Our lead story this month announces our official Main Street Designation and funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development as well as a generous donation from Wyeth Corporation. The Main Street program is off to a great 2009 but there is plenty to do. Please let me know if you'd like to help.
And, don't forget to let us know what you want from your town. Visit www.collegevilledevelopment.org and click on the survey button. Our thanks to all who have already responded. We're compiling the responses and will report in our next issue of Collegeville Connects.
Ginny Simon
Main Street Manager
610-454-1050
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Collegeville Main Street Program Receives Funding |
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On Thursday, November 13, Ken Klothen, Department of Community and Economic Development Deputy Secretary officially designated Collegeville as a Main Street Community. As a Main Street community, the Collegeville Economic Development Corporation will receive an initial $50,000 grant.
"Strong communities are critical to a strong economy," said Klothen. "Being designated as a Main Street community is an important step in creating new opportunities for downtown business districts. By helping to establish a coordinated revitalization effort, we're working to make communities like Collegeville better places to live, work, and play."
Main Street was also honored to receive a check for $10,000 from Wyeth Corporation to support the Main Street program and its efforts towards the revitalization of Collegeville.
"Wyeth is pleased to support the CEDC and its Main Street Program," said Don Tobias, Assistant to the President and Senior Research Liaison for Wyeth. "As a Collegeville neighbor, we are looking forward to the positive changes that are in the works."
"Revitalization is a cooperative effort," said Vic Brown, President of the CEDC Board of Directors. "Since its inception, we have received significant support from the Borough and Ursinus College, as well as many business people and residents in the community. With this additional funding, our future truly looks bright." |
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Ground Broken for New Pfeiffer Wing at Berman Museum |
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Ground was broken Oct. 30 for an addition to the Philip and Muriel Berman museum of Art on the Ursinus College campus. The new Henry and June Pfeiffer Wing will be named for longtime Trustee and art museum supporter Henry 'Hank' Pfeiffer and his late wife, June. In conjunction with the ceremony, Mr. Pfeiffer received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree for his enthusiastic service to the College.
During the ceremony, Nancy M. Berman, President and Executive Director of the Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation, said that "The groundbreaking announcement provides one of those rare occurrences when we can focus on that magic moment when dream, possibility and a clear vision begin the transformation into concrete reality and tangible opportunity.
Ursinus President John Strassburger said of her parents, the Bermans, "their vision for the arts in a liberal arts college setting has been transforming."
The Berman Museum of Art has become an educational and cultural resource since the late Philip and Muriel Berman, business leaders and philanthropists, found a home for their extraordinary collections of contemporary sculpture, American paintings and works on paper and folk art, joining an existing collection of 18th and 19th Century American and European paintings. Nearly 20 years later, the museum houses more than 3,000 notable works of art and attracts 35,000 visitors annually.
Pfeiffer, a 1948 Ursinus graduate, is an unfailing. Except for a one-year interruption as required by the college's bylaws, Pfeiffer has been a member of the Ursinus College Board of Trustees continuously since 1978. He and his wife June, who died this past summer, established an endowed scholarship at Ursinus and have been exceedingly generous to Ursinus, particularly to the Berman Museum of Art.
The Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation has made a $1 million gift to the $5 million expansion; and the Pew Charitable Trusts committed $350,000 in a challenge grant. In addition to the Berman Foundation, the Pfeiffers and The Pew Charitable Trusts, there were several major donors to the expansion.
In preparation for the addition, from January 20 through April 12, the Main Gallery will become a collections laboratory for over 3,000 works of art from the permanent collection, coming out of storage for assessment and study by the museum staff (see Save the Date!)
The Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus, known for its diverse collection and innovative educational programming, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday; noon to 4:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, and closed Mondays and college holidays. The museum is accessible to the physically disabled and admission is free. The museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums. Exhibitions and programs are funded in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. For group tour information, call 610-409-3500.
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Ursinus Student Receives Critical Acclaim
In a Philadelphia Inquirer review of an exhibition of work by Ursinus Artist in Residence Donald E. Camp, art critic Victoria Donohoe said, "Camp is an artist who has hit his stride with this latest addition to his ongoing "Dust-Shaped Hearts" portrait series. We look forward to what lies ahead." Camp's exhibition of 12 New Orleans portraits will be on view at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts through January 6.
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| Getting to Know the CEDC
At the Annual Meeting |
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Meet the Board of the Collegeville Economic Development Corporation at the Annual Meeting, taking place December 11, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. in the President's Dining Room (Wismer Hall) on the Ursinus Campus. Learn more about the Main Street program and the future of Collegeville.
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When the Speaker Speaks!
Speaker House Annual Meeting |
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When the Speaker speaks, we listen! See what The Speaker's House has to say at our annual meeting on Tuesday, December 2 at 7 pm at Augustus
Lutheran Church. Jane Stojak and Steven Sonntag, strategic planners working for The Speaker's House, will present the results of two months of intensive community outreach and ask for more of your feedback. We will also be presenting the first annual Speaker's Choice award to Congressman Jim Gerlach and County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel.
Augustus Lutheran Church is located at 717 W. Main Street in Trappe. For more information or to RSVP for the annual
meeting, please call (610) 489-2105 or visit www.speakershouse.org
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| Mark Your Calander! |
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On Campus
Messiah Tickets Available
The performance will be held on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m. in Bomberger Auditorium.
Tickets will be $15 and can be purchased between 1 and 4 p.m. from Cathy Bogusky, Bomberger Hall, (610) 409-3000second floor, campus ext. 3583.
Breakaway to Present Beauty and the Beast
"Beauty and the Beast" will be presented by Ursinus' Breakaway Student Productions Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 4 to 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kaleidoscope Performing Arts Center Studio Theater.
Directed, designed and starring student actors, the production is a comedic take on the classic fairytale. It is geared to both children and adults, and area families are invited to bring their children to share in the humor and the love story.
Breakaway President Zachary Shamberg promises "This is Beauty and the Beast like you've never seen it before!"
Tickets are $2 for everyone. For more information and reservations, please call 610-409-3795.
German Film Announced
"Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei" (2005 - German) will conclude the fall International Film Series on Thursday, Dec. 4, at 7:30 p.m. in Olin Auditorium. The film will be shown in German with English subtitles, and light refreshments and conversation will follow.
At the Berman Museum of Art
Two Exhibitions Looking at Women's Bodies of/as Work: Focusing on the material manifestations of women's identity. September 14 through December 7 in the Main and Upper Galleries of the Berman Museum of Art.
Save the Date
GO BEHIND THE SCENES AS BERMAN EXHIBITION BRINGS ITS COLLECTION INTO THE OPEN TO PREPARE FOR NEW ADDITION Go behind the scenes of an art museum when the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College opens the process of curatorial assessment and study to the public in its WORKS(S) IN PROGRESS exhibition from January 20 through April 12.
Bringing works of art out of the vaults and into the open, in preparation for expansion of the Museum building, the staff will turn the Main Gallery into a laboratory for more than 3,000 works from the permanent collection, rotating sections of the collection. Exhibitions and programs are funded in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. For group tour information, call 610-409-3500.
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