BETHLEHEM, Pa. – A brick-breaking ceremony marks another step ahead for ArtsQuest’s newest event space.<\/p>\n
Community leaders and lawmakers discussed the journey to transform the historic Bethlehem Steel Turn and Grind Shop into a new venue.<\/p>\n
The space will be called the Lehigh Valley Health Network part of Jefferson Health Turn and Grind Shop.<\/p>\n
A spring shower did not rain on the ceremony held in Southside Bethlehem on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“Although the weather is not so great, it’s a very exciting day,” said Bob Begliomini, President of Jefferson Health, Lehigh Valley Region.<\/p>\n
Inside ArtsQuest’s future Turn and Grind building, the faces behind the project gathered together.<\/p>\n
While no bricks were really broken, construction efforts are well underway.<\/p>\n
Picture this: a 26,000 square foot space, that prioritizes extended arts programming, exhibits, festivals and events, for roughly 800 people.<\/p>\n
The project will preserve historical elements like the original floor, brick and stone.<\/p>\n
“This was a testament to the human beings that built this up, and they were in these structures, right?” said Kassie Hilgert, President and CEO of ArtsQuest. “It was not run by computers; you’re never going to see that scale again. So, to be able to show future generations where we’ve come from, while also using program to say, ‘look where we’re going.'”<\/p>\n
Hilgert said by this time next year, doors to the venue will be open to welcome in visitors.<\/p>\n
Before then, Boyle Construction President Sean Boyle and his team are working tirelessly.<\/p>\n
“Renovating a structure of this age and complexity, took a lot of additional time for to work out details and budgets,” said Boyle. “I’m really working on a lot of different projects, but all the ones that ArtsQuest are always special, because they’re so unique.”<\/p>\n
Crews are working to put on the final roof and levels of windows, before putting in the walls.<\/p>\n
A years-worth of reconstruction and meetings are finally falling into place, as community leaders, lawmakers and partners like Begliomini reflect and dream of the future.<\/p>\n
“It’s a very exciting day for Jefferson Health, for ArtsQuest, for the Bethlehem community. This venue is going to be something very special.” said Begliomini.<\/p>\n
It is scheduled to be open in May 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. – A brick-breaking ceremony marks another step ahead for ArtsQuest’s newest event space. Community leaders and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,225,5998,52809,53,61288,6451,3806,4588,4659,88342],"class_list":["post-199328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-artsquest","tag-bethlehem-steel","tag-community-leaders","tag-construction","tag-event-venue","tag-historic-preservation","tag-jefferson-health","tag-lehigh-valley-health-network","tag-southside-bethlehem","tag-turn-and-grind-shop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}