ReCollect: The Burgeoning GoggleWorks Museum Collection

Art Exhibition

Since 2016, GoggleWorks Center for the Arts has welcomed dynamic artists to make work in its studios over a multi-week period, taking up residence in downtown Reading, PA. Each year, these experiences result in creative connections with the local community and culminate with an exhibition of objects, media, and installations made over the course of the residency. Works on view in this exhibition are selections donated from these resident artists to the nonprofit’s fledgling museum collection.

The nine artists who participated over that time represent five different countries. The artwork comprises a wide variety and combination of materials and disciplines, often made in more than one GoggleWorks studio: stained glass, acrylic and watercolor paint, hand-built and thrown clay, sign-painting, assemblage, installation, multi-media, 2D printmaking, and 3D printing.

If the collection is broad in scope, it is yet narrow in context. GoggleWorks invites artists who are each dedicated to unified goals: expanding artistic boundaries, engaging the local community, collaborating with other artists and makers, and experimenting across materials or disciplines. The work exhibited in this show explores the intersection of high-quality, established and emerging international artists with the unique character of the GoggleWorks creative community.

In addition to the works on view in the Cohen Gallery East, some works from the collection are permanently installed as public art throughout the campus. Inquire with the GoggleWorks staff to visit these, including a giant wood carved totem pole, an enormous assemblage of fish, a 40-foot-wide glass mosaic, hand-painted signs, and a stained glass panel reimagining Alice in Wonderland.