BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission has announced its 2025 Tribute to the Arts honorees, recognizing three standout artists and a collective group of creatives.
The honorees are abstract artist Michael Freeman; Steven Lichak, Senior Producer at Lehigh University’s Library and Technology Services; Elise Schaffer, coordinator of museum experience and accessibility at Lehigh University Art Galleries; and members of the IceHouse Performing Arts Collaborative.
The winners will be celebrated at the Tribute to the Arts awards ceremony from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Sept. 9 at 424 Center St., Bethlehem, a historic building that once housed the Unitarian Universalist Church.
Tickets to the ceremony cost $25 and are available on the Fine Arts Commission website.
Honoring legacies, art therapy
As in years past, the honorees come from diverse backgrounds and ages.
Freeman, who debuted his first solo show in 2021 in Lower Nazareth, is a mixed-media artist with a vision impairment known as tunnel vision.
Locally, Freeman often holds art therapy classes and encourages other creatives with visual impairments and disabilities to experience his paintings through tactile practices.
His art often features textured pieces such as beads or rope.
"My work is a way for me to push the limits of my eyesight and allow me to use my art as a creative outlet,” Freeman said in a release.
“You can succeed in anything you put your mind to.”
Lichak is the founder of WYSO Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the legacy of folk artist Frank "Wyso" Wysochansky.
Wysochansky, who passed in 1994, produced more than 5,000 works of art and cartoons using pen, ink, watercolor, Crayola crayons and sculptural pieces.
A big part of Wysochansky's subjects centered around coal miners and their families. His parents immigrated from Ukraine, and his father died after sustaining an injury while working in a coal mine.
Podcasters, IceHouse committee
Schaffer is the gallery coordinator at Steel Pixie Studios and co-founded the Lehigh Valley Arts Podcast and the Lehigh Valley Artist Meetup Group.
In 2024, she was awarded the LEAD Award for Emerging Leadership by The Kennedy Center for work in cultural arts and accessibility.
The IceHouse Performing Arts Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that started under the name "IceHouse Tonight," was created to address and revive the performing lineup at the Charles A. Brown Ice House.
Among the members of the Collaborative are Doug Roydson of the Mock Turtle Marionette Theatre;Silagh White, who has served as the IceHouse's managing director since 2023; and IceHouse Punk & DIY Committee members Mel Attieh, Tom Janis, Shamus McGroggan, Leo Motolese and Ryan Susko.
The IceHouse now features more than 150 performances a year.
Tributes to artists since 1991
Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission, started the Tributes in the Arts program in 1991.
BFAC is a city commission made up of a group of volunteers.
Each year, up to three recipients are chosen in the following categories: performing arts (theatre, music, dance, and storytelling), visual arts (painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, and photography), and mixed media (design, architecture, literature/poetry, film, video, and audio).
Past honorees include 2023 winners, Clint Walker (Mayor's Award) and Eileen Waverk Wescoe, both 90 years old.
Wescoe began her music career as a teen and still plays professionally, and Walker served on BFAC and helped renovate the sculpture garden at Bethlehem City Hall.
Younger artists also have been honored, including Devyn Leonor Briggs and Jill Dunn Jones, artistic director of the Pennsylvania Youth Theatre, or PYT.
