Artsquest

Filing Period

Jan 1, 2011 to Dec 31, 2011

Signed

Nov 14, 2012

Return Version

2011v1.2

Gross Receipts

$18,739,449

Mission

Major Activities

Activity 2

Banana factory: artsquest established the banana factory arts and culture center in january 1998. Through the banana factory, artsquest operates visual arts and education programs to serve the community. These programs include classes and camps in photography, ceramics, glass-blowing, flame working, video game design, painting, drawing, jewelry, mixed media, and sculpture. Through the support of donors and sponsors, artsquest is able to offer scholarships to any adult or child whose circumstances do not permit payment to any class or camp. In addition to classes and offices for artsquest, the banana factory offers three galleries that are open to the public and admission free. Artsquest offers 28 studios to regional visual artists at the banana factory at a subsidized rent in order to encourage artist participation in the community. At the banana factory, artsquest operates outreach programs including: b-smart an after school arts education program for at risk middle school students from the bethlehem area school district (300 students attended this program in 2011); bananaworks a summer job skills and public art program in conjunction with the regional workforce investment board (27 students were involved in this program in 2011); and unseenamerica, an after school program primarily for elementary school students involving photographing their family and daily life, with an exhibit of their photographs at the school. Unseenamerica was conducted in three school districts in 2011 in collaboration with the united way.

Activity 3

Steelstacks/artsquest performing arts center: in 2006, artsquest began planning and fund raising for the development of a 10 acre arts, culture and education campus to be located the former bethlehem steel plant in the heart of bethlehem, pa, on what was the largest brownfields site under redevelopment in the united states. The vision for steelstacks was directly linked to the mission of the organization, providing access to the arts and utilizing arts as a vehicle for urban revitalization. In december, 2009, artsquest began site clearance on a parcel of land directly across the street from the blast furnaces of the former bethlehem steel plant for the key structure in the project, the artsquest center, a 67,000 square foot performing arts center, which was designed to meet diverse arts and education needs for twenty- first century visual and performing arts genres. The artsquest center includes a two screen cinema which offers the region's first year round program for independent, foreign, documentary and locally made films; a flexible two story performance space with a glass wall affording a full view of the blast furnaces behind the performance area, for the presentation of music, dance and theatre, in a venue that can accommodate between 470 and 1,000 depending on configuration; three multifunctional spaces that can be used for everything from family programming to literature salons to intimate music performances; a full service kitchen allows the offering of food and beverage to the audience. Adjacent to the artsquest center is the new pbs 39 public media and education center, which was constructed at approximately the same time as a part of the steelstacks campus.the steelstacks campus also includes a "town square" plaza with two stages for outdoor events, the levitt pavilion steelstacks for free summer music concerts and festivals (with lawn seating for 2,500 and operated by artsquest's non-profit subsidiary friends of the levitt pavilion steelstacks), the bethlehem visitors center, an 1863 stone building that includes visitor information for the lehigh valley region (operated by discover lehigh valley and artsquest in partnership which is opening in 2012) and ample rest rooms for the many large public events that occur on the campus; and pnc plaza, a parking lot and paved plaza that are used for artsquest's musikfest and christkindlmarkt, as well as numerous other public events. All of these improvements were funded by the redevelopment authority of the city of bethlehem, with the agreement that artsquest would operate these facilities for the public good. The artsquest center, town square, levitt pavilion and pnc plaza all opened in 2011. The economic impact of the construction of the artsquest center during the recession was $49 million. In 2011, the artsquest center created 100 jobs and had an economic impact of over $29 million (using the impact formulas established by americans for the arts). From the opening on april 30 through december 31, 2011, artsquest presented 372 live concerts on the site, in addition to concerts for musikfest, christkindlmarkt bethlehem and oktoberfest. Artsquest presented over 100 films, including independent features, foreign, documentary, a regional film makers festival, and repertoire films. Artsquest offered five new cultural festivals at steelstacks: riverjazz (featuring jazz performances); sabor! (a festival celebrating the culture of the latin community in the region); blast furnace blues (featuring blues music); steeljam (featuring jam bands) and oktoberfest. Artsquest existing festivals also expanded to the steelstacks campus (musikfest, christkindlmarkt bethlehem, invision photography festival and peeps fest, a family friendly new years eve event. The steelstacks campus includes five major public art pieces, plus a gallery in the artsquest center. There were six (6) exhibits in the artsquest center in 2011.steelstacks was designed as a space for community events and celebration

Filer

EIN

23-2280560