In a world where skepticism often reigns, trust can be a radical act—trusting our neighbors, our business partners, our community.
For the folks at West Art Community Center, located across from Lancaster’s Buchanan Park, an ecosystem of trust thrives. And it all started with two guys meeting over a backyard fence.
When Rufus Deakin and Josh Gibbel purchased the building of a church and began its next-life transformation into a multipurpose artistic community space in early 2023, they did so on what could be called a bit of a whim. However, like a serendipitous game of Candyland, their next step seemed to be right in front of them at every turn.
West Art, a self-proclaimed “sanctuary for music and art” and “living room for Lancaster,” hosts a range of events like comedy shows, music and dance parties, private gatherings and twice-weekly yoga. It’s also an office space for creatives (think photographers, painters and the like), an education and meeting space for organizations like Lancaster Conservancy and Alcoholics Anonymous and a soon-to-be coffee bar.
Gibbel and Deakin are both familiar with construction and renovation work (Gibbel works in home renovation, and Deakin has a history of renovating his own houses). However, it’s their first time taking on a project together and at such a massive scale to boot. They met in 2021 as neighbors (Deakin lives next door to the building, and Gibbel lives another couple of doors down), but what made them trust each other enough to purchase an entire church building together and transform it into a locally unparalleled space?
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Gibbel says, “That is a thing that I have thought about at different times, and it’s difficult to explain other than you had to be there.”
When it comes to West Art’s initial intent, Deakin says, “Neither of us wanted ego involved. This wasn’t about making some great place for us as much as it was about filling a need that Lancaster had for an affordable art space.”
West Art remains under active renovation, bolstered by local contractors as well as community members willing to help out. “It’s definitely been a community effort,” Gibbel says. Its main sanctuary—freckled with independent art and original stained-glass windows alike—is open and teeming with multiple happenings a week, and its education and office spaces are ramping up.
The coffee bar, equipped with Lancaster’s own Nostalgica Coffee, will be open in early 2024 and bring additional energy to the space that evolves as it goes. It will unfold in tandem with artistic flex space, much like a coworking space for creatives. A brand-new row of restrooms is also in the works to accommodate all of the people that West Art hosts.
West Art is planning a one-minute film festival in partnership with Zoetropolis, where anyone can contribute a film shot on a professional device or simply a phone camera. And they have an idea for an ever-changing mural at the end of the building, which they are currently in communication with a group of artists about.
A second performance room is being renovated on the second floor. The space is bookended with original, eye-catching pastel green and purple stained glass, and it features an old Tait stage that lived part of its life at Tellus360 and once served as the foundation for performers like Lady Gaga, the Rolling Stones, Elton John and Billy Joel on tours.
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Once the prioritized projects are complete, Gibbel and Deakin anticipate even more opportunities for West Art like live theater and weddings. While the community center is loosely based on Harrisburg's now defunct MakeSpace, and the trend of repurposing old religious buildings is a global one, West Art’s current and future crockpot of offerings prove that it’s really a place all its own.
Part of that stems from the fact that the founders believe in their community’s ability to make West Art what it should be, with programming that suits them. Deakin says it’s about “making this an inclusive space where particularly young people from across the city can feel like they take some ownership.”
Despite the changes that West Art anticipates over the long term, Gibbel says their core values remain the same. “I feel very confident that we will always be able to say, 'a living room for Lancaster, a sanctuary for music and art, a safe place for communities,'” he says. “I don’t think that will ever, as long as I have anything to say about it, go away.”
West Art Community Center
816 Buchanan Ave, Lancaster, PA | westartlanc.com | @westartlanc
