Side of Culture had a great year in 2025. We published a total of 36 articles on places and cultural organizations. We welcomed almost 23,000 visitors to the website and received well over 184,000 impressions on our social channels.
We focused on cultural organizations that provide enormous benefits to their communities reaching tourists, fans, audiences who spend money on entrance and performance tickets, and who purchase meals before and after performances, and who buy items in the organizations’ gift shops. Cultural and artistic organizations provide employment not only of the artists but also to the supporting administrative and marketing professionals.
Another important benefit is that cultural organizations give their towns and cities safe physical spaces where creativity and education can flourish and nourish people of all ages. They are also places of civic engagement and pride and several authors pointed out the positive impact of participating in the arts on one’s daily life and self-esteem and community.
All in all, the arts are a vital part of our social landscape and offer places to be creative, to be restored and to feel a part of a network of people, a sense of belonging. The energy and vision of these cultural organizations are inspiring. It is increasingly clear that organization’s physical spaces, presentations, and resources can have a magical and powerful impact in bringing people together and creating a sense of community.
Below is a selection of our stories from 2025.
In January 2025, Tom Farkas, wrote about the Corning Museum of Glass. “I love to think of Corning, NY, in general, as having small town charm with global reach and global impact. When you walk through the Corning Museum of Glass, we kind of want you to forget about the world and be immersed in the experience. And find delight and joy in whatever shape and form that means to you,” as the museum’s Director of Marketing, Beth Duane, glowingly describes this hidden gem sandwiched in between the Finger Lakes and the Pennsylvania Border.
https://sideofculture.com/2025/01/corning-museum-of-glass-a-hidden-gem-with-local-community-and-global-reach/
In our February 2025 issue, Maria Lisella brought us to Park Avenue South in New York City where she visited a hidden gem in New York City that you might pass right by if you did not know about it. The Scandinavia House (SH) on Park Avenue and 38th Street was created by the American Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) to promote the artistic and intellectual influence of the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and it has a restaurant serving up authentic Scandinavian dishes.
https://sideofculture.com/2025/01/scandinavia-house-weaves-a-holistic-space-on-park-avenue/
In March, Linda Cabasin traveled to Virginia to see the extraordinary transformation and adaptive reuse of a former prison (one that put suffragettes behind bars) into a contemporary arts center, called the Workhouse Arts Center in Fairfax County. Today more than 110,000 people of all ages come annually to take classes and workshops, see artists’ studios and exhibitions, attend theater performances, and enjoy an array of special events.
https://sideofculture.com/2025/02/from-prison-to-creative-hub-virginias-workhouse-arts-center/
Also in March, Tom Farkas went to Andover, Massachussetts to the Andover Bookstore, now considered the country’s oldest independently run bookstore. But we learn that this is not just a bookstore, it is an “‘ecosystem, Sociologists have termed the word, ‘third space.’ These are public spaces, like coffee shops and book stores, where you can go, linger, and loiter. They are reassuring…. There’s a sensation of being surrounded by books and think “that is a really comforting feeling.’”
https://sideofculture.com/2025/02/andover-bookstore-creates-welcoming-community-a-third-space/
And Paul Clemence went to Los Angeles in March to give a huge wave and a bow to the Oscars. He wrote in his article on the Academy Museum “movie-making is a cultural expression deeply associated with the United States,” and it will always be identified with Los Angeles which will recover and rebuild its community.
https://sideofculture.com/2024/03/lights-action-roll-academy-museum-a-home-for-the-imagination/
In April, SideofCulture had the opportunity to speak with Paula Hornbostel, the director and a trustee of the Lachaise Foundation which is based in New York City. (Gaston Lachaise was a prolific artist and a leader of the Modernist movement in America.) We spoke about the importance of artist foundations and how they, in and of themselves, become cultural communities that support the legacies of artists.
https://sideofculture.com/2025/04/lachaise-foundation-embodies-active-preservation-of-an-artists-legacy-it-takes-a-village/
In the May issue, Side of Culture started to research public art, we found a great deal of supporting material and realize that we have only started to scratch the surface. Artist Soo Sunny Park summed up what public art means to her, “Art is about communication, reaching other people who might come from very different backgrounds. We put some art in museums, which is great. People show up to engage with, communicate with, the art, the artists, and each other. Public art works differently. We are going about our everyday business and then we encounter something, maybe unexpectedly, that makes us think. It reshapes the world we are in at that moment, and we carry that with us through our day. We make appointments to talk to each other, in meetings, at cafes, and so on. That is what museums are like. We decide we want to engage with artwork and go to a place that is built for doing that. Public art is like the unplanned, unexpected encounter. All of a sudden, we are thinking about ourselves and how we fit into the world a little differently because of what we met along the way.”
In the June issue, Linda Cabasin brought us to Chanticleer, one of America’s finest public gardens. Only 19 miles from Philadelphia, visitors will delight in houses, terraces, and magnificent trees, and contemporary designs with many kinds of native and non-native plants on its 35 acres. Its workshops are creative and oriented toward visitors while there are also programs for professional gardeners.
https://sideofculture.com/2025/06/beauty-and-sustainability-at-pennsylvanias-chanticleer-garden/
In the July issue, Barbara Noe Kennedy went to Gettysburg where she uncovered the role of women during Battle of Gettysburg. While the men fought, it was the women of Gettysburg who held the town together. They turned parlors into operating rooms and churches into makeshift hospitals, they fed passing soldiers bread and water. And they buried the dead, comforted the wounded, and documented the horrors around them. They are presented in five special places at Gettysburg.
https://sideofculture.com/2025/06/women-of-gettysburg-are-memorialized-at-the-shriver-house-the-jennie-wade-house-evergreen-cemetery-and-the-new-beyond-the-battle-museum/
In August, Katherine Wonson opened the heart of the art scene in Jackson Hole where public art is presented with the beautful backdrop of rugged Wyoming mountains. She emphasized that it is fitting for Jackson’s iconic landscape and the arts and the outdoors are becoming increasingly intertwined, thanks to the artists and innovative public art projects.
https://sideofculture.com/2025/08/where-the-arts-meet-the-outdoors-the-intersection-of-natural-beauty-and-creative-expression-in-jackson-hole/
In September, Linda Cabasin traveled back 66 million years, while still remaining in her home state of New Jersey, to bring us to Edelman Fossil Park & Museum of Rowan University. She writes, “Tucked behind a Lowe’s home center in southern New Jersey, a former quarry pit seems an unlikely spot for a fossil museum, but excavations here have revealed tantalizing evidence of the late Cretaceous period, 66 million years ago.” The museum is brand new and open for visitors of all ages.
https://sideofculture.com/2025/09/dinosaurs-reptiles-and-more-edelman-fossil-park-museum-opens-in-new-jersey/
For the November issue, Linda Cabasin reported on the opening of the Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM)’s new building. Besides the museum’s core role as a center for Princeton’s commitment to the arts and humanities, James Steward, director since 2009, describes it as a ‘town square’ and community gathering place welcoming everyone.
https://sideofculture.com/2025/10/princeton-universitys-art-museum-debuts-a-stunning-new-home/
We closed the end of the year on a festive note with photographer Michael Snell’s portrayal of a time-honored tradition in Cordoba, Spain. A tradition that not only turned into an international festival but also became an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” by UNESCO.
https://sideofculture.com/2025/11/flora-a-cultural-tradition-blooms-in-cordoba-spain/
The photo at the top of the article is the garden facing gallery at Paul Rudolph Institute of Modern Architecture (PRIMA) featuring “Photo Elysee/mudac” museum. From the October article, Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture Welcomes Community. Photograph by Paul Clemence. https://sideofculture.com/2025/10/paul-rudolph-institute-for-modern-architecture-welcomes-community/
This article is compiled by SideofCulture publisher, Victoria Larson.
