CEO to COO: ArtsQuest’s Mission to Transform Bethlehem Through Culture

When Bethlehem Steel closed its doors in the 1990s, the loss left a deep rift in the city’s identity. But out of that industrial collapse, a new vision began to take shape—one where arts, culture, and community would be the driving force of renewal. At the heart of that transformation is ArtsQuest, a nonprofit born from crisis that has since become one of the most innovative cultural engines in the country.

Built on the former steel campus, ArtsQuest is best known for Musikfest, its massive annual music festival (largest non-gated music festival in the U.S.) that draws over a million people and pumps $75+ million into the local economy. But its impact reaches far beyond summer stages. With more than 4,000 events annually, from film screenings to culinary fests to education programs for youth and seniors, ArtsQuest has become a year-round hub for creativity and community building.

In this conversation, ArtsQuest COO Curt Mosel reflects on the organization’s unlikely origins, its ever-expanding reach, and how a city once defined by steel is now thriving through the power of the arts.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Tell us about ArtsQuest.
ArtsQuest began in 1984. At that time, Bethlehem Steel was starting to really contract. There was a massive layoff of 6,000 workers here locally. Bethlehem was sort of a one-trick pony where, if you needed a job, you could go to Bethlehem Steel. When that started to happen, there was real concern that Bethlehem was in trouble.

Our founder, Jeff Parks, got together with business folks and city leaders and came up with the idea for a music festival in the heart of downtown. The goal was to help the businesses on Main Street attract tourism, and it would really give folks who lived here a shot in the arm. The city council unanimously voted it down.

It was on the way to not happening at all when the mayor’s administrative assistant convinced him that this was, in fact, a good idea. With the funding of several local businesspeople, the first music fest happened, and 182,000 people came out. They gave away more beer than they sold. They did everything they could to get people to come out and have a good time.

Here we are over 40 years later, and that event now attracts more than a million people annually. The economic impact of it is about $75 million to the community, and there are 450 artists doing more than 500 performances on 15 free stages, and then we have one ticketed main stage, the Wind Creek Steel Stage at PNC Plaza, with 11 straight nights of headliner shows.

You’re located on the old Bethlehem Steel campus, repurposing some industrial buildings. How did you get in there and has that led to unexpected benefits?
In 1995, this 1,800-acre brownfield that was Bethlehem Steel was closed off, and if you lived around here, it was this reminder of what it once was. Our founder had a vision after traveling to Germany and Europe and seeing how steel mills had been repurposed into entertainment venues and said we can do that same thing. We can take what we’re doing with Musikfest, and what we had begun doing with the Banana Factory, which was our visual arts and education building, and we can create a performing arts campus that will bring the arts to life year-round.

That’s where the ArtsQuest Center was born. It’s a $27 million project that opened in 2011. It has a two-screen movie theater, an indoor music stage, and the Highmark Stage, located just outside on the Air Products Town Square. It has a bar and a restaurant on the first floor. The second floor has the Fowler Blast Furnace Room, a multi-purpose room where we host weddings, proms, private events, chamber functions, musical performances and comedy.  The third and fourth floors are really the jewel in the crown as that’s the Musikfest Cafe, which is a concert venue akin to a House of Blues, which hosts more than 100 concerts each year along with up to 200 private events.

We have the skyline of the Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces, which were built over time dating back to the 1870s. Adjacent to that is the blower house, which is a building where these giant flywheels would pump the air into the furnaces. That is still intact, and you can go up on the Hoover-Mason Trestle and walk along the blast furnaces and go out onto a ledge and then look into the blower house. It’s intact to what it was the day when it closed. There’s even writing on the walls from the workers as they left. It’s really incredible. The whole campus is like that.

If grant funding were to change over the next few years, what kind of impact would that have on what you’re able to do for the community?
We’re definitely concerned about it because we apply for a number of grants each year, and if some of those opportunities  go away, we’ll need  to cautiously scale back on things to manage the impact, or we’re going have to find other funding sources. Our hope would be if public funding goes down, then private’s going to replace it. There are no guarantees. You’ve just got to go out and hustle and find it.

In addition to the economic impact, we had a study done to determine the social impact of an organization like ArtsQuest. What are the values of the youth arts and education programs we do? If a student goes through those programs, there’s an increase in likelihood that they’re going to graduate high school, enroll in college, and graduate.

Can you describe some of those education initiatives?
There is a program we do called ArtSmart. High school kids that are getting close to graduation can come here and participate in an arts program after school. They come here, they get a meal, and they learn. Maybe they learn how to do photography and what it’s like to become a photographer as a vocation. We’re giving them the vision of a life-skill. They understand what it’s like to be accountable on a different level than being in school and being told in theory.

It’s hands-on learning. We’re also going to start doing some early childhood education programs. Some will be mommy and me, some will be almost like daycare. We work closely with the Bethlehem Area School District. We are their education partner for the arts.

In addition to that, the arts heal. For kids that are having a tough time, the arts are really important to help them navigate through the challenges of life. We do it beyond education. We do it with veterans, we do it with seniors. Creative aging is a very important thing for folks that are towards the latter part of their lives. It’s just as important for them as it is for early education.

If somebody were to come in from the outside area, what would their experience be at ArtsQuest?
You could come down here every day for four days and experience something entirely different. You could see a film, you could experience a taco festival. You could enjoy a free concert outside where you’re sitting on a lawn chair, listening to a national touring artist. You could see an exhibit on superheroes from an artist named Bart Cooper, who was born in Allentown. He took historic Black figures and turned them into Wonder Woman and Iron Man. We brought 5,000 students in to experience his artwork, and he met and with them, personally.

That is just the tip of the iceberg. We do more than 4,000 programs annually and we try to offer something to everyone. For 10 years, we’ve hosted official FIFA viewing parties for the World Cup on our campus, and we’ve brought tens of thousands of people together to see the games on large screens.

Next year, when the World Cup comes to the US, Canada, and Mexico, for six weeks, we’re going to convert our campus into one of the most unique FIFA viewing parties, where we incorporate the arts into everything. We’ll have our hot glass studio making medallions with a soccer ball. After England plays, there will be a Who tribute band on one of our stages. We’ll be showcasing food from the Northeast, Canada and Mexico.

It’s also going tell the history of Bethlehem. In the 1920s, Bethlehem had the most successful professional soccer team that has ever played in the United States. It was called Bethlehem Steel FC. They won 11 championships in 15 years.

We want people to come together to experience the arts, and hopefully make the community a better place.