In recognition of America’s 250th anniversary, 10 students from the Bethlehem Area School District have created a podcast exploring the intersection of art and American history.

The podcast, titled “Framing the Founding,” was produced through ArtQuest’s free Teen Takeover program, which meets weekly in February. 

Teen Takeover is led by local podcasters, Lys Sparrow-Serraino and Daniel Chiles, who have collaborated for three years on projects including “Landmarks with Leon,” “Southside Voices with Host Roy Ortiz” and “Cold Case Mysteries of the Lehigh Valley.” Hosted by PBS, the program is offered to Lehigh Valley students ages 14 to 17 who are interested in learning about the podcasting process. 

Sparrow-Serraino and Chiles said they began podcasting later in their careers and have found the platform especially meaningful.

“What’s unique about podcasting is that nobody really sees you unless you want (them) to,” Sparrow-Serraino said. “It’s based truly on what you say and what your beliefs are, so I think that’s the reason why it’s become so popular and so empowering.”

For this session, the instructors took a different approach from their usual workshops, where students select their own topics. 

Sparrow-Serraino said they saw the anniversary as the perfect opportunity to focus on the nation’s founding and designed the program around artwork reflecting the Revolutionary Period in the 1700s.

Students researched paintings created between 1773 and 1783 that depict scenes from the Revolutionary War. Each student selected a piece that caught their attention, and their research will be featured in the podcast. 

“They think they’re coming in just to learn about podcasting, but in fact, now they’re learning about civics,” Sparrow-Serraino said. “Now they’re learning about art and about other podcasts that talk about these things, and now they can see the relatability between these topics.” 

Joanne Garcia, the manager of education and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Programs at ArtsQuest, said she believes in making art — including podcasts — accessible to as many people as possible. 

“Part of our mission at ArtsQuest is providing accessible art and cultural programs and events,” Garcia said. “We have an awesome grants administrator who is constantly looking for opportunities to fund these programs, and that’s how we are able to have it for free for the students.”

Teen Takeover has been running for four years and was previously hosted at the now-demolished Banana Factory. 

ArtsQuest is replacing the Banana Factory with the new Creative Factory, which Garcia said will house workshops like Teen Takeover in the future. The remodeled building will include a media lab, recording studio and ceramics studio, among other spaces, and is expected to open in late 2026 or early 2027.

“What we’re doing now with this workshop, hosted by PBS, it’s almost like prepping for what we will be able to do in our building with that collaborative space,” Garcia said. 

Although the workshop began two weeks ago, one student has already asked about interning with the instructors. Chiles said the experience reminded him of his time teaching English in Japan. 

“The reason you acquire a language or you go down the path is to find something out about yourself and about others,” Chiles said. “This is what’s happening in this podcast workshop. They are discovering something about themselves.”

When the podcast is complete, Sparrow-Serraino and Chiles plan to publish it on their website, “Hey! I Made a Podcast,” to showcase the students’ work. They also hope to host future workshops at the Creative Factory and use its recording equipment.

In the future, they said they plan to continue collaborating with ArtsQuest and expand their podcast workshops to other groups. 

“What we want to do is to empower people, every demographic, every ethnicity to have a voice and to give them that empowerment and somewhere to display it,” Sparrow-Serraino said.