{"id":111705,"date":"2022-04-06T21:08:27","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T01:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=111705"},"modified":"2022-04-06T21:08:27","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T01:08:27","slug":"artsquest-announces-spring-banana-factory-block-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=111705","title":{"rendered":"ARTSQUEST ANNOUNCES SPRING BANANA FACTORY BLOCK PARTY"},"content":{"rendered":"

Featured Image By Craig Roberts<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

THE REIMAGINED FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT, FORMERLY KNOWN AS SOUTHSIDE ARTS & MUSIC FESTIVAL, RETURNS THIS MAY<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ArtsQuest invites the community to a free family-friendly\u00a0Banana Factory Block Party<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0Banana Factory Arts Center<\/a>\u00a0in SouthSide Bethlehem beginning\u00a0Friday, May 6 to Saturday May 7, 2022<\/strong>. The two-day event will feature live music, comedy, exhibitions, art workshops and more throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the perfect opportunity for the community to experience the arts in its many forms,\u201d Lisa Harms, ArtsQuest\u2019s Senior Director of Visual Arts and Education said. \u201cFrom painting to dance to comedy, there is something for everyone at this free festival. We are excited for our neighbors of all ages to come out and explore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Formerly known as the SouthSide Arts & Music Festival (SSAMF), this two-day family-friendly celebration will feature musical performances by\u00a0Trouble City All Stars<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Big Easy Easton Brass,<\/a>\u00a0art-making activities with mural artist\u00a0Symone Salib,<\/a>\u00a0a Bob Ross Paint-along, Salsa and Bachata dance workshops facilitated by\u00a0Aja Jefferson<\/a>, a free photo print swap hosted by\u00a0Dan\u2019s Camera City<\/a>\u00a0and a live comedy program called \u201cI\u2019m Probably Reading Into This\u201d with Aliya Brown and Addyson Teal. Attendees are also invited to enjoy current exhibitions on display including \u201cHeroes<\/a>\u201d by Musikfest poster artist Bart Cooper, \u201cMy Mind is an Escape Room<\/a>\u201d by Kailey Atkinson and \u201cAbecynnia<\/a>\u201d by William Harris. This art-inclusive weekend will also feature ArtsQuest\u2019s new\u00a0All AccessIBLE<\/a>\u00a0arts program with a sensory friendly touch collection made by Mallory Zondag.<\/p>\n

Other featured events during the weekend-long celebration include Yoga & Art Workshop with Mindfulness Educator Brooke Kohler, Small Works Art Sale featuring the work of the\u00a0Banana Factory Resident Artists<\/a>, glassblowing demonstrations, screen printed tote bag workshop, Drag Queen Story Hour with Miss Amie, lawn games and so much more.<\/p>\n

Party activities will take place outside, as well as throughout Banana Factory\u2019s art galleries, glassblowing studio, artist studios and classrooms. Snacks at this event can be purchased from\u00a0Simply Skewered<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Kona Ice<\/a>. There will also be a cash bar available.<\/p>\n

Special thanks to the Borgenicht Foundation for making our mural artist program possible. The Banana Factory Block Party is for the community by the community and is made possible by many local partners including Bethlehem Area Public Library, Salsa Instructor Aja Jefferson, Dan\u2019s Camera City, MAKE Lehigh Valley and More Than Music.\u00a0\u00a0 Festivities will begin Friday at 6 p.m. at ArtsQuest\u2019s Banana Factory, located at 25 W. Third St., and last throughout Saturday afternoon. For a full schedule visit\u00a0bananafactory.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About ArtsQuest<\/strong>
\nArtsQuest\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0mission is to provide access to exceptional artistic, cultural and educational experiences using arts and culture as key elements of economic development for our urban communities. ArtsQuest\u2122 supports this mission via the presentation of performing and visual arts, film, arts education classes and outreach, youth programming and cultural events.<\/p>\n

Through festivals such as its flagship event,\u00a0Musikfest<\/a>; the\u00a0Banana Factory Arts Center<\/a>; and the ArtsQuest Center at\u00a0SteelStacks<\/a>\u00a0arts and cultural campus, ArtsQuest\u2019s programming reaches more than 1.9 million people annually. The organization\u2019s programs and events, approximately 50 percent of which are free to attend, have a combined economic impact of more than $136 million annually in the region. ArtsQuest is a proud member of NIVA, the\u00a0National Independent Venue Association<\/a>\u00a0and NATO, the\u00a0National Association of Theatre Owners.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nNicole Harrell
\nArtsQuest Director of Communications
\nhttp:\/\/www.artsquest.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Featured Image By Craig Roberts THE REIMAGINED FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENT, FORMERLY KNOWN AS SOUTHSIDE ARTS & MUSIC FESTIVAL, RETURNS THIS MAY ArtsQuest invites the community to a free family-friendly\u00a0Banana Factory … Continue reading ARTSQUEST ANNOUNCES SPRING BANANA FACTORY BLOCK PARTY<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5717,69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bethlehem","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Craig-Roberts-banana-factory.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/111706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}