The 30th Annual Fall Festival of the Arts opened Friday, Sept. 5 with an Art Exhibit and a Poetry Out Loud presentation at Trinity Lutheran Church on Washington Street, Reading. Many local artists and crafters had their works on display in several rooms at the church. Peggy Bobb and Jane Runyeon were the featured artists.
Peggy Bobb makes her living cross-stitching, which she started as a way to relax when her children were young. Thirty years later, she still loves making art and sharing it with the world.
Jane Runyeon has been painting most of her life. She spent 10 years as an art professor, a job that eventually brought her back to her hometown of Reading, Pa. to teach at Albright College. While her work is displayed in such places as the Empire State Building in New York and the Schoodic Institute at the Acadia National Park in Maine, she continues to share much of her works with local galleries. Currently, some of her work is on display at the Reading Public Library and the Governer Mifflin Library. Many of her pieces even have some connection to her hometown; the Pagoda is in one of her works at the Empire State Building.
In addition to the main gallery, there was also a beautiful craft room featuring smaller items, such as teddy bears, hats, jewelry, and cross-stitching pieces.
The Art Exhibit will also be open Saturday, Sept. 13 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 14 from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Visual art did not absorb the whole evening. Three teenagers from Reading High’s Poetry Out Loud team recited some of their favorite poems. Aaron Preston, Jimmy Ortiz, and Leslie Martinez brought to life the works of such poets as William Butler Yeats, D. H. Lawrence, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and more.
Susan Wagner coached the reciters as well as chairing the Fall Festival. She is also directing two of the festival’s upcoming events in October. When she first became involved in the festival, it was a single weekend event. She has expanded it to five weekends, stretching it through Oct. 19.
The festivities continue on Saturday, Sept. 13 at 11 a.m. with Storytelling with Ingrid Bohn at the Christ Episcopal Church on Court Street in Reading. Parents and children can spend time learning to tell stories in their own ways.
On Sunday, Sept. 14 at 4 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran, Grammy Award-winning Paul Jacobs will be giving an organ concert. A reception will follow the concert.
The one act bilingual opera En Mis Palabras will be performed at the WCR Center for the Arts on North Fifth Street in Reading on Saturday, Oct. 4 and 7:30 p.m. An encore performance will take place on Sunday, Oct. 5 at 3 p.m. En Mis Palabras looks at some of the struggles immigrants and American-born children of immigrants face in keeping a balance between their cultural heritage and blending in with their peers.
Also at the WCR Center will be A Bed Among the Lentils on Friday, Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m. with the encore performance on Sunday, Oct. 12 at 3 p.m. This play by Alan Bennett is a comedy about a ‘lonely wife…who copes with her life through a fondness for wine and an Indian grocer.’ Susan Wagner will be directing both En Mis Palabras and A Bed Among the Lentils.
The Festival will come to a close with a Hymn Festival led by David Cherwien on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 4 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran. Choirs from Trinity Lutheran, Christ Episcopal, Atonement Lutheran, St. John’s Lutheran, Immanuel UCC, and First UCC churches are participating. The Hymn Festival is focusing on social justice.
The Fall Festival of the Arts is all about showing off local talent and encouraging everyone to see their own and others’ creative potential. As Jane Runyeon said, ‘Each and every one of us is creative.’
