GoggleWorks
Encyclopedia
The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts is a community art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

 and cultural resource center located in Reading
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...

, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. The mission of the GoggleWorks is “to nurture the arts, foster creativity, promote education and enrich the community.”

Located in a former safety-goggles factory building, the GoggleWorks offers 145000 square feet (13,470.9 m²) of dynamic space, including: galleries; classrooms; dance and music studios; a darkroom; a glass blowing facility, plus a warm and cold glass studio/classroom; a woodshop; ceramics and jewelry studios; a 131-seat film theatre; a café; community meeting places; 34 artist studios; and offices for 26 local community arts and cultural organizations including the Berks Ballet and the Berks Classical Children's Chorus.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 2006.

History of the GoggleWorks Building

Founded by Gile J. Willson and his son Dr. Thomas A. Willson in 1871, Thomas A. Willson & Co. opened the first factory in the world to manufacture optical glass for lenses and reading glasses. Located at the corner of Washington and 2nd streets in Reading, Pennsylvania, the company became known for its innovative strides in addressing the occupational hazards faced by factory workers and is credited with launching the safety protection industry. Their first innovation was a protective lens that blocked dangerous and blinding rays produced by metal processing equipment. During the 1890s the company expanded the reach of the safety industry addressing hearing, respiratory and head protection equipment.

The National Safety Council was created in 1913, and T.A. Willson & Co. Inc. Helped to set the uniform safety standards in industry. Through the 1920s, they expanded their line of safety equipment to the protection of coal miners, military personnel, and aviation. In 1929 the company became Willson Goggles, Inc., and by World War II, Willson Goggles was helping the war effort by making aviator goggles and high altitude oxygen masks for pilots in the military. In 1936, the company again changed its name to reflect an expanding product line. Willson Products, Inc. began to produce fashionable sunglasses, as modeled by the contestants of the 1938 Miss America pageant, and swim goggles, as worn by Florence Chadwick, the first woman to swim both directions of the English Channel in 1950.

The company changed hands in 1956, but maintained the Willson products name through the atomic age and space age, still leading the safety industry in research and development of equipment to meet the needs of a technologically advancing society.

In the 1980s, Willson shifted its focus to the development of new varieties of respirators, gloves and other protective equipment. In 1989, Dalloz bought Willson products, and changed the company name to Dalloz Safety in 1997. Dalloz closed the plant in May 2002.

Recent Developments and Uses

In 2005, the concept of the GoggleWorks came to fruition when Albert Boscov and Marlin Miller took over the building. It opened its doors on September 18, 2005. In the October/November 2006 issue, American Crafts comments:

"Combining Boscov’s flair for promotion (he was chairman of the Boscov’s department store chain) with Miller’s longtime involvement in the craft world as a collector and advocate (he’s currently board chair of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts), they envisioned a broad-based arts center built around artists’ studios… [T]he city got behind the idea, as did the state, which gave three million dollars in initial funding."

Since then, a capitol campaign and volunteers, along with the artists, staff, and board members, have helped to keep the GoggleWorks a working success.

See also

  • Red Men Hall
    Red Men Hall (Reading, Pennsylvania)
    The Red Men Hall, later known as Century Hall, is a historic four-story building located in Reading, Pennsylvania.-Red Men:The building originally served as a meeting place for the local lodge or "wigwam" of the Improved Order of Red Men. The Red Men are a fraternal organization which imitate...

    : Another Reading building designed by the Muhlenberg Brothers.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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