Landscape Notebook 2: Repurposed Landscape-- GoggleWorks

Relict/Repurposed Landscape: GoggleWorks Center for the Arts

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is located at 2nd & Washington Streets in downtown Reading, PA. They offer arts education classes, studio spaces, public venue space, and host juried exhibitions for artists. Interestingly, the building where GoggleWorks now starts was formerly the Willson Goggle Factory, which manufactured safety goggles and optical glass lenses for 130 years as the World’s preeminent maker of safety eyewear (including goggles for swimmers, masks, and eyewear for U.S. military personnel, and shatter-proof eyeglasses) in the early 20th Century (The Eyewear Blog n.d.). The city of Reading was established as an industrial powerhouse during the 19th century, with its factories manufacturing for corporations all over the country (City of Reading n.d.). The factory closed in 2002, and the building was quickly renovated and reopened as GoggleWorks in 2005. 

The building itself is mostly brick, with slanted hallways, creaky floors, and cement studio spaces for painting, sculpture, photography, glass making, ceramics, printmaking, etc. Dozens of windows fill the space with the most beautiful sunlight that inspires positive artmaking energy. I can’t imagine what this would have looked like as a goggles factory. At 145,000 square feet, the GoggleWorks campus comprises the country's largest interactive visual art center (GoggleWorks Center for the Arts n.d.). Over the years, Kutztown University art education students have received internship credit by teaching courses and facilitating art experiences. The Center’s mission is to foster an environment where people's lives can be changed through art. Anyone can apply to be part of their call for artists in contemporary exhibitions, and anyone can apply to work in a rented studio space. GoggleWorks has such a strong reputation for being an invigorating environment that the waitlist for studio space is months (sometimes years) long. This center is a true testament to what creative ventures can happen with the right intentions to make them happen, and how important it is to facilitate spaces for people to come together for artistic freedom.