Beth Armanda
The women who worked on that project enjoyed the experience so much that they wished to continue having “fun with art.” That fun has become a committee in Lycoming Arts dedicated to supporting new public art, often created by Lycoming County artists-in-residence, and to promoting walking tours designed to view these local treasures. Galleries opened downtown, at first three student galleries, but followed by traditional galleries with shows and exhibitions. With the help of Lycoming Arts and the focus of First Fridays, the audience for galleries, shows in coffee houses, and just spending time with art became part of the Williamsport experience. The streets of Williamsport no longer looked boarded up. The downtown was alive, first with art in the windows, followed by retailers and others looking to serve the public that had returned. And the art doesn’t stay in the downtown or stay with established artists. “Lycoming Art is a three-legged stool,” Debi explains. It needs to travel. It does, through outreach. The “Only Love” mural, a forty-foot public art piece inspired by a Martin Luther King Jr. sermon, is a great example. In production throughout 2021, it’s been a collaboration between Williamsport Area High School art students via a grant the school district got from First Community Foundation Partnership. It will be installed at Firetree Place, a commercial building near the downtown, later this year. The pandemic brought First Friday, but it reopened in May of 2021. Shanin Dougherty and Beth Amanda, current chairs of First Friday, extend an invitation to the big anniversary celebration on August 6. Although every month of First Friday is different, with its own theme, this one is truly special. Fourth Street will be closed from Market to Hepburn, along with Pine Street. There will be vendors, exhibits, and live music, including a reunion of Clyde Frog—a group formed under the Uptown Music Collective. As Shanin says, “You never know what you’re going to find at First Friday.” But it’s a guarantee. It will be a party fit for a FFAT City!
Mountain Home contributor Linda Roller is a bookseller, appraiser, and writer in Avis, Pennsylvania.
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