Program areas at ArtsQuest
Started in 1984, musikfest today is considered the nation's largest free music festival with more than 550 performances on 17 stages, 16 of which are free. This 10-day festival attracted more than 1.1 million people from 45 states and one dozen countries in 2017. As the largest program run by Artsquest, musikfest is family-oriented and presents virtually every style of music including blues, jazz, rock, country, classical, latin, folk, americana, and bluegrass. The festival is supported by sponsorship, membership, grants, merchandise sales, and food and beverage service. Artsquest works with more than 25 regional arts and cultural organizations to incorporate them into this festival.
Steelstacks/artsquest performing arts center: in 2011, Artsquest opened steelstacks, a 10-acre arts, cultural and educational campus located on the former bethlehem steel plant site in bethlehem, pa on what was the largest brownfield site under development in the united states. Steelstacks provides access to a diverse array of concerts, classes, festivals and events, using arts as a vehicle for urban revitalization. The main building on the campus is the Artsquest center, a 67,000-square-foot performing arts center designed to meet the community's diverse arts and education needs. The Artsquest center includes a 2-screen cinema that offers year-round programming for independent, foreign, documentary and locally made films as well as a flexible 2-story performance space for the presentation of music, dance and theatre.
Banana factory: Artsquest established the banana factory arts & education center in january 1998. Today, the banana factory provides over 300 visual arts and education classes and camps to serve the community including photography, ceramics, glass-blowing, painting, drawing, jewelry, mixed media, and sculpture. Through the support of donors and sponsors, Artsquest offers scholarships to any adult or child in financial need. The arts center offers three free galleries and more than 25 studios to regional visual artists at subsidized rental rates in order to encourage artist development and engagement. Subsidized space is also made available to the Pennsylvania youth theatre and the volunteer center of the lehigh valley. The banana factory also houses several Artsquest offices critical to administering the operations of this center and the organization as a whole.