Category:Allentown Art Museum

Allentown Art Museum 

museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania
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Instance of	art museum nonprofit organization
Location	Pennsylvania
Street address	31 N. Fifth Street
Legal form	501(c)(3) organization
Inception	1934
Date of official opening	1934
official website
40° 36′ 15.48″ N, 75° 28′ 04.8″ W
Authority file  Q3612510 VIAF ID: 126657445 Library of Congress authority ID: n79071260 J9U ID: 987007257782705171 OpenStreetMap way ID: 440111259 Reasonator Scholia Wikidocumentaries PetScan statistics WikiMap Locator tool KML file WikiShootMe OpenStreetMap Search depicted

The Allentown Art Museum is a major regional museum in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It is located at 31 North 5th Street in Allentown. The museum currently has a collection of over 13,000 works. In addition, its library and archives of more than 16,000 titles and 40 current periodicals make it an important cultural resource.

An Allentown Art Museum was first proposed in September 1913, when A. N. Lindenmuth, an American landscape and portrait painter who lived and painted in Allentown first proposed one be established. Lindenmuth was one of a group of artists either taught by, associated with, or directly influenced by Pennsylvania impressionist painter Walter Emerson Baum. Lindenmuth was also a photographer who owned a popular studio at North 6th and Court Street. Lindenmuth's effort failed due to a lack of funds and no location could be found. Lindenmuth's son, Todd, however later headed an Allentown Art Museum committee which would meet at the Allentown Public Library during the 1920s. Also the Library would exhibit artwork collections from time to time.

Another effort in 1928, organized by Walter Baum was successful when the Allentown School District provided space and the Allentown Art Gallery first opened in March, 1934 at the closed Hunsicker School, located at 326 North Sixth Street. The museum initially focused primarily on exhibiting the works of area artists.

In June 1936, the City of Allentown granted the museum a permanent home in a Federal-style house located adjacent to the Rose Garden in Allentown's Cedar Park, at Ott and Parkway Boulevard. The gallery's first curator was local artist John E. Berninger, who lived with his wife on the gallery's second floor. Then in May 1956, the gallery was becoming cramped for space, and was relocated to the Abraham Sofranscy Estate building at 30th Street and Parkway road. The Sofranscy Estate had been aquired by the city as an expansion of Cedar Creek Park, and provided a facility over twice as large, as well as a parking area.

However, the expanding size of the Art Gallery led to a new search for a larger home. One was found later in 1956 when the 1905 First Presbyterian Church building at 5th and Court Street was put up for sale, as the congregation was moving to a newly-built church and facility at Cedar Crest Boulevard and Tilghman Street. The gallery purchaced the Church and for the first time had a home seperate from facilities leased from the city. This classically designed former church was located near to the museum's Baum School of Arts, at 5th and Linden Streets, which was established by Dr Water Emerson Baum in 1926, and from it the Gallery was formed in 1934. After renovations to the church were completed, the now-renamed Art Museum opened in its present location in June 1958

In 1960 and 1961, a gift of 53 Renaissance and Baroque paintings and sculptures from Samuel H. Kress–a native of nearby Cherryville, PA–brought the Museum to a new level. In 1975, an expansion to the building was completed to enhance the Museum’s programs and collecting plans. At the time, the Museum installed a room designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as part of its permanent collection. The collection, still largely defined by European paintings in 1975, expanded with a large collection of textiles and another gift of works on paper. The 1978 acquisition of Gilbert Stuart‘s beguiling portrait of Ann Penn Allen, granddaughter of the founder of Allentown, set the benchmark for the qualitative standards of the collection.

From 2010 to 2011, the Museum underwent renovation to include approximately ten thousand more square feet of gallery, storage, and public space. Another 25 thousand square feet of existing facility was also refurbished.