The Emmaus Creative Arts and Innovation Center has recently been rechristened JuxtaHub. According to a recent press release, the existing warehouse, 375 S. 10th St., Emmaus will be renovated “… into a state-of-the-art facility with resources for artists, performers, makers, culinary entrepreneurs … [and those] interested in AR/VR technologies.”

Tours of the facility are available by appointment.

Recently, project leader Joyce Marin and board members Audrey Racines and John Oetting escorted notary, merchant advisor and web developer Jamylee Germany, BKWeb Productions representative Brandon Kelly, Director of Allentown Community and Economic Development Leonard Lightner and local entrepreneurs Keith Wolfe and Tina Brown on a walk-through presentation of the building’s planned transformation.

Highlights of the tour included a preview of the planned layout of a black box theater and the opportunity for tour participants to experience virtual and actual realities. The presenters also emphasized the site’s proximity to Chestnut Ridge at Rodale, a planned retirement community, will promote positive interactions between young people and senior citizens.

Considering the scope and potential of the project, the board of directors realized the Emmaus Creative Arts and Innovation Center required a more energized and unique name. Consequently, board members Anne Alexander and Shea Zukowski organized a committee which also included Kelly Planer, Anne Egan and Carol Angstadt.

To capture the group’s vision, the committee created the word JuxtaHub. “Juxta” was lifted from the word “juxtapose,” meaning to place dissimilar items in conjunction and attached to “hub,” meaning the center of a wheel.

According to Alexander, the contrast created through juxta positioning “… highlight[s] diversity, stimulate[s] creativity and generate[s] new ideas. And a hub is the central point of a wheel that makes things move…”

The logo representing these concepts features two bees facing in opposite directions but sharing a common wing. As stated by Zukowski, the bees “… are purposefully working together and [are] transformed through collaboration.” The project’s new name and logo bring the goals of its creators into clear focus and accurately communicate the vision that inspired it.