Do you have a talent you’ve been wanting to perform? A creative skill you’ve been wanting to hone? Don’t want to share, but ready to listen and clap for others?
Our Open Mic-Works might be the spot for you! Join us on the third Friday of every month for a night of community and creation alike! Celebrate your fellow artists, take a sip of our in-house made seasonal drinks, and test out the stage for yourself. Perform your music, poetry, stand-up, or whatever else you have in store for us!
General admission fees are $15.00 each and go directly to supporting our green spaces, such as the beautiful Jackie’s Garden Works Rooftop Garden you’ll be performing on. Each ticket comes with one drink voucher for our seasonal mocktails.
We will have snacks and beverages for sale, cash only! BYOB
We have a chair and a stage waiting for you here whenever you’re ready!
Opening Reception – Janelle Washington “Making Sand Pies, The Inner Workings of a Paper Cut Artist”
Saturday June 28 from 3-5 PM
The Bottle Works is excited to present the paper cut work of Janelle Washington! Please join us for the opening reception of the exhibit on Saturday, June 28, from 3-5 pm. Janelle will be giving an artist’s talk about the exhibition and will be on hand throughout to discuss her work with you.
Sami Jo will be providing acoustic music throughout the reception.
Light refreshments will be served.
A suggested donation of $5 is recommended to attend.
July 19 & 20, 2025
The 3rd Avenue Folk & Arts Fest is the premier summer festival in Johnstown, highlighting the artistic talent of our region!
The festival takes place on July 19 & 20, 2025 on the beautiful Bottle Works campus in Cambria City, and features the use of our historic Tulip building, the Art Works building, Jackie’s Garden Works Green Roof, the Pop Plaza, and Pop Pavilion!
The festival will feature live music from some of the area’s hottest acts, juried artisan booths, live art demonstrations, food & beer, Italian Street Painting, the BW Kidz Zone, and art exhibits! We specifically highlight folk artists who share cultural heritage in their art forms. We expect this to be the biggest festival to date!
| Saturday July 19 | |
| 10 AM – Noon | Johnstown Concert Ballet |
| 12:30-2:30 PM | Evergreens |
| 3-5 PM | Rusty Shackles |
| 5:30-7:30 | Essential Machine |
| 8-10:30 | Screech Owl |
| Sunday July 20 | |
| Noon-2:00 PM | Irish Pretenders |
| 2:00 – 4:00 PM | Coltt Lepley |
| 4:30 – 6:30 PM | Matt Otis & the Sound |
Ditko Con 2025!!!
September 27, 2025, from 11 – 6 with early 10 AM admission for VIP’s
Join the Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center in conjunction with Ditko Ink! (the estate of Steve Ditko) for our third con celebrating the life and legacy of Johnstown’s hometown hero, Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man and creator of Doctor Strange, Mr. A, and hundreds of other comics’ most recognizable heroes and villains.
The only ongoing convention focused on driving Ditko’s Legacy, Ditko Con features artists, writers, and family members who worked with and/or knew Steve. The con will feature panels of industry experts, estate members, and a special mural panel discussing the public art endeavours in Johnstown with the mural designers and executors.
Comic, toy, and collectible vendors will be on hand for your memorabilia needs, and Ditkoverse will be on hand!
Special Guests:
- Javier Hernandez: Creator of El Muerto, designed the Ditko mural at the Bottle Works, and is a Ditko superfan!
- Will Murray- Co-creator of Squirrel Girl, alongside Ditko, and author of over 75 novels!
- Jack C. Harris – Author of “Working with Ditko”
- Khoi Pham – Superstar comic book artist from Marvel, DC, Star Wars, and more!
- Mort Todd – Creative Director at Ditkoverse
- Jim Rugg
- Tom Scioli
- Sam Johns
- Robert J. Sadaro
- Ditko Ink!
- Ditkoverse
- Bruce Wechtenhiser – Ditko, Spidey, and Me
- Hero Works Publishing (Glenn Klimeck, Matt Lamb, K. Brandon Wilt)
Vendors including
- Buckethead’s Collectibles
- Bent Wookee Comix
- More to be announced!
Tickets
- Spectacular Admission – $10 (kids 12 & under are free with a paid adult)
- Amazing Admission – $50 Includes: Spectacular Admission & Ditko Con 2025 T-shirt & Exclusive Ditko Con 2025 print from Hero Works Publishing
- Unbeatable VIP Admission – $100 Amazing Admission plus early 10 AM admission to the con. Be the first to talk to our guests and receive our Ditko Con 2025 exclusive swag bag full of goodies, including the Bottle Works Exclusive version of Javier Hernandez’s “You Don’t Know Ditko” fanzine!
- Ditko Super Fan – $200 Includes an Unbeatable VIP package and an invitation to an exclusive Friday Night meet & greet meal with our Ditko Con guests and members of the Ditko estate. This package is limited to only 25 Super fans!!! The meal is included, and a cash bar will be available.
Special Guest – Javier Hernandez
Javier Hernandez (born April 23, 1966) is an American artist, comic book creator, and radio host from Whittier, California. Perhaps best known for creating the popular series El Muerto: The Aztec Zombie, the majority of his works are published through his privately owned imprint, Los Comex.
Javier also designed the mural honoring Steve Ditko that resides at the Bottle Works.
Special Guest – Will Murray
William Patrick Murray (born April 28, 1953), who publishes as Will Murray, is a fiction writer and a historian of popular culture, with a specialization in pulp fiction and comic books. His Cthulhu Mythos-related fiction has appeared in such anthologies as Miskatonic University, The Cthulhu Cycle, Disciples of Cthulhu II, Cthulhu’s Reign, Worlds of Cthulhu, The Yig Cycle, and The Mountains of Madness. His Mythos fiction has been collected in The Wild Adventures of Cthulhu, volumes one and two.
Murray has written extensively for Marvel Comics; with Steve Ditko, he is the co-creator of the character Squirrel Girl.
Special Guest – Jack C. Harris
Author of “Working With Ditko”!
Working With Ditko takes a unique and nostalgic journey through comics’ Bronze Age, as editor and writer Jack C. Harris recalls his numerous collaborations with legendary comics master Steve Ditko! It features never-before-seen preliminary sketches and pencil art from Harris’ tenure working with Ditko on The Creeper, Shade the Changing Man, the Odd Man, the Demon, Wonder Woman, Legion of Super-Heroes, The Fly, and even Ditko’s unused redesign for Batman! Plus, it documents their work on numerous independent properties, and offers glimpses of original characters from Ditko’s drawing board that have never been viewed by even his most avid fans! This illustrated volume is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the creative comic book process by one of the industry’s most revered creators, as seen through the eyes of one of his most frequent collaborators!
Special Guest – Khoi Pham
Khoi Pham is an artist and mentor. His artworks include DC’s Teen Titans, Marvel’s Mighty Avengers, X-Men Legacy, Scarlet Spider, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Chaos War, Incredible Hercules, Gambit, Mighty Thor, and X-Factor, and Top Cow’s Cyberforce. He has done numerous cover illustrations for various publications. Khoi was an attorney and venture capitalist prior to switching to art and mentoring. He has a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Saint Joseph’s University.
Special Guest – Jim Rugg
Jim Rugg is an Eisner and Ignatz Award winning cartoonist, designer, zinemaker, and illustrator. His books include Hulk Grand Design, Conspiracy Comics, True Crime Comics, 1986 zine, Street Angel, the PLAIN Janes, BW, Afrodisiac, Supermag, Octobriana 1976, and Rambo 3.5. He is the co-creator of YouTube’s Cartoonist Kayfabe channel. jimrugg.com Instagram: @jimruggart
Special Guest – Sam Johns
Sam Johns is a writer known for her work on DC Comics Punchline and her current work on House of Slaughter. Sam is a Johnstown native!
Special Guest – Mort Todd
Mort Todd is an American writer and media entrepreneur, best known as an editor-in-chief of Cracked magazine, and later, Marvel Music. He is owner of Comicfix, a media company that has developed licensed properties and is the Creative Director at Ditkoverse.
As a writer, artist or editor, Todd has worked at several comic book companies, contributing to characters including Superman and Spider-Man, and to licensed properties such as Barbie and Looney Tunes. His illustrations appear on CD covers, magazines, newspapers, and print advertisements.
Special Guest – Robert J. Sodaro
Robert J. (“Bob”) Sodaro is an American born writer, editor, and digital graphic artist. Sodaro was born in Norwalk, CT and is best known for writing as a journalist for numerous publications in the comicbook industry press during the ‘80s & ‘90s. He currently contributes stories to a number of independent comicbook publishers including, Dark Fire Press, United Comics, Red Anvil Comics, Main Enterprises, Pronto Comics, Free Lunch Comics, and others, He has also created and written for the online webcomic publisher Inkbot.com. He currently writes for HubPages.com about comicbooks, films, and literature. He is the creator of a number of intellectual properties including Agent Unknown, Wülf Girlz, Girl Skout Wars, Hot Girl & Totally Hot Girl, and others.
Special Guest – Tom Scioli
Tom Scioli is a critically acclaimed writer and artist who specializes in comics and graphic novels. He’s the author and illustrator of Godzilla’s Monsterpiece Theatre, I Am Stan: A Graphic Biography of the Legendary Stan Lee, Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics as well as several science-fiction and superhero originals like American Barbarian, The Myth of 8-Opus, Godland and the upcoming Space Opera Xanadax Across the Unknown Dimensions of the Galaxy from Image Comics. He has reinvented established series with Fantastic Four: Grand Design, Super Powers, Transformers vs G.I. Joe, and a cyberpunk reimagining of Go-Bots. He is known for his singular drawing style, kinetic page layouts, and imaginative writing. He’s one of a small number of auteur cartoonists who writes, draws, colors, and hand-letters his comics. He’s also the host of the pop culture focused video series, The Total Recall Show.
Special Guests – Hero Works Publishing
Hero Works Publishing is an independent comic publisher housed at the Bottle Works. Matt Lamb (owner), Glenn Klimeck, and K. Brandon Wilt released their first book The Legacy of Captain Bottle Works in 2023 and are expected to release their second in time for Ditko Con. They are passionate about producing independent comics in the hometown of Steve Ditko!
Special Guest
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