Downtown Chambersburg and downtown Waynesboro offer good ways to celebrate American Craft Week, October 1 to October 16, and see how art builds community.
In downtown Chambersburg
The 4th Annual Mural Project is installed on the buildings throughout downtown. More than 65 individual 2’x 4’ murals went up during First Friday, September 2. Now, the public is involved as they vote for their favorite mural on Facebook. Voting continues until October 15—when winners will be announced at AppleFest. A different type of mural can be seen at 33 North Main and 100 South Main Streets. This summer, Philadelphia-based mosaic-mural artist, Isaiah Zagar, worked with local volunteers to install a large mosaic mural on the Foundry, Chambersburg’s newest art co-op, located at the corner of South Main and Queen Streets.
Especially for American Craft Week, the Make Believe Tour–a fun, different and inspirational traveling art experience–will be in Chambersburg at 1 North Main on Monday, October 3 through Sunday, October 9. Make Believe creators Ron Morris and Ken Jones, Jr. own Mercantile Home in Easton, PA and decided to travel to America’s Main Streets to experience the people and flavor of different communities. During their stay, they will hand-make unique creations, meet as many people as possible, coordinate a community art project, and host a free repair and share—all the while hoping to inspire art in others and themselves.
In downtown Waynesboro
Another Franklin County community energized by art is Waynesboro, which is benefitting from a revitalization effort called Destination ARTS! It has successfully filled vacant storefronts in downtown Waynesboro with amazing local, regional, and national art and brought the streets to life with lots of music. Getting started in July 2013, Destination ARTS! opened seven galleries throughout downtown Waynesboro. These spaces are now rented or being used as permanent art galleries.
Downtown Waynesboro’s anchor art locations are Gallery 50, 42 West ARTS Co-Op, Through the Lens & Beyond, and the Ceramic Arts Center of Waynesboro. Together they feature oil paintings, watercolors, pottery, sculptures, jewelry, photographs, furniture, and more. People are talking about the changes to downtown Waynesboro, and in 2015, the effort received one of the Pennsylvania Downtown Center’s Townie Awards.
All Destination ARTS! galleries are open 5:30 PM to 8 PM on Friday, 12 PM to 6 PM on Saturday, and 1 PM to 4 PM on Sunday. October highlights included wood burning demonstrations, a chance to join a drum circle, gourd art demonstration, a writer’s forum, clay sculpting, and more. Details are available here.