2025 Arts on Fire Festival
June 7 @ 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
Free – $100.00
The Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum and Iron Furnaces presents the 2025 Arts on Fire Festival! The Arts on Fire Festival, launched in 2009, is a FREE two-day celebration of arts, heritage, industry, and community held the first weekend of June at the Iron Furnaces in Scranton.
Join us at the Furnaces on Saturday, June 7 for hands-on activities, live musical performances, the ever-popular iron pour, and new this year – the Youth Arts Showcase. On Sunday, June 8, register for one or more of several workshops. See below to learn more about the weekend-long festival.
Saturday, June 7 | 11a-5p
Hands-on activities with our partners –
- Lackawanna State Park
- National Museum of Industrial History
- Lackawanna Historical Society
- Lackawanna County Library System
- Everhart Museum
- Valley in Motion
- Steamtown National Historic Site
- United Neighborhood Centers, NEPA
- And more!
The Iron Pour!
Visitors can purchase scratch blocks to design custom souvenirs from the festival. Metal Artist, Brian Glaze, will be joined by blacksmiths Cliff Prokop and David Schulte as well as students from Keystone College for the ultimate, fiery iron-pouring experience. Visitor scratch blocks will be turned into their very own iron, souvenir. Please allow time for iron pour and cool down. Participants may need to return on later date to retrieve finished product.
NEW THIS YEAR – Youth Arts Showcase
Local youth will showcase their original art based on the theme – Energy. For more information on submitting your work to the AoF Youth Arts Showcase, click here.
On Saturday, stop by the YAS tent to check out their work and chat with the young artists about their process and inspiration.
Sunday, June 8 | 11a – 2p
Come back to the Furnaces for a workshop or two! From tin types, and photography/genealogy projects to blacksmithing, there is something for everyone. Pre-registration is required for all workshops. Register below.
11am – 2pm | Science & Silver: Understanding the Tintype Process | $100/per person
Experience the history and artistry of tintypes in this immersive outdoor workshop. Led by local photographer Rebecca Daniels, this session offers an in-depth look into the science, chemistry, and craftsmanship behind the wet plate collodion process.
11am – 2pm – Knightsmith Blacksmith Workshops – $30 – $50
Join expert blacksmith Chris Knight for one of two (or, both) workshops where you’ll learn blacksmithing basics and get hands on in the forge and fire. All participants will leave the workshop with their handmade project.
12pm – 2pm – Uncovering Hidden Stories: The Art of Photo Archeology – $35/per person
Discover the stories hidden in your photos in this hands-on, two-part workshop led by Photo Archeologist and Photographer, Cheryl Kaiser. In this workshop, you will learn techniques to “excavate” details in your photos, to preserve and curate them, and build a cohesive story that empowers you and honors your family’s history.
Registration opens soon.
About the Scranton Iron Furnaces
The Scranton Iron Furnaces are a four-acre site along Roaring Brook and managed by The Anthracite Heritage Museum and Iron Furnaces. They are a former working iron foundry, built in the 1840s, where many of the early immigrants to Scranton worked. Set against this historic backdrop, visitors to the Arts on Fire Festival can enjoy hands-on history and the best of contemporary art.