The Bridge Literary Arts Center is dedicated to the prosperity of literature, language and art in the greater western Pennsylvania region. The Bridge Literary Center began thirty years ago in 1993 as The Bridge Coffee House, featuring monthly literary and music performances by regional and non-regional writers, musicians and artists at the Barrow Civic Children’s Theater in Franklin.
In 2011, The Bridge added monthly workshops, open mics and a literary arts journal in order to offer writing enthusiasts more exposure and opportunities to connect with the goal of creating a consistent and shared writers’ community.
In 2023, The Bridge Literary Arts Center has been proud to be associated with The Bridge Builders Community Foundation. Since then, we have increased our offerings of workshops and open mics at area locations, such as the Oil City and Franklin Libraries, the Transit Building, Core Goods, and the Cork and Screw, as well as special open mics on Zoom.
The workshops and open mics create opportunities for our area writers to meet and commune, share and respond to each other’s creations, and develop a larger community of fellow writing enthusiasts. We’re proud of our recent workshops, taught by the well-published area writers Tracey Lander-Garret and Philip Terman, who offered three focused writing workshops at the Oil City Library, including a workshop before Thanksgiving on the theme of “gratitude” and a workshop to coincide with the holiday season featuring writing that “celebrates the magical celebratory season of winter.” These workshops were enthusiastically attended.
In addition, The Bridge Lit Center is thrilled to sponsor an annual day-long literary festival. The festival, held at the Oil Region Venango Campus, features award-winning writers in many genres teaching writing workshops; a Book and Community Fair in which authors and community organizations can introduce and share their works and information; and opportunities for participants to network and commune.
Taking advantage of the campus’ pristine location, the festival also includes hike-and-write and bike-and-write activities, as well as inviting visual artists to join us. We were delighted to share the beautiful campus location with visual artists, perched at their easels and canvases around the pond while the writers wrote and shared their efforts in the nearby gazebo. It truly was an artistic community that we hope will continue to evolve. We are grateful for the co-sponsorship of The Oil City Arts Council, and are thrilled to continue working with them.
As our name implies, “bridging” area writers, artists and citizens of all stripes is fundamental to our mission. In early June, The Bridge was delighted to collaborate with area artists for an “ekphrastic” (writings inspired by visual art) exhibit at Foxburg’s Redbrick Gallery.
Organized by the artistic director Jason Lewis, 15 artists shared their work with 15 writers, who in turn created a short literary work in response. At the opening, the writers read their ekphrastic pieces in front of the artwork each inspired. It was truly a fruitful collaboration. Those interested in the events works can visit: alleghenyriverstone.org/event/art-poetry-group-collaboration.
The Bridge Lit Center also participated in the Oil City Arts Council’s Artists Sunday. The Bridge presented an open mic and authors’ fair at Core Goods in Oil City. This year for the group’s next open mic on Feb. 8 at the Cork and Screw, The Bridge is thrilled to collaborate with The Writer’s Flock, a lively writers’ group.
The Bridge is excited as they plan writing events for 2025. Along with continuing their monthly writing workshops, open mics and literary festival (to be held in the fall) they are looking forward to expanding their literary arts journal to include a diversity of writings to reflect even more our region’s wide-ranging perspectives and styles. We’re particularly thrilled to partner with the Venango Campus in March for more focused writing workshops.
In sum, The Bridge is excited to explore even more events and opportunities, such as working with area citizens in sharing their stories; offering workshops in a wider array of area locations; hosting non-regional writers in our area for greater accessibility for those who may have travel challenges.
In 2025 The Bridge aims to further their dedication to the prosperity of writing and literature by empowering the region’s citizens to develop and share their passions for the literary art.
Those wishing to learn more about The Bridge can email them at bridgeliteraryartscenter@gmail.com or visit their website at www.bridgeliteraryartscenter.org.
