Unexpected art scene.

Often on the weekends I escape the stimulation of urban advertisements and drive to my  mom's country house in Uniondale pennsylvania. Endless mountains, dairy farms and miles of trees. Over the years I have been introduced to other locals and urban escapees. As it turns out, there are not just deer hiding away in the trees, but an enclave of artists both bloomed and in bud (such as furniture designer Andre Joyau (http://www.andrejoyau.com/) and Sculptor Pam Kelly).

Pam Kelly

Pam Kelly

cabinet by Andre Joyau

 The first Friday on every month, artists show their work in the downtown area of scranton. I had the privilege to view the work of Pam Kelly ,and even more of a privilege to be witness to the efforts to build an artistic community in an area starved for something new. 

The beautiful brick buildings of this coal mining town have been renovated to accommodate cafes, stores and galleries. The small streets and alley passages gives downtown a very Euro feel; like the Berliners who inhabited abandon factory buildings for parties  after the fall of the wall. It's astonishing to feel the pulse of an area that  so recently sat in the peripheral shadows of the steam town mall .

Down town Scranton

frame store/ store/book store/ cafe.

inside the store, "outrageous" 

    Now for some background..  

A place known to some as "scrotum" , Scranton has a very surprising history . In the 1800's  the Wurts brothers discovered coal in the region and formed the Delaware & Hudson canal company that was " the first million-dollar private enterprise in the United States, and it led to the first suspension aqueducts that were built by John A. Roebling of Brooklyn Bridge fame and later to the first operation of a railroad locomotive, the "Stourbridge Lion," in America. " (You may  now close your books, please revise for the midterm). 

Scranton was not just a place for the Office, but a stop over for wealthy railroad owners .But over the past decades the lights of the electric city have dimmed, looking as though a war had passed through. Desolate stores, empty streets and over populated malls. 

It makes me so happy to see such a positive response to an artistic effort. 

GO FORTH!!!