West & Ward
Jonny Leahan, a board member of the New Cumberland Collective, lived in New York City for 20 years before moving to central PA in 2014.
The luxury of a lively and eclectic art scene was an element of city living he was fond of—filling his cup with film festivals, live music and the like. Fellow board member Pamela Cullen shares a similar story, having lived in Portland, Ore., for a decade before returning home to New Cumberland.
“One of the things that was most frustrating to me when I moved back was that people would ask me ‘Why would you want to move back here?’” Cullen said.
“You don’t have to go to New York, San Francisco, Portland or any other big city to have a meaningful experience in the arts,” Leahan added. “If you really look, there are amazing, creative people everywhere.”
Created in 2022, the New Cumberland Collective is rooted in the idea that community members can come together to create positive change where they live—from building community to civic engagement, tactical urbanism and amplifying arts and culture. The collective’s latest endeavor, taking place this month, is its inaugural New Cumberland Music + Film Festival.
The three-day festival headlines soul-singing Harrisburg native Shawan Rice and features various other acts, including a punk performance paying tribute to New Cumberland’s early 2000s music venue known as The Wire/Wyre, a music video exhibition curated from 600 local and global submissions, and a closing-day screening of the film “Hummingbirds,” followed by a Q&A session with its producers and co-directors, Jillian Schlesinger and Miguel Drake-McLaughlin.
Centered in the heart of downtown New Cumberland, festivalgoers will find many of the ticketed performances and film showings taking place at the West Shore Theatre and other local creative hubs, but the collective has also secured permission to bring the festivities outside. The 3rd Avenue alleyway that runs adjacent to the West Shore Theatre will house periodic performances from buskers, free of charge—immersing the town and its people in the reverberations of music and spirit.
“New Cumberland is such a lovely, walkable town,” Leahan said. “We wanted to keep everything clustered in that central area so that, even if there’s no scheduled performance going on for an hour, it’s going to feel like something is going on all weekend as people come and go. It’s our hope that people feel welcomed and energized to explore, gather and enjoy downtown together in between the weekend events.”
Dustin LeBlanc, the managing director of the West Shore Theatre that reopened last year, believes that the collective has its finger on the pulse of art movements on a local and larger level, and he’s enjoyed working alongside a likeminded organization to bring art-forward and community-minded ideas to reality.
“I hope people come and discover not just New Cumberland physically, but the people of New Cumberland and the things that are happening here—how we’re rallying together to reinvigorate the downtown scene through the theater, this festival and the overall efforts of the collective,” LeBlanc said.
Eager to cultivate a pride of place, the collective doesn’t have aspirations to emulate larger, nationally known festivals. Rather, it wants future New Cumberland Music + Film Festivals to be a balanced mix of community feedback and global trends—progressively drawing larger crowds, but ultimately remaining something that is special to right here.
“The arts can be a driver for so many other things—for discovery, curiosity and continued growth and development in the New Cumberland community,” Leahan said. “It’s precious and it’s powerful, and I think those who join us for the New Cumberland Music + Film Festival will be able to see that—experience it—firsthand.”
The New Cumberland Music + Film Festival takes place Sept. 15 to 17. To learn more about the New Cumberland Collective, the festival and other upcoming events, visit www.newcumberland.co.
If you like what we do, please support our work. Become a Friend of TheBurg!
