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Partnerships
Strengthen Our Community Through the Arts
GoggleWorks is committed to collaborating with others who share the belief that the arts can strengthen and enhance quality of life in our community, spur economic growth, and contribute to the cultural vitality of our region.
In addition to our annual program and educational offerings, GoggleWorks partners with a number of individuals, as well as charitable, nonprofit, and educational institutions to partner in implementing a number of on- and off-site outreach programs, including those featured below.
Listening to Our Neighbors
Our community is vibrant, diverse, and extremely creative. In 2019, community leaders grew determined to do more to serve our city neighbors and students, who face some of the most significant challenges facing our society. By canvassing every door within a 7-block radius of our campus, leading interviews in Spanish, we documented the voiced concerns of city residents and businesses and developed a coalition of over 60 partners and hundreds of residents. From outdoor gathering places and fun things to do on the weekend to safety and accessibility, all voices were taken into account when we developed the master plan for The Art Park and launched pilot programs to test the feasibility of the project. The Regional Foundation (powered by Wells Fargo) supported an 18-month planning effort that covers the 6th ward community and concludes in spring 2025.
2024 Impact Report
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Contact
GoggleWorks partnerships are built by invitation or from building a relationship around services or programs. If you represent an organization or group that is interested in partnering with GoggleWorks, we’d love to hear from you!
Levi Landis, Executive Director
(610) 374-4600 x101
llandis@goggleworks.org
Partnership Highlights
Partnerships are critical to our vision of success. This year, we fostered partnerships to improve the relevance and quality of our programs, and extended the reach and impact of our mission. Our partnerships grow each year and we welcome new conversations and ideas.
A collaboration with Lauer’s Park Elementary and the Reading School District, this innovative partnership allows GoggleWorks to apply its interactive art studio model to the dynamic garden environment at Lauer’s Park, serving school children and community residents alike. This year the garden hosted many free events benefiting the local neighborhood from a Learn to Compost event to the Together We Grow book release in partnership with Penn State Health, Rite Aid Healthy Futures, and collaborators Floyd Stokes and Sheena Hisiro. Monthly, the garden hosted Soil & Stage Open Mic Night events bringing local artists together through comedy, poetry, music, dance & other creative performances.
As of January 2025, Building 2 on GoggleWorks’ campus will welcome the expanded headquarters and a teaching kitchen for Helping Harvest, the regional food bank. The Our City of Reading major economic development effort to renovate the final warehouse on our campus as a STEAM center and food hub, expanding on our work marrying arts and culture with science, sustainability, education, and food access, is well under way constructing a new home for the Reading Science Center, an interactive museum, BCIU Headstart Classrooms and Playground, and artist/student housing.
R3 is an 8-week registered pre-apprenticeship program in partnership with Berks Pre-trial Services, Habitat for Humanity of Berks and Reading Muhlenberg Career & Technology Center offering career pathways for those leaving incarceration pursuing a career in woodworking, including hands-on learning at GoggleWorks’ woodworking studio. Of the many outcomes, the recidivism rate for participants is 3% compared to the state average of 46% in 2023. In 2025 GoggleWorks will also include welding in the curriculum.
Together, Alvernia and GoggleWorks’ launched a four-year Bachelor of Arts in Creativity Program offering complementary hands-on learning in GoggleWorks studios.
Each year, GoggleWorks is a main partner for the Opportunity House’s Souper Bowl event donating 200+ handmade bowls annually. The Souper Bowl aims to increase awareness of hunger and homelessness and raise funds for the many programs Opportunity House offers. Attendees select handmade bowls, which have been donated by professional, amateur and student potters. In the GoggleWorks Souper Bowl Workshop, each student makes their own hand-built bowl to take home. For each Souper Bowl registration, a GoggleWorks Ceramics Studio artist creates a bowl to donate to the Souper Bowl Fundraiser, which is held each year in spring.
Featuring over 2,000 works of art across mediums, GoggleWorks hosts BCIU’s annual art show giving the opportunity to students of all ages across Berks County to feature their creations in the Cohen Galleries. Many of these students then work with GoggleWorks artists to prepare and develop their portfolios and utilize the galleries for student exhibitions.
In 2024 the GoggleWorks team took GoggleWorks to 30 community events offering our partners free children’s activities and accessibility to art. From elementary schools across Reading to community events and festivals including Bring the Change’s annual Diversity Festival, West Reading Art on the Avenue, Berks County Earth Day, and more.
GoggleWorks Art Park – A Shared Vision
The vision for our work has expanded. The Art Park is a transformative project aimed at creating a dynamic outdoor cultural hub. The project will reimagine roughly 3 acres of neglected city spaces surrounding our campus into publicly-accessible, culturally-vibrant greenspaces designed to advance safety and comfort, catalyze downtown revitalization, connect city assets, build community resilience, and drive cross-cultural dialogue and civic pride. The community coalition formalized a steering committee called the “Neighborhood Task Force,” supported and facilitated by the Wyomissing Foundation, which joins our on-site partners in supporting this shared vision. Through a grant from the Regional Foundation, our partner list grew to include Centro Hispano, City of Reading, Habitat for Humanity of Berks, Lauer’s Park Elementary, United Way of Berks, Alvernia University, Reading Area Community College, Mt. Zion Baptist, Christ Episcopal, Berks County Community Foundation, and Our City Reading, developing new headquarters on our campus for Helping Harvest and the Reading Science Center.
Phase 2
Creative Commons
This year we received $1.5M in private funding incentivized through the Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP), the largest such award in the state to plan and design the next big stage of our vision. The vision – a large gravel lot currently used for overflow parking and larger events behind Building 6 will be redesigned as a performance venue, media center, interactive learning, hot metals learning pavilion, urban gardens, community event space, hospitality and concessions, sculpture garden mini-golf, and pedestrian/bike corridor. The plan and intent is to serve an estimated 100,000 guests through recurring access to recreational green space, services, and pedestrian and bike transportation access in addition to those served directly through programs created based in and around the Art Park.
Phase 1
Grand Opening of Phase 1
October 2024 we hosted a ribbon cutting for Phase 1 of the Art Park and showcased the artfully designed new courtyard, greenspaces, and cafe to the public with a look at the final construction on Thorn Alley, and outdoor dining area with performance stages. We celebrated with a larger-than-life puppet theater show, music and food. Capital contributors who made Phase 1 possible include Sweet Street, Sandy Solmon & Doug Messinger, City of Reading, County of Berks and Commissioners, Boscov’s Department Stores, Windgate Foundation, and Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
Programs
GoggleWorks is a place to develop skills, ask questions, experiment freely, and investigate the human spirit. Through exceptional arts education and engaging community programming, we inspire people to expand the boundaries of art-making, personal growth, cross-cultural dialogue, and appreciation for material culture. Our programs are unique because they are Interactive, Place-Based, and Lifelong, falling into four basic categories:
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Strengthen our community through the arts.