Book Arts are pop-up engineering, a three dimensional art using text and imagery to convey a story. Shattuck finds Book Arts playful and freeing. They give her a chance to work with structure, use her printing skills, as well as have fun telling a story.

Shattuck, a native of Montreal, Canada, moved to the United States in 1971. She and her husband moved to Okinawa, Japan, for three years before settling in New England. A graduate of Bard College, where she received a Master of Fine Arts degree, Shattuck exhibits in her home state of Vermont and nationally. In 2007 she was awarded the G. Richardson Memorial Award from the National Association of Women Artists.

Evan Summer is a professor of Art at Kutztown University. Though he is well known for his landscapes, for the past few years he has been working on insect prints. A recent show at the Reading Public Museum showcased these prints as well as drawings and photographs, all featuring insects.

Curlee Raven Holton has works in the Library of Congress and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Holton is the founding director of the Experimental Printmaking Institute based at Lafayette College in Easton, PA.

Randy Williams of West Harrison, NY, is a professor of Studio and Art Educations as Manhattanville College and an instructor and educational consultant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has been given numerous prizes and awards, including a 1982 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to the American Academy in Rome. His work has been the subject of more than thirty solo exhibitions and scores of special projects.

Melissa Strawser was born in Reading and has created print work in London and Portugal. She lives and works in Pennsylvania and maintains a studio at Bertoia Studio. Her work can be seen in galleries and among collections throughout the United States

Carol Nowak is a Philadelphia based printmaker. She has received numerous grants and has widely exhibited her work.

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is a community art and cultural resource center for Berks County and central and southeastern Pennsylvania, and is the largest, most comprehensive interactive arts center of its kind in the country. The mission of the GoggleWorks is “to nurture the arts, foster creativity, promote education and enrich the community.” The GoggleWorks is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, and Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm. Free parking is available in the GoggleWorks parking lot, accessible from 2^nd, 3^rd or Walnut Streets.  For more information, call the GoggleWorks at 610-374-4600, or visit www.goggleworks.org.

(GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA) Artist or alchemist? Paula Winokur, ceramics artist and former professor, will be giving a lecture at GoggleWorks on Friday, January 11, 2008 at 6 pm as part of the opening reception. The lecture is in conjunction with her exhibit, opening January 1, and a workshop she will be teaching from January 9 through January 11.

The three day workshop being taught by Winokur will focus on giving students a new outlook on working with clay. The workshop will include demonstrations, lectures and guided exercises.

(GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA) Visit the GoggleWorks’ Second Sunday Open House on January 13, from 11 am to 4 pm.  The GoggleWorks welcomes thousands of guests each month for an all-day event full of gallery presentations, artist demonstrations, musical and theatrical performances.

This month in the Cohen Gallery on the first floor, GoggleWorks presents the annual GoggleWorks Artists exhibition. There will also be a musical performance by Little Sister from 12 to 3 pm.

In the Rolf and Renate Schmidt Gallery on the second floor, visitors will see the Paula Winokur Exhibition. This exhibit runs January 1 through January 29.

The Leesport Bank Artist Gallery, located on the third floor, features “New Horizons” artwork by Sharon Giles and Rachel Sholly. This exhibit ends on January 29.

The GoggleWorks presents Shirley Newton and Heidi Reuter as the January artists of the month in the lounge and elevator areas on the second floor; Sandi Giannini and Lindsay Deery will also be featured in the third floor lounge and elevator areas.  These exhibits will be displayed from January 1 until January 29.

Jim Bloom: Recent Works exhibit will be shown in the Outsider Folk Art Gallery (Room 504) from 11 am through 4 pm. The exhibit will be showing through February 29.

The ACOR Gallery will be showing Student Artwork from 13th & Green Elementary School and 16th & Haak Elementary School from January 1 through January 31  and  "Wintry Mix" featuring artists Marlene Boon, Nathen Davis, Shirley Newton, John V. Halstead and Edward Terrell and Guest Artist:  "Youth of Today" Dreames through January 30.

In the Hot Shop from 1 to 4 pm, there will be Glass Making Demonstrations by the Hot Shop Staff.

Also in the Hot Shop from 12 to 4 pm, visitors can take a walk in class. There is no experience required; the class cost is $35.00 and those who are interested can register at the front desk.

In the Ceramics Studio, there will be Wheel Throwing Demonstrations from 12 pm to 4 pm.

The Berks Classical Children's Chorus will hold an open rehearsal from 2:30 pm to 4 pm in room 420.

Those interested in lampworking work can visit Building 6 and watch a lampworking demonstration from 12 pm to 3 pm.

In the GoggleWorks Film Theatre, there will be a free showing of “Beethoven’s Hair” presented by Bullfrog Films at 12 pm.  There will be a movie discussion immediately following the film. “Margot At The Wedding” will be playing at 3 pm and 7 pm.

From 11 am to 4 pm, Steve Weber will be demonstrating wood carving in the Wood Shop.

In room 318, GoggleWorks staff member Sheila Shuman will be running a Make and Take Project benefiting the GoggleWorks After School Arts Program from 12 pm to 3 pm. Donations will be accepted.

From 12 pm to 4 pm, the Berks Genealogical Society will be giving a free tour of their library in room 413.

The GoggleWorks Store will be having an after-the-holidays sale from 11 am to 4 pm. Sale items will be located on a table in front of the store.

Visitors can sign up for a 1 pm guided tour of the GoggleWorks at the Information Desk.

All day, the GoggleWorks Artists will be in their studios to talk with visitors about their artwork, classes and more. Stop by Studio 305 to see Steven White’s new gicleè prints, which he will be signing throughout the day.

(GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA) Art and religion combine to create beauty. The Jewish Community Center has participated in a glass fusing mezuzah workshop on Jan 13 for children in grades 3 – 5. Another will be held on Feb 10 for children in grades 6 - 8, in building 6 from 1 – 3 pm. The workshop is for ages six and up and will be run by Sandra Kaye, a resident artist at GoggleWorks.

A mezuzah is a scroll of verses from the Torah. These scrolls are written by a specially trained scribe. The scroll is placed in a small decorative container and attached to the doorway of a Jewish household as a blessing for the house. The workshop will focus on creating the decorative containers out of fused glass.

First, all students will receive a safety lesson and learn to properly handle and cut pieces of colored glass, using special tools. Then, they will layer those bits of colored glass shapes to create a mezuzah. The designs will be placed into a kiln, where the glass will fuse together. The finished work of art will be ready in just a few days, after it has cooled. The scrolls will be provided by the parents of the participating children.

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is a community art and cultural resource center for Berks County and central and southeastern Pennsylvania, and is the largest, most comprehensive interactive arts center of its kind in the country. The mission of the GoggleWorks is “to nurture the arts, foster creativity, promote education and enrich the community.” The GoggleWorks is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, and Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm. Free parking is available in the GoggleWorks parking lot, accessible from 2^nd, 3^rd or Walnut Streets.  For more information, call the GoggleWorks at 610-374-4600, or visit www.goggleworks.org.

(GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA) Some exciting voices in the world of printmaking will be speaking out. GoggleWorks will be hosting a panel discussion of prominent printmakers on Friday February 8, 2008 from 4 – 5:30pm. The panel will consist of Carolyn Shattuck, Evan Summer, Curlee Raven Holton, Randy Williams, Melissa Strawser, and Carol Nowak. Following the discussion will be an opening reception for the exhibition of the panel’s art and Eunice Boscov’s photography exhibit. The reception is free and open for all to attend. There will also be two Bookmaking Workshops on Saturday February 9, 2008 taught by Shattuck. “Books That Speak” will be presented from 9 am – 12 pm and from 1 – 4 pm. The workshop will cost $50 plus a $10 materials fee. Those interested can register by phone, mail, or on www.goggleworks.org.

Shattuck, a native of Montreal, Canada, moved to the United States in 1971. She and her husband moved to Okinawa, Japan, for three years before settling in New England. A graduate of Bard College, where she received a Master of Fine Arts degree, Shattuck exhibits in her home state of Vermont and nationally. In 2007 she was awarded the G. Richardson Memorial Award from the National Association of Women Artists.

Evan Summer is a professor of Art at Kutztown University. Though he is well known for his landscapes, for the past few years he has been working on insect prints. A recent show at the Reading Public Museum showcased these prints as well as drawings and photographs, all featuring insects.

Curlee Raven Holton has works in the Library of Congress and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Holton is the founding director of the Experimental Printmaking Institute based at Lafayette College in Easton, PA.

Randy Williams of West Harrison, NY, is a professor of Studio and Art Educations at Manhattanville College and an instructor and educational consultant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has been given numerous prizes and awards, including a 1982 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to the American Academy in Rome. His work has been the subject of more than thirty solo exhibitions and scores of special projects.

Melissa Strawser was born in Reading and has created print work in London and Portugal. She lives and works in Pennsylvania and maintains a studio at Bertoia Studio. Her work can be seen in galleries and among collections throughout the United States.

Carol Nowak is a Philadelphia based printmaker. She has received numerous grants and has widely exhibited her work.

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is a community art and cultural resource center for Berks County and central and southeastern Pennsylvania, and is the largest, most comprehensive interactive arts center of its kind in the country. The mission of the GoggleWorks is “to nurture the arts, foster creativity, promote education and enrich the community.” The GoggleWorks is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, and Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm. Free parking is available in the GoggleWorks parking lot, accessible from 2^nd, 3^rd or Walnut Streets.  For more information, call the GoggleWorks at 610-374-4600, or visit www.goggleworks.org.

(GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA) The Olivet Boys & Girls Club holds an annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Read-In. This year they are adding a new activity: a poster contest. The judging will be held on Friday, January 18, 2008 and the awards will be presented on Monday, January 21, 2008.

Olivet members will submit a poster with the theme: “Look how far we have come…though the struggle continues”. Submissions will be broken down into three age categories, ages 6 – 9, 10 – 12, and 13 – 18. Three winners will be announced from each age group and each winner will receive a scholarship to take classes at GoggleWorks. One of the judges will be Shannon Slattery, Programs Director at GoggleWorks.

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is a community art and cultural resource center for Berks County and central and southeastern Pennsylvania, and is the largest, most comprehensive interactive arts center of its kind in the country. The mission of the GoggleWorks is “to nurture the arts, foster creativity, promote education and enrich the community.” The GoggleWorks is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, and Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm. Free parking is available in the GoggleWorks parking lot, accessible from 2^nd, 3^rd or Walnut Streets.  For more information, call the GoggleWorks at 610-374-4600.

(GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA) Philosophy is alive and well in Reading. Beginning February 14, 2008, the Socrates Café will be meeting at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts. The meetings will be held every second and fourth Thursday in the Bravo Café from 6 - 8 pm.

The Socrates Café is a discussion group that meets in coffee shops, bookstores, libraries, churches and community centers across the country. The Reading group had met at City Espresso twice a month for about the last three years. City Espresso recently closed and the group found a new venue at GoggleWorks. The group discusses philosophical questions, often turning to current events for inspiration.

Socrates Café is open to all members of the public and there is no obligation to speak; one can simply sit and listen if they choose. There is no fee and a participant can just show up and join in the discussion. The group has a facilitator or moderator whose job it is to make sure all get to participate

Socrates Café is a discussion group inspired by Christopher Phillips who has appeared in Time Magazine and on National Public Radio. Phillips is also the author of the books Socrates Café and Six Questions of Socrates among others. 

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is a community art and cultural resource center for Berks County and central and southeastern Pennsylvania, and is the largest, most comprehensive interactive arts center of its kind in the country. The mission of the GoggleWorks is “to nurture the arts, foster creativity, promote education and enrich the community.” The GoggleWorks is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, and Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm. Free parking is available in the GoggleWorks parking lot, accessible from 2^nd, 3^rd or Walnut Streets.  For more information, call the GoggleWorks at 610-374-4600, or visit www.goggleworks.org.

ASAP is an arts-based program that was developed to prevent and reduce the incidence of juvenile delinquency, crime, and other problem behaviors in at-risk youth during after school hours and in the summer months.  The arts-centered program includes life skills training that will develop and/or strengthen the positive bonds of youth to their families, schools, and communities.  Art is used as the tool to nurture critical thinking, individual power and creativity.

The year-round operation of ASAP integrates the arts with educational objectives and the socio-cultural needs of at-risk youth.  Classes are conducted in various arts disciplines including:  ceramics, dance, drawing, photography, creative writing and digital arts. This year GoggleWorks is partnering with the Wyomissing Institute of the Arts to offer Integrated Theater and Writing classes two days per week.

Students work on various assignments both as an individual and as part of a team and Saturday programs provide additional time for students to work collaboratively to complete projects.  As students progress through the program, advanced level activities offer internship opportunities at the GoggleWorks in which select middle school students serve as mentors for new students. Throughout the program, parents are invited to participate with their children, both in classes and at a celebration event for the students at the conclusion of each session.  

ASAP is sponsored by The Bon-Ton Stores Foundation and St. Paul Travelers Foundation. Conestoga Telephone and Telegraph Company, a subsidiary of D&E Communications, Inc. also sponsors ASAP through Pennsylvania’s nationally recognized Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program.

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is a community art and cultural resource center for Berks County and central and southeastern Pennsylvania, and is the largest, most comprehensive interactive arts center of its kind in the country. The mission of the GoggleWorks is “to nurture the arts, foster creativity, promote education and enrich the community.” The GoggleWorks is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, and Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm. Free parking is available in the GoggleWorks parking lot, accessible from 2^nd, 3^rd or Walnut Streets.  For more information, call the GoggleWorks at 610-374-4600, or visit www.goggleworks.org.

(GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA) “Truth and Beauty,” a new exhibit by photographer Lydia Panas, will be showing at GoggleWorks from March 6 through April 13 in the first floor Cohen Gallery. The will be a preview reception held on Thursday March 6 from 5:30 pm to 8 pm, and it is open to the public.

Panas lives in Kutztown, PA and teaches art at the Baum School of Art at Lehigh Carbon Community College. She received a Masters of Fine Arts from the International Center of Photography at New York University. She has exhibited her work widely throughout the United States and is one of nine artists to be included in FotoFest’s International Discoveries Exhibition in the fall of 2007.

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is a community art and cultural resource center for Berks County and central and southeastern Pennsylvania, and is the largest, most comprehensive interactive arts center of its kind in the country. The mission of the GoggleWorks is “to nurture the arts, foster creativity, promote education and enrich the community.” The GoggleWorks is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, and Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm. Free parking is available in the GoggleWorks parking lot, accessible from 2^nd, 3^rd or Walnut Streets.  For more information, call the GoggleWorks at 610-374-4600, or visit www.goggleworks.org.

(GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA) Frederic Toone Bacon has been contributing to the art community for 50 years. GoggleWorks will exhibit a retrospective of the paintings, drawings and prints that make up his life’s work. Some of the works are influenced by Bacon’s interest in African mysticism. The show will run from March 9 through April 13. On March 6 there will be a preview reception from 5:30 pm to 8 pm. This reception is open to the public.

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is a community art and cultural resource center for Berks County and central and southeastern Pennsylvania, and is the largest, most comprehensive interactive arts center of its kind in the country. The mission of the GoggleWorks is “to nurture the arts, foster creativity, promote education and enrich the community.” The GoggleWorks is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, and Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm. Free parking is available in the GoggleWorks parking lot, accessible from 2^nd, 3^rd or Walnut Streets.  For more information, call the GoggleWorks at 610-374-4600, or visit www.goggleworks.org.

(GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA) GoggleWorks is pleased to announce the exhibition, slide lecture and workshop by printmaking pioneer Mitch Lyons.

“Lasting Impressions - Clay Monoprints and Clay Vessels” will be on display in the Leesport Bank Artists Gallery, located on the third floor, from March 3 through March 30. There will be an opening reception held on Thursday, March 13, from 5pm to 7pm. The works in the exhibition have been printed from a slab of clay that Lyons rolled out in his New London, PA studio. They date back to September 1980. Lyons says, “My work is about clay, the smell, the taste, the feel, and how it replicates all of my mark making, this is what continues to excite me and challenge me.”

The slide lecture, featuring different clay printmaking techniques, will be held Friday, March 14, from 7pm to 8pm. The lecture is free for members, $5 for nonmembers. The printmaking workshop, where students can learn more about printmaking with clay will be held Saturday, March 15, and Sunday, March 16, from 10am to 4pm. The cost for the workshop is $195.00 for nonmembers, $176.00 for members. A $15.00 materials fee also applies. For more information on this workshop and lecture, or to sign up to attend, visit www.goggleworks.org, or stop in at the Information Desk during business hours.

Mitch Lyons earned his Masters of Fine Arts Degree in Ceramics from Tyler School of Art, and his Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in Graphics from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. His clay monoprints can be found in numerous private and public collections throughout the United States, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Woodmere Museum, American University and the University of Delaware.

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is a community art and cultural resource center for Berks County and central and southeastern Pennsylvania, and is the largest, most comprehensive interactive arts center of its kind in the country. The mission of the GoggleWorks is “to nurture the arts, foster creativity, promote education and enrich the community.” The GoggleWorks is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, and Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm. Free parking is available in the GoggleWorks parking lot, accessible from 2^nd, 3^rd or Walnut Streets.  For more information, call the GoggleWorks at 610-374-4600, or visit www.goggleworks.org.