Bank makes long-term investment in local art
Guild will showcase artwork on financial institution's walls

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEFF MARTIN Yovonne Rasor, branch manager of The Bank in Allentown, watches as Allentown Art Guild member Shan Hoffmann hangs artwork.

ALLENTOWN - Returns on the investment that The Bank just made won't be paid out in dollars and cents.

The Bank's Allentown branch manager, Yovonne Rasor, recently contacted the Allentown Art Guild to ask if the organization would like to use the financial institution's empty lobby walls as exhibit space for guild members' artwork.

Agreeing to form the mutually beneficial partnership, the guild has since hung paintings, drawings, photos, stained glass and textile art at the branch, which is located at 20 N. Main St. The exhibit will be on display for the next two months.

"This is a real win-win situation for both The Bank and the Allentown Art Guild," said Elizabeth Roselius, co-founder of the Allentown Art Guild. "The Bank gets a variety of great, locally created art to share with its customers, and the guild members have a space in which to showcase their work."

Roselius, Jeff Martin and Ericka O'Rourke, all of Allentown, and Shan Hoffmann, of Hamilton Township, formed the nonprofit guild in spring 2006. Its founding members felt the need to provide an independent association for creative professionals and friends of the arts. The guild's mission is to promote local artists and art awareness in the area, as well as to provide a venue for art education and networking.

Intimately knowing how artists often struggle to find those limited opportunities to display and sell their art, guild members aim to provide venues for member exhibits, sales and promotion.

The guild meets monthly at the barn studio of Jeff Martin Photography, located at 78 N. Main St. in Allentown, for workshops and demonstrations, many of which are open to the public.

Roselius said workshops have also covered topics such as sketchbook keeping, painting, pen-and-ink techniques, Raku pottery and photographing artwork.

Guild members' artwork will be on display at The Bank during regular bank business hours.

At the end of the first 60-day period, the guild will install a new exhibit.

The Allentown Art Guild is open to all. First-year initiation dues is $85, with subsequent yearly dues of $40. Nonmembers must pay $20 plus any assessed fee for workshops and outside speakers.

More information on the guild's schedule of events can be found at www.AllentownArtGuild.org or by calling Elizabeth Roselius at (609) 259-0455.