Former Bethlehem Steel Site Becomes Venue for Unusual Art Exhibit

Bethlehem, PA….Just as Central Park served as the backdrop for “The Gates,” a hulking six-story building that once functioned as the hub of plant operations for the second largest steel producer in the United States will provide a dramatic setting for an exhibition of works by fifty well-respected independent artists who live and work in a region working its way back from industrial decline.

“Some Serious Business – Art of the Lehigh Valley,” opening August 25, was the brainchild of Joseph “Mick” Chapuk, an artist who teaches at Northampton Community College which provided the 25,000 square feet of raw space as a unique venue to showcase professional quality art. The artists were invited to fill 42 rooms by displaying painting, sculpture, photography, video, mixed media, installations, performance or conceptual work. “The walls in this space will be torn down after the exhibit,” Chapuk explained, “therefore artists may paint on, draw on, write on, scribble on, experiment with, hang from, scream into, defile, desecrate, or beautify the space as long as they maintain the integrity of the electrical and plumbing systems. Site-specific works are encouraged.” The response exceeded Chapuk’s expectations.

The fifty artists -- faculty from the region’s many colleges as well as other artists who reside in the Lehigh Valley and whose works are included in collections at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and in exhibitions juried by curators from the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as one who worked on the design of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C -- include Virginia Abbott, Pat Badt, Katina Sossiadis Bozikis, Peggy Campbell, Joseph M. Chapuk, Anna Chupa, Michael Chupa, Jan Ciganick, Andrew Colbert, Jan Crooker, Karen de Balbian Verster, The EatArt Collaborative, Pouran Esrafily, Maggie Farrell, Sherman Finch, Dan Finsel, Leslie Fletcher, Lucy Gans, Linda Ganus, Norman Girardot, Barbara Glazier, Cynthia Hawkins, Cheryl Agulnick Hochberg,  Xavier Jimenez, Leigh Kane, Isadore Laduca, Sandra Levisay, Jeffrey W. Ludwig, Mark Mahosky, Anthony Marraccini, Dave Molloy, Tess Mondello, Danny Moyer, Alastair Noble, Jill Odegaard, Lydia Panas, Rick Salafia, Scott Sherk, Santa Bannon Shillea, Tom Shillea, Demetra Stamus, Krista Steinke, The Subterranean Sisters, Jason Travers, Ricardo Viera, Bruce Wall, Rhonda Wall, Brian Wiggins, Mark Wonsidler, Bill Zehngut, and Mary Zehngut.

The show will be open to critics and to the public from Friday, August 25 to Saturday, September 16, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays (Closed Labor Day). The opening reception is scheduled for Friday, September 1 from 6 to 9 p.m. to coincide with First Friday, a monthly celebration that attracts large crowds to South Bethlehem for live music, art, shopping, open houses and refreshments. Many of the artists will be on hand to answer questions about their work.