GROUND FLOOR OPEN · Today’s hours: 12–9 PM · 1701 State Street
Some floors remain open only for scheduled programs and tours.
Bookbinder & Book Restorer, Edward Patrick Kranz of BOOKFORGE at work.
ERIE LABOR TEMPLE // 1701 STATE STREET
ART WORKS HERE.
A working cultural building in downtown Erie where artists make, people gather, and public programs return.
ELT Volunteer Meetup
September 5, 2026 at 7:00:00 PM
Meet the people holding the room, find a real crew, and turn your availability into useful work.
OPEN BENCH
September 8, 2026 at 6:00:00 PM
Open Bench is ELT’s Tuesday-night Soft Social for bringing unfinished work, starting something new, working alongside other people, and making at your own pace without a class, deadline, or required outcome.
Writer's Night
September 9, 2026 at 6:00:00 PM
Writer’s Night is ELT’s Wednesday-night Soft Social for writers of every kind to bring work in progress, start something new, read, revise, exchange ideas, or simply spend a few hours writing in the company of other writers.
Japanese Style Bookbinding Workshop
September 9, 2026 at 6:00:00 PM
Learn four traditional Japanese stab stitches and leave with four hand-bound books made at the BOOKFORGE table.
Sketchbook Social
September 10, 2026 at 6:00:00 PM
Bring a sketchbook, borrow basic materials, and draw in a room where nobody has to prove anything.
BOOKFORGE Workshops
Hands-on traditional bookbinding techniques.
Hands-on bookbinding workshops from BOOKFORGE, where traditional craft, material intelligence, and contemporary creativity meet. Learn to fold, sew, bind, decorate, and build books by hand.
Soft Social Sessions
No networking, no performance, just shared space to think, create, and connect at your own pace.
Soft Socials at Erie Labor Temple are low-pressure weekly gatherings for reading, writing, making, and listening
Awards Viewing
Awards nights, rebuilt as salons.
Big culture nights—award shows, reveals, and watch parties—treated like a live room. Come for the broadcast. Stay for the crowd.
Lecture Brawl
Fight night for ideas.
Two sides. One topic. No panel drift. Short rounds, hard arguments, and a room that votes with its nervous system.
Temple Night Market
Constraint-driven night market.
A curated market with a twist: every edition runs on a constraint—repair, text-in-objects, salvage rules. Come buy. Come trade ideas.
A Building With Jobs To Do
MAKE
Studios. Workshops. Apprenticeship energy. Real practice.
SHOW
Screenings, exhibitions, and nights worth leaving the house for.
GATHER
Conversation, community, and civic-scale creative momentum.
Inside the Building
Working tenants, real practices, open doors.
The public front room of Erie Labor Temple, Commonwealth Reading Room is a curated bookstore and art shop built for discovery, conversation, and cultural traffic.
Commonwealth Reading Room
BOOKFORGE is Erie Labor Temple’s working bindery, where books are restored, repaired, and built by hand with grit, precision, and reverence for the craft.
BOOKFORGE
PH'KAKi Creative Works is a high-voltage creative studio producing design, media, strategy, and cultural work with sharp thinking and a hard edge.
PH'KAKi Creative Works
Sharon Smith Metal Arts is a studio of finely wrought jewelry and metalwork where material, skill, and artistic discipline meet.
Sharon Smith Metal Arts
Brøður is a men’s grooming and lifestyle brand grounded in clean utility, daily ritual, and goods made to earn their place.
Brøður
UNION Fine Art Gallery is Erie Labor Temple’s exhibition engine, presenting ambitious contemporary art, installations, and programs that keep culture in motion.
UNION Fine Art GAllery
