Community. Sustainability. Support. Empowerment. Discovery. Celebration. Safety. Creative Space-Making.
Upcoming Events
Poetry Open Mic
Poetry Open Mic every Wednesday 7pm-9pm, at the 717 Arts Community Center, 25 S 3rd St, Harrisburg. A co-production of 717 Arts, Inc. and Cultivated Chaos Entertainment.
“On Wednesdays we wear poetry.”
Original poetry. Slam poetry. Underscored poetry. Classic poetry. All poetry. If you believe it’s poetry…
Sign up to read 1, 2, 3 poems. Come back and sign up for more if there’s room on the list. Uncensored, but list any content warnings so we can warn the audience in case people need to know.
Free to enter. Concessions and beverages available for a reasonable price.
Amish Country Queer:
A Night of Film, Art & Drag
Saturday, October 10, 7pm
Pay What You Can Tickets
Click Here for Tickets
QUEER JOY TAKES THE STAGE AT
717 ARTS COMMUNITY CENTER
Award-Winning Documentary, Drag Show, and Tulle Queer Exhibition Converge in Harrisburg's SoMa District
Little Echo Productions and 717 Arts present Amish Country Queer: A Night of Film, Art & Drag, a one-night event bringing together an award-winning documentary, a celebrated portrait exhibition, and a live drag show for an evening of queer storytelling, art, and community.
Amish Country Queer is a 13-minute award-winning documentary directed and produced by Colleen C Brady, following Lancaster-based artist Brady Pappas (she/her) and her mission to document and preserve queer nightlife and drag culture in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The film won Best Documentary at three festivals in 2025: the Red Rose Film Festival, the Appalachian Queer Film Festival, and the Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival. A feature-length version is currently in post-production.
Alongside the screening, Pappas presents a pop-up installation of Tulle Queer, her celebrated portrait series honoring the LGBTQ+ icons of South Central Pennsylvania. Centering queer love, joy, and visibility, the portraits will be on view throughout the evening as a living extension of the film's world. The evening closes with a live drag show featuring Lancaster favorites Charlize Angelz, Nevaeha Le'Vixenn, and Legs Akimbo, bringing 717-region drag culture to the stage for one night in Harrisburg.
Queer stories often center on escape. This one doesn't. And this is where the future gets made. Not at the center, but at the fringes.
Tickets are pay-what-you-can
Follow @AmishCountryQueer on Instagram. Learn more at www.littleechoproductions.com
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Saturday, October 10, 2026
Performance: 7:00 PM
Location: 717 Arts Community Center, 25 S. 3rd Street, Harrisburg, PA 17101
Tickets: Pay-what-you-can, at 717arts.org
Presented by Little Echo Productions, in partnership with 717 Arts
Housewarming Party
Grand Opening Celebration
Thursday, October 1 from 7-9:30pm
Click Here for Tickets
If you can't attend the Housewarming Party but want to support the event, you can purchase items from 717 Arts’ online wishlist.
Come celebrate the grand opening of the 717 Arts Community Center at our Housewarming Party! Enjoy beverages, light fare, and a casual evening of mingling while you explore the new space and get a sneak peek at what’s coming.
The 717 Community Arts Center will be a multi-disciplinary home for visual art, theatre, performance, and community, featuring gallery and artisan retail space, creative workshops, live performances, community partnerships, and so much more.
We’re fundraising to help bring this vision to life! Your support will help us equip and activate the new space. Can’t make the party? No worries! An online wishlist will be available soon for those who would like to support us from wherever they are.
Come see what’s happening at the 717 Arts Community Center, and help us make it home!
So(ul) Intimate
w/ Kita P. & Hoya LaReine
Thursday, October 15 from 8-10pm
Click Here for Tickets
Kita P. is a singer/songwriter/event curator based in Harrisburg, PA. From 2005 through 2021 she lived and performed in NYC. Kita P has a style of Soul, R&B and some jazz. Her sound is often described as melodic and soulful with some of her greatest influences being Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, Me’shell Ndegeocello and more. Folks have often said they can listen to Kita P with their eyes closed and be taken away; thus coining Kita P. Music as a #BlindVibe. She uses her art to create experiences that feed the person and the soul.
Website: kitapmusic.com/
Instagram: @kitapmusic
Hoya LaReine is an independent singer, songwriter, poet, and visual artist known for her soulful music and reflective spoken-word poetry. Her creative work often explores human relationships, personal growth, and healing from past trauma.
Instagram: @hoya.lareine
CASA-717 Arts After School Program 2026-27
CASA students and parents:
Feel free to contact us at 717.arts.org@gmail.com if you have any questions, would like to receive the information sheet about the program, or would like the link to register a student for the program.
Thanks!
Opening Announced:
717 Arts Community Center, SoMA Hbg
link to Central Penn Business Journal article
717 Arts Community Center will open at 25 S. 3rd St during Harrisburg Fringe Festival, July 16-19.
Center will feature live performances, art gallery space, community resources and more.
HARRISBURG, PA - 717 Arts Inc. is proud to announce that it will open the 717 Arts Community Center at 25 S. 3rd St. in Harrisburg’s SoMA district, in partnership with Harristown Development Corporation. The 717 Arts Community Center will be open to the public for the first time during the 4th Annual Harrisburg Fringe Festival, held on July 16-19.
717 Arts Community Center will be home to hosting live performances, workshops and visual art exhibitions. Additionally, the Center will be available for use as a dynamic multi-use space.
“The arts community in Harrisburg is thriving, and artists and performers are continually seeking out places to make art happen,” said Brianna Dow, Harrisburg Fringe Festival Producer and President of 717 Arts. “With the 717 Arts Community Center, our goal is to meet the community where they are, providing a safe, supportive and welcoming space.”
As a 501c(3) nonprofit organization, 717 Arts has made collaboration and community partnerships central to its mission of being a resource for artists and arts organizations throughout central Pennsylvania. Through its partnership with Harristown Development Corporation, 717 Arts is able to fully embody that work, creating a physical space for the community to create and enjoy the arts.
717 Arts will open in the former site of Found Collab, a vintage store that closed last year. The art nonprofit joins several other businesses in SoMa (south of Market Street), including Boneshire Taps, JoJo’s Barbershop, SCC Tattoos, Agape Elixer Bar and more. Before its years as Found Collab, the storefront was home to longtime arts tenant Walker’s Art and Framing. The 717 Arts Community Center will continue the space’s arts-focused legacy forward.
“We are thrilled to welcome the 717 Arts Community Center to SoMa,” said Brad Jones, president of Dewberry, L.L.C., an affiliate of Harristown Development Corp., which owns the building. “Having artists visiting and using this unique space adds energy to this area and increases the vibrant character of the SoMa neighborhood.”
During the upcoming Harrisburg Fringe Festival, 717 Arts Community Center will serve as the Fringe Hub, providing information and support to festival attendees and performers. Additionally, it will be the home of the Visual Fringe, the festival’s visual arts exhibition. For more information about the Harrisburg Fringe Festival, visit www.hbgfringe.com.
Logo by Ryan Spahr, 2021
A nonprofit arts organization based in Harrisburg, 717 Arts takes inspiration from our local and regional community to keep building for the future.
Mission:
717 Arts serves to create and grow accessible space and support through sustainable practices for artists, companies, and communities on the margins and fringes, celebrating uniqueness with locally-inspired spirit and joy.
Our flagship programming:
The Harrisburg Fringe Festival, inaugural festival July 6-9, 2023 (and repeated annually since).
The HFF has annually brought about 2,000 audience members to see 35-40 shows over 4 days by 100+ artists (most of whom have local ties) in 6-10 venues all over downtown and midtown Harrisburg.
The HFF is non-juried, uncensored, and gives its producing artists 100% of their ticket sales, as Fringe Festivals in Europe and Canada routinely do according to international norms established by the world-famous Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the oldest and largest such Festival in the world.
The HFF is a large-scale community project involving many local artists, venues, organizations, and businesses working in partnership.
717 Arts is proud to be spearheading and producing this initiative, delighted to be establishing so many community partnerships through the work, and glad to be bringing accessibility and empowerment to artists with the Fringe experience.
We fundraise and rally volunteers so that artists in our community can get paid, not be gatekept, and have a chance to find, hone, and champion their artistic voice.