The Yocum Institute for Arts Education in West Lawn presents “After the Storm,” a solo exhibition by local artist Jim Forrestel, whose work spans over five decades of imaginative, emotionally rich painting. The exhibit will be on view in the Holleran Gallery through Aug. 26.
Born and raised in Philadelphia and a longtime resident of the Reading area, Forrestel brings a lifetime of experience, emotion and creativity to the canvas. “After the Storm” offers viewers a collection of his large-scale, vividly colored works that blur the line between fantasy and reality.
With a style influenced by surrealism and emotional introspection, Forrestel invites the audience into dreamlike scenes where the figures are silent and contemplative —entranced in worlds of their own.
“There is a lot of surrealism in my work,” Forrestel said. “They are like dreams with hidden meanings. When I am feeling overwhelmed with the day-to-day stress of life, my art helps me to detach, separate myself, calming the storm within me.”
Each piece in the exhibit is unplanned, guided instead by instinct, emotion and Forrestel’s unique use of outline and glowing color to flatten perspective and elevate narrative.
Influenced by his own family life and his professional career in the fields of substance use and mental health, the work resonates with depth, connection and quiet power.
For more details, visit www.yocuminstitute.org or call 610-376-1576.
Music
After being on hiatus since 2022, “The Mountain Folk Show” returns as a broadcast television, cable TV and internet program on CWTAP, which serves Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania via Service Electric and Blue Ridge Cable, as well as dozens of counties and multiple metropolitan markets, including the Lehigh Valley, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Lancaster/Lebanon/Harrisburg, Reading, Philadelphia and New York.
The original “Mountain Folk show,” with its forebear East Side Dave’s Bluegrass Festival, first went on the air in 1979 on radio station WHUM. After that, “The Mountain Folk Show” had a 30-year run on radio station WEEU.
During that time the show was also syndicated out to numerous land-based, satellite and Internet radio stations around the United States and Europe.
“The Mountain Folk Show,” produced and hosted by “East Side Dave” Kline, is a branch of Kline’s Mountain Folk enterprise, which includes video shorts, albums, digital content, live band performances, lectures, newspaper column content with photography, The Mountain Folk Fest and the David L. Kline Family Mountain Folk Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarship funding for acoustic music students.
This first show in the new “Mountain Folk” series features Kline with the Hillbilly Hicks performing old-time music at the historic Speaker’s House of Frederick Muhlenberg in Trappe, Montgomery County. Muhlenberg was the first Speaker of the House of the Continental Congress.
Here’s a link to the show:
Grants
Berks County Arts Fund of Berks County Community Foundation recently awarded $50,000.00 in grants to six organizations. The Berks County Arts Fund supports arts and culture organizations that will implement community-focused programs/projects through visual arts. They seek to support innovative, inclusive, and accessible programs that will foster community pride and encourage creative expression within the Berks community.
The following grants were awarded:
• $13,025.70 to Alvernia University’s Total Experience Learning Institute mural project, Sanctuary of Color — Bringing Art to the LightHouse Playground. The mural installation will enhance the beauty, privacy and safety of the playground for Lighthouse residents who are transitioning from crisis to stability.
• $3,500 to Theron Cook Art Don’t Quit Foundation to support the project ArtCycle: Transforming Trash Into Treasure. Guided painting sessions of inner-city Reading’s trash and recycling bins will bring local youth together to beautify their community and learn about the importance of recycling.
• $5,000 to State Theatre Preservation Society for its Summer Kid Movies program to provide discounted movies, snacks and relaxing quality time for lower-income families in Boyertown and the surrounding areas.
• $5,815 to Our Town Foundation to build its community mural at State Street Square, an event and gathering space that is currently being developed for the cultural and educational enrichment of Hamburg residents.
• $3,500 to Reading Theater Project to construct large, operable puppets for a free, outdoor theater performance at the Reading Public Museum Arboretum.
• $19,159.30 to Reading Symphony Orchestra to host a night of music and visual art. A Visual & Musical Mosaic features musical performances by Reading Symphony Orchestra and photography from local students that answer the question, “What does Berks County mean to me?”
“We are proud to support these organizations whose work enriches our communities through visual arts,” said Monica Reyes, vice president for programs and initiatives of Berks County Community Foundation. “By supporting the visual arts, we’re investing in both creative expression and the civic vitality it fosters.”
Berks County Arts Fund supports visual arts programming based in Berks County. To learn more about the fund, visit the fund’s landing page at https://bccf.org/funds/berks-county-arts-fund.
Books
John M. Reshetar of Reading has published a novel titled “The Prophecy of Twelve.” The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Booklocker.com.
