ProjectGreenLancaster

By Ri Wescott

The Horst Arts Center gives new life to old materials through art events for the Manheim community.

 

     In 2019, Katherine and Jason Horst opened Horst Arts Center (formerly Horst Arts) which is now located on 17 North Main Street in Manheim, Pennsylvania. Their business is made up of a conglomeration of Katherine’s work with mixed-media collages, Jason’s graphic and web designing, a storefront selling artistic novelty items, and creative workshops open to the public. Their events–which are scheduled once to twice a week–consist of Katherine leading the group through a very open-ended craft that students may individualize in their own creative ways. Classes can range from a minimum of four to a maximum of twenty students per workshop. An average event tends to have around eight students. Since the classes aren’t a strict step-by-step process, Katherine is able to lead large groups of students as most work is self-guided with bits of assistance.

 

They offer a variety of weekly scheduled events to the community. Types of workshops include:

• Book Buttons 
• Flower Collage
• Junk Journal 
• Say It With Paper 
• Funky Junk 
• String Art
• The Great Create 
• Open Studio 

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The History of the Horst Arts Center

• 2005: Jason starts doing independent graphic design and web development full time
• 2009: Katherine graduates from Pennsylvania College of Art and Design
• 2010: Katherine and Jason Horst get married 
• 2011: Katherine begins focusing her artistic medium on mixed media collage 
• 2019: Katherine and Jason open Horst Arts, a studio space and gift shop for the Manheim community to get creative 
• 2020: Rebranded to Horst Arts Center and moved locations to 17 North Main Street in Manheim
• 2024: Katherine and Jason celebrate the fifth anniversary of Horst Arts with the community on December 6th 

Who Are Katherine and Jason Horst?

     Katherine Horst, co-owner of Horst Arts Center, is a local artist with a concentration in mixed media collage. She was born in Pottstown and raised in Philadelphia before moving to the Lancaster area to attend the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design where she graduated in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. She began focusing on the medium of mixed media collage in 2011 and has exhibited her work in a number of galleries throughout Lancaster County and nationally since then. She realized how much she loves exploring art mediums with others and getting people excited to create, which led to the beginning of her shared business project with her husband Jason. She wanted to get Lancaster County involved in art, so she became the events manager and art facilitator of Horst Arts Center where she can interact with the community in a creative space. Katherine shares her love of art with her two children and the locals of Manheim. 

     Jason Horst, co-owner of Horst Arts Center, is a graphic designer from Lebanon County. He attended Grace College in Indiana for math before switching majors to graphic design and getting his start in the industry. In 2005, he went off on his own doing independent graphic design and web development full-time. After getting married to Katherine in 2010, his business morphed with her fine arts skills to create Horst Arts in 2019. Being an artistic person coming from a not-so-artistic family, he always saw the logical side of art which boded well for his graphic design and web development work. Outside of the online environment of design, he is also passionate about printmaking and wood-based fine art, which he shares with the Manheim community through their store-front. Jason’s drive to create allows him to be creative with his two artistically-driven children.

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     However, unlike other art spaces, the Horsts usually aren’t using perfectly new supplies but rather take a more sustainable route. Almost all of their classes, other than string art, utilize old recycled materials. 90% of their supplies are donated from the community and re-used by their students in workshops. Most donated materials are old craft supplies, though they commonly also receive building materials, magazines, calendars, greeting cards, etc. They believe that second hand materials have the ability to be given new life through a unique art project versus disastrous environmental damage through ending up in a landfill. 

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Materials Waste in Pennsylvania

     According to the news station WTAJ based out of Altoona, Pennsylvania is the third ranked state in America with the most waste per capita behind Michigan and Indiana. Approximately 9.6 million tons of waste gets put into PA landfills every year, which can be illustrated as about 1,480 pounds of trash per Pennsylvania resident a year. Based on a 2022 study by the Department of Environmental protection, Pennsylvania’s ten most common materials found in residential waste include many forms of potentially reusable art supplies; this includes non-recyclable paper, corrugated cardboard, compostable paper, mixed paper, textiles & leather, and unpainted wood. To reduce the large amount of waste that gets put into local landfills every year, Pennsylvanians are encouraged to reuse what they can and recycle when possible.

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     One of their most popular and environmentally friendly workshops is junk journaling. Katherine was introduced to junk journaling by her sister four-and-a-half years ago and was intrigued by the repurposing of found and scavenged materials; having already been a collage artist for twelve years, junk journaling was right up her alley. The idea behind junk journaling is taking a variety of materials and embellishing a book to make it personalized and unique, similar to scrapbooking. Since so many different types of supplies can be used in the making of a junk journal, the possibilities are endless!

Some common junk journal supplies include: 

• Vintage Greeting Cards
• Scraps of Fabric and Upholstery 
• Stamps
• Stickers
• Wood Pieces
• Buttons
• Beads
• Stencils
• Envelopes
• Scrapbooking Paper
• Magazines and Books

     Junk journaling is an activity for people of all artistic skill levels, so it attracts people of all ages though this event has gotten the most traction with teenagers and adults. With the recent popularity of junk journaling as a trend on TikTok, interest in this workshop continues to grow. Katherine sees junk journals as a way for their guests to see crafts in a new light and to think outside the box of classic art rules; it can inspire students to begin saving and finding items that could be reused in new innovative ways. 

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Manheim Murals

     Along with the Horst Arts Center, Katherine and Jason have been a part of a creative side project painting murals around Manheim for the past two years. It is a collaborative effort between the couple, with Jason designing the pieces and Katherine painting the murals themselves. So far they have completed 7 to 8 murals within Lancaster County, both inside and outside as well as on a small and large scale. They use their murals as a way to get the community excited about local history and art culture along with bringing beauty into their area. They have collaborated with local nonprofits such as Friendship Community (a faith-based organization that cultivates the capabilities of individuals with intellectual disabilities located in Lancaster) to create a mural with some of their ‘Heart Artists.’ Two of their murals stand at the Teen Youth Center (which serves local children) and Supply (a coworking venue space) both in Manheim. While their work within the Horst Arts Center serves the creative community, their mural work transcends that notion and can be enjoyed by any Lancaster County local every day. 

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     While the Horsts love to connect with the Manheim community in person, they also love to give the community something to do outside of the studio. Katherine and Jason have designed a junk journal take home kit full of repurposed materials for guests to take home and use to craft in the comfort of their own space. 

 

Most junk journal kits come with:

• A prebound book
• A couple piece of scrapbooking paper
• A couple strips of fabric
• An envelope
• A couple pens
• Stickers
• Buttons
• Beads
• Pom-poms

     Katherine and Jason want to inspire creativity inside and outside of their building in a sustainable way, and their kits support that. The Horsts as artists recognize that all paper has a long and deep history attached to it so reusing paper can be beautiful and symbolic. The production of paper is detrimental to the environment, so recycling the paper we already have is vital to sustainability and savoring the story behind each scrap. 

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December Event Calendar for The Horst Arts Center

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References:

What a waste! Pennsylvania creates more trash per capita than 47 other states. (n.d.). https://www.wtaj.com/earth-month/what-a-waste-pennsylvania-creates-more-trash-per-capita-than-47-other-states/