Be a part of launching a local documentary film celebrating the Bethlehem arts scene!
Last summer, a team made up of Doug Roysdon (Mock Turtle Marionette Theater), John Pettigrew (Lehigh U.), Anna Russell (Allentown Public Theatre), Avi Setton (Lehigh Film Dept.), and Alison Kanosky (Lehigh Anthropology Prof.) won a grant from the Mellon Foundation to begin documenting the Bethlehem arts scene. Working in partnership with Lehigh University’s Anthropology Department, they filmed over 25 two-hour interviews with Bethlehem artists, entrepreneurs, teachers, and more. The team sought to understand the interdependence of art and its place — how artists give to their community, and how that community supports its artists.
As the interviews were collected and processed, the team discovered a richer, broader story written between the lines. The story of a steel town turned arts town. The same spirit of camaraderie that had transformed Bethlehem Steel into a national industrial titan had turned inward to transform Bethlehem itself into a center for local arts.
The team has seen that the art that emerges from our city gives back to our city. It’s helped us build local character, address local challenges, celebrate local victories, and grow our local economy.
Now the team is creating a feature-length documentary celebrating this town’s artistic victories and investigating how to grow these community-powered, community-enriching arts. It will offer viewers a behind-the-scenes and under-the-hood look at how Bethlehem’s artists and Bethlehem’s citizens are collaborating to grow a self-sustaining city. The future of the arts in the Lehigh Valley hinges heavily on the emergence of new creative minds. The film will follow both seasoned and emerging artists to learn how the torch can be passed to a new generation.
Ultimately, the team plans to travel this film to festivals, universities, and households across the country, proudly offering Bethlehem as a case study in local arts gone right.
Check out the Kickstarter today to see interview clips of familiar local artists – and help meet the July 12 fundraising deadline. Go to http://bit.ly/MakeArtLocal and like the project’s facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/MakeArtLocal before the month is up – and it is too late!
Don’t miss this opportunity to be a part of the project! Go to the kickstarter page (bit.ly/MakeArtLocal) and like it on social media (www.facebook.com/MakeArtLocal) before the month is up, and the fundraising deadline is passed! For more information, contact