Rust to Rise takes inspiration from Phoenixville, PA; a town that experienced industrial boom in the early twentieth century as a home to great iron and steel mills, followed by a decline in the late twentieth century as those industries left the area. Now it’s experiencing a revival through the growth of the arts, small business, breweries, and festivals.

Rust to Rise asks artists to explore themes of: regeneration, revival, rebirth, survival, gentrification, entropy, cycles, growth, collapse, and community. Themes familiar to many American small towns today.