MILANVILLE, PA AND ONLINE — Standing for Skinners is an online public protest demonstration against the demolition of the historic landmark Skinners Falls Bridge. Photographer Sarah Van Ouwerkerk will begin a series of portraits of the many people who continue to advocate for the preservation of the bridge even as PennDOT implements expensive construction as a prelude to its destruction.  

The STANDING FOR SKINNERS project will begin on Saturday, March 22 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the terminus of the public road just before the barricaded entrance to Skinners Falls Bridge in Milanville. All who want to take a stand for the continued existence of the bridge  are welcome to come and be photographed with the bridge in the background. 

The bridge is restorable but to date PennDOT and elected leadership—including Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro—have not acknowledged proposals offered by professionals experienced in preservation of structures like the bridge.  Restoration is a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to blowing the bridge into oblivion.

The portraits will be exhibited online at the website for Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, www.damascuscitizensforsustainability.org/ and on the “Save Skinners Falls/Milanville Bridge” Facebook page.

Van Ouwerkerk’s work has been published by Rizzoli, Harmony House, and the University of California Press.  Her book "Epiphanies," with poems by Elizabeth Swados, was published in 2020 and made available in 2023 at an exhibition under the same name at LaMama NYC.  

Van Ouwerkerk divides her time between her studios in NYC and the Catskills.  She is one of many members of the creative community in the Upper Delaware River Valley contributing their talent to inspire activism through an initiative launched last spring.