Levi Landis
If you’ve visited the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts recently, you’ve probably noticed some changes — from a revamped floor design to refreshed programming. Behind it all is Levi Landis: artist, musician, and president and executive director of the country’s largest interactive art studio.
When did you get involved with the GoggleWorks? I started here in March of 2016. The board was looking to find new leadership, and I was working in the museum world in Philadelphia but really looking to get back to the art center environment. What really drew me was a quarter of a million visitors a year. I was at a museum in the city, and if we got 15,000 visitors a year we were giving each other high-fives. I mean, what an audience!
How are you finding the art community in Berks compared to Philadelphia? It’s a smaller market, but there’s a lot going on. There’s both a donor base and an audience that is really strong and supportive. Philadelphia is more segmented and sort of sequestered. I’ve really been pleased with how this area can rally around arts organizations, and I think GoggleWorks is a beneficiary of that.
How did you get your start? Most of my career has been in the performing arts. I was a musician for 15 years. I was in a band that did a lot of national touring, but I also ran the Philadelphia Folk Festival for six years, and before that I ran a music venue in Gettysburg. It was just a few years before I came to the GoggleWorks that I got involved in the Center for Arts and Wood, which was really a unique switch for me. But I’ve always loved the visual arts, and I was excited to make that change.
Are you enjoying the music scene here? Oh yes. My wife and I love the Berks Jazz Fest and what they bring to town every year. Going to Mike’s Tavern is great too because you get to see local acts there, and we try to bring some of the acts we see to GoggleWorks. Any time I see someone and I really love what they’re doing, I try to see what we can do at GoggleWorks to help partner with them. I think there are a lot of powerful things happening in this small community we call home.
Aside from recruiting new musicians, what are some of the new initiatives you’ve implemented? We’ve done a lot. We wanted to inject a new vision. When Albert Boscov had the initial vision for GoggleWorks, he came in with such passion, but after 10 years we want to present that vision to the community in a new way, which we have done through restructuring our staff, recruiting new talent, and reinventing our programming.
So now visitors can expect a whole different experience? Yes. And I’ll give you a bit of a scoop. Penn State Berks is building a fabrication lab with 3D printers on site. It’s going to be an incubator for new businesses and something altogether new for us. It’s a pretty special time.
