Ground Control to Major Tom…
Commencing countdown, engines on…
Hello volunteers, Cory here:
After being with ArtsQuest for seven years, I am excited to announce that I have been named the next Executive Director of Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks! I am grateful to have been chosen, and look forward to taking this next step toward fulfilling our mission to make the arts accessible to the entire community.
Shayna Super, the outgoing Executive Director, is still around—she is simply shifting into a position of higher responsibility within ArtsQuest. I will continue to work with Shayna closely on Levitt SteelStacks programming, and likely will subject her to many silly questions.
Another important note here is that I remain the Volunteer Program Manager for ArtsQuest; I am adding Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks responsibilities onto everything else. You aren’t rid of me yet, for better or worse!
Check ignition, and may God’s love be with you…
My first Levitt show was in 2016, when The Band Who Fell to Earth performed a David Bowie tribute on July 1st. I went because I wanted to see live Bowie music and honor his recent passing, but once there, I was immediately struck by the beauty of the SteelStacks campus and the power live music had over the community that had gathered. As I’ve said many times, I grew up loving Musikfest, so it’s no wonder that I was inspired by the Levitt Foundation’s mission as well. Every weekend, anyone (including a broke, just out-of-college knucklehead such as myself) can show up on the Levitt Lawn and enjoy a show for free. It’s a little taste of Musikfest every summer weekend. While I sat on the concrete block, I took in the tunes, gazed up at the SteelStacks, and realized this was a place I could happily work for and call home.
It is not hyperbole to say that without that first Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks show, it’s quite possible I never would have ended up working at ArtsQuest.
This is Major Tom to Ground Control…
I’m stepping through the door…
Over the next few years, I will join you again on the Lawn in an added capacity to enrich the lives of all who live in the Lehigh Valley through live music and the community that music can build. I have walked buckets with you, I have entered surveys on tablets with you, I carried tables from the shed to the tent and back to shed again with you. You have taught me how best to love Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks, and it will be a privilege to honor that love even more in this new role.
Through my work with the Levitt Family Foundation, we will continue to grow and shine as one of the premier beacons of arts and culture in our region. I cannot wait to see what we’ll create together in future seasons and hope that you’ll sign up to join me once the shifts drop on the portal!
And I’m floating in a most peculiar way…
And the starts look very different today…
Until the grass turns green again,
(Lyrics from Space Oddity, by Davie Bowie)