Phoenix Village Art Center

It’s Phoenix Village Art Center’s Fifth-Year Anniversary and with 2010 around the corner, we’re taking a quick look back! With an entirely new executive board in 2009 and a new board president, Wendy Nickerson, we’ve taken some key steps towards bolstering our community presence. Visible changes include our new sign and our logo. But Phoenixville residents may still remember that the sign hanging outside our building for decades read “Whitey’s” for what had been Whitey’s Hardware Store. About seven years ago (long after Whitey’s moved out and left the building empty and abandoned) Jim O’Brien and Bill Felton purchased the building and began showing the upstairs rooms to local artists. The response was always the same, “This would make a great studio space.” Still apparent now as it was back then, the old wood floors, exposed brick walls, open spaces with natural lighting offered an exceptional ambiance. Soon after, Kathy Bestwick proposed a community art education center and gallery to fill the retail space on the first floor. The Borough was receptive and zoned our downtown for a community art center. Kathy and Diana Kelly began arts programming in June 2003. Back then we were located at the Sacred Heart School on Hall Street. Children ages 4-16 attended classes taught by over 12 different area artists. Attendance reached 450 that first summer. Today our Summer Camp attendance is more than 600. Adult education also began fall of 2003, and with a loan for renovations provided by New Century Bank, Phoenix Village Art Center opened on May 1st, 2004 in this historic space. Over 600 visitors attended the event inaugurated by a gallery show featuring

the Bosna sisters, Mia, Catherine, and Christine. At the same time, the Art Center wished to forge a mutually beneficial relationship with our downtown theaters, coffee houses, galleries, restaurants, antique and gift shops, so we launched First Friday back in 2003. We have been anchoring First Fridays now for the past six years, attracting around 200 or so walk-in guests monthly. In this capacity, our gallery openings have been an effective force in the greater Phoenixville downtown revitalization project. Other examples of the Art Center’s continued public involvement in Phoenixville’s Downtown include The Firebird Festival, the Phoenixville Farmer’s Market, the Mural Arts Program, the Canal Association, and the annual Blobfest put on by our neighbor, the Colonial Theater. We share programs with schools such as Chesterbrook Academy, and with renown cultural institutions including The West Collection at SEI investments company, The Girl Scouts of America, the Audubon Center at Mill Grove, and The Wharton Escherick House and Museum.
Placing a high value in diversity in arts, Phoenix Village Art Center collaborates with local agencies serving the disadvantaged. We have worked with Camphill Village Kimberton Hills, Nuvisions, Communities that Care, Chester County Parks and Recreation, Phoenixville Hospital, Phoenixville Area Positive Alternatives (PAPA), and Phoenixville Area Children’s Learning Center. This past March, Pat Clements, our board Secretary executed for the second consecutive year a joint concert fundraiser with Brian Dodd at Adesha Village (an outreach community for adults with mental health needs). This event was booked and facilitated by Jane Tucker at Steel City. Over the years, our work has secured grants from various foundations including Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts, Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the Doughty Foundation, the Catherine Alexander Foundation, Target Stores, and Chester County Community Foundation. Phoenixville Community Health Foundation awarded us a grant in 2006 and only last November named Kathy Bestwick, “Champion of the Community.” Also, within the past year we became the recipient of funds raised by Phoenixville’s 2008 Candlelight Holiday House Tour themed "A Phoenixville Christmas-Sharing Family Traditions” organized with the help of Art Center board member, Joan Beregi. Finally, Pennsylvania Senator Andrew Dinneman presented us with The Phoenixville Chamber of Commerce Community Betterment Award recognizing our organization as one that “works tirelessly to better the lives of citizens of the Phoenixville region through programs of service to the community, especially for providing an exceptional art camp experience.”
Your membership here provides a link to the greater art world. We are members of the Pennsylvania Association of Non-Profit Organizations (PANO) and Americans for the Arts. A member of the Phoenixville Chamber of Commerce, founding Executive Director, Kathy Bestwick, serves as Secretary for both Phoenixville Area Business Association (PABA) and Communities that Care. She serves on the national level as Mid-Atlantic District Chapter Chair for the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts.

Our mission states that when you step into this space, you will find personalized support whether you are a beginner or a professional artist. When you are a member of Phoenix Village Art Center, you are part of an artistic community, a creative haven. Your membership and participation at Phoenix Village Art Center constitutes our past and future. We hope both you will keep coming back to continue our wonderful friendship!