GoggleWorks, Arts center in Reading, Pennsylvania.
GoggleWorks is an arts center in Reading, Pennsylvania, that brings together teaching studios, artist workspaces, exhibition galleries, and a film screening venue under one roof. It operates as a nonprofit organization and the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building was originally a factory that produced safety goggles and was a fixture of Reading's industrial landscape for much of the 20th century. It was converted into an arts center in 2006, with the original brick structure kept largely intact.
The name GoggleWorks comes directly from the building's original use as a factory that made safety goggles, and locals still refer to it by that name with a sense of familiarity. Inside, the open studios let visitors watch artists at work, giving the visit a spontaneous and personal quality that a traditional gallery rarely offers.
The center is open daily and admission is free, so a spontaneous visit is easy to plan at any time. Free parking is available on site, which makes it convenient to come with a car and spend as much or as little time as you like.
Although the building is known as an arts center, it also houses a business innovation program that gives entrepreneurs access to fabrication tools and shared workspaces. A visitor wandering the hallways might come across a prototype workshop right next to a painting studio.
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