We host a series of brief lectures by York, PA's makers and doers, who talk about their craft. Our speakers come from varied backgrounds, but they all work systematically and intentionally to create visceral experiences.
PechaKucha Night York utilizes the 20x20 PechaKucha presentation format: 20 slides that automatically advance every 20 seconds. Learn more at PechaKucha.org.
Featured Speakers AT August 17, 2017 PK NIght Event
Our sixth event included eight presentations on a wide variety of crafts.
Michael Adams
Guitar Stories
Vintage guitars are intensely personal things, and like houses, we often wonder what stories they could tell if only they could speak. In a way, old guitars do speak, only their stories are told through the language of play wear, scars, modifications, and repairs. Like any other object that comes into contact with human beings, guitars eventually break. When they do, they go to someone like Michael Adams, for whom the story is as worth preserving as the playability of the instrument itself. Harnessing the power of the internet, Mike shares these stories through Instagram photojournalism, mating the histories of the guitars he plays and restores to exciting and descriptive images, disseminating tips on care and maintenance along the way. The job is often part CSI, part House M.D., where understanding how a problem happened can be just as important as knowing how to fix it.
Michael Adams is a musician, writer, guitar tech, co-founder of Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar in Seattle, and a York native. He specializes in the particular nuances of the Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitar, with a recent article on the subject published in Premier Guitar magazine. He has had the pleasure of meeting and working with many of his favorite musicians and builders, as well as writing about a few of them for Fretboard Journal. Mike now resides in Long Beach, California with his wife Charissa and dog Vinnie. He loves Star Trek, bad coffee, and playing loud music with friends.
Matthew Apol
Using Visual Art as a Vehicle for Community Engagement
When you are a visual artist who has just relocated to a new city (or returned to a former one), finding a supportive community is very important. One artist explains how he uses visual art as a tool for community engagement and way to extend opportunity to others.
Matthew Apol is a former graphic designer and entrepreneur turned painter. Before returning to fine art, he spent time working in the design departments of Toys R Us, Bright Logic, and The Creative People Group. He is the most recent recipient of the Appell Arts Fellowship from York College of Pennsylvania. Matthew lives in York with his wife Melanee.
Phil Broder
Confessions of an Aerial Art Thief
Even an inability to draw a stick figure hasn't stopped Phil Broder from becoming a successful artist. His eye for borrowing other people’s artwork, and then making it fly, has made him an award-winning kitemaker with kites on display around the world.
Phil began flying kites in 1992 and started making his own in 2004. Along the way he was editor of KITING Magazine for nine years, coordinated National Kite Month, was vice president of the American Kitefliers Association, and won multiple national titles for kitemaking. In 2014, he founded Fly Market Kitemaking Supply, America's #1 source of kitemaking materials. Phil and his kites have been invited to festivals in China, India, South Africa, Portugal, France, England, and Canada. Soon, he'll be taking the advice so many people have given him, and going to Hel... Hel, Poland, for the Leba International Kite Fest.
Aaron Chernak
Making Memories of Emotion Tangible
Films and television are rooted deeply in our hearts and are tied to many memories and emotions. Through the art of prop fabrication, one is able to reach out and touch objects from those flickering lights that make us feel so much.
Aaron Chernak is a master fabricator who is a production specialist at Artisan FX Props & Paintshop, and has created products for film and stage through the years. His skills range from prop fabrication, costume fabrication, special FX makeup, electrical fabrication, painting, blueprinting, and general MacGyvery. He is also part of a costumed Ghostbusters charity group.
Katie Hartman
Curating a Human Library
Everyone has a story to tell and everyone’s story matters. When we take the time to sit with one another and listen to each other from a genuine place of love and compassion, we have the opportunity to see how similar and connected we really are.
Katie Hartman has the best job in the world— helping children fall in love with books. She is a lover of reading because she believes in the power of words and stories to connect individuals to themselves, others, and the world around them. She enjoys pursuing ideas and collaborations that speak to her heart, such as her project with elementary readers that brought a Little Free Library to John Rudy Park, or her organization of York’s first Human Library. In all she does, she strives to bring others together and build understanding through the universal power of our stories.
Eileen Joyce
Like Owning a Pet Tiger: How to Survive a Career in Journalism
They may be the “enemy of the American people,” but usually they just want to go home at the end of a long day. Being a journalist these days takes skill, flexibility and a constant willingness to learn. Eileen will talk about the ups and downs in her career as a journalist and what lies ahead.
Eileen Joyce has worked as a photographer, photo editor and video producer at newspapers across the country over her 18-year career. She hosts and tells stories at York Story Slam and the York Storytellers project. She enjoys cats, rock and roll and catching your 1970s TV show references.
Karen Paust
Honoring Nature Through Art
When Karen Paust tells people she is a bead artist, they think she strings large beads to make necklaces. Karen's presentation focused on how her beadwork has evolved, as she has pushed the possibilities of this medium. She gets her inspiration from nature, usually thinking, "that would be impossible to bead," then trying it. She loves using tiny antique glass beads to create wearable art, sculptures, and mobiles. She hopes to inspire others to see the amazing beauty in the ordinary, a weed, an insect, a seedpod.
Karen Paust is an artist, recycler, and wild mushroom hunter. She received a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in 2004. Her beadwork has been published in New Glass in Review four times, along with The Art of Beadwork. Pole Bijou, an avant garden gallery in Baccarat France, invited her to be in a show titled "Jewels and Textiles" in 2010-2011. She has been in many museum shows and sells her work at a fine craft gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, named Mobilia. Paust teaches beading, knitting, crocheting, embroidering, sewing, painting, and drawing. She lives in Northern York County with her husband and cat, Tigerboy.
Matt Shober
Art Function
As global furniture companies have taken precedent in today’s market, the craft of fine woodworking is a retracting art form. Art function is a philosophy attempting to reinvigorate the intimate connection between buyers and the pieces they put in their homes.
Matt Shober has been in the woodworking industry for nearly 21 years. Early in his career, Matt developed his skills in architecture and construction. In 2008, Matt began his own furniture company, Matthew Shober Artisan Works, in an effort to distinguish fine craftsmanship from general carpentry. Today, Matt continues to build one-of-a-kind pieces in downtown York, perpetuating his philosophy of art function.
