BETHLEHEM, Pa. — French artist Lucas Beaufort will headline a two-day run of free art and skateboarding events in South Bethlehem next month, capped by a block party on Vine Street outside Homebase Skateshop.
The events, set for Aug. 15 and 16, are organized by Homebase Skateshop in partnership with Lehigh University Art Galleries and the gallery and tattoo studio ARCHIVE. All events are free and open to the public, the organizers said in an announcement.
The weekend pairs the city’s 24-year-old skate shop with Lehigh’s art museum during the museum’s centennial year, and it brings to Bethlehem an artist whose 2022 book on independent skate shops included Homebase among 90 stores worldwide.
The weekend begins at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, with a panel discussion featuring Beaufort and local arts advocates, hosted by Lehigh University Art Galleries at Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave.
An opening reception for a curated exhibition of local artists follows at 7:30 p.m. at ARCHIVE, 308 E. Third St.
The block party runs from 3 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 16, outside Homebase Skateshop at 29 W. Fourth St. and along Vine Street between Fourth and Rink streets, according to organizers.
Scheduled activities include live art demonstrations by Beaufort, hands-on art-making with artists from the Lehigh Valley Artist Meetup, children’s skateboarding activities and “Best Trick” contests run through Push Ahead, Homebase’s youth skate instruction program, and music by The Nite-Liters. Food and drinks will be sold by Deja Brew Coffeehouse & Deli.
Beaufort, born in Cannes, France, in 1981, is a painter and skateboarder known for cartoon characters layered over photographs, board graphics for brands including Zero and Almost Skateboards, and the 2017 documentary “Devoted.” Organizers said his commercial collaborations include Nike, Adidas, Converse, The North Face, Lacoste, Ford, Virgin Atlantic, W Hotels and Four Seasons.
His 428-page book “HEART” collected interviews and photographs from 90 skate shops in 15 countries and sold out an initial run of 5,000 copies after its 2022 release. The book casts independent storefronts as the social foundations of local skate scenes.
Homebase, open on West Fourth Street since 2002, is one of the shops in it.
Beaufort has spent the years since the book came out visiting those stores in person — Japan first, then Europe, then a 10-stop U.S. tour in 2024. He told Phoenix magazine that year that he learned English through skateboarding rather than in school, and that the aim at each stop was to draw out the local scene and promote the shop.
Next month, the stop is Bethlehem.
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