Allentown Museum of Art – Free admission on Saturday

The Allentown Museum of Art is in for a monumental weekend.

Starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, the museum becomes free to enter and kicks off two days of festivities with family-friendly activities. Guests will also have the opportunity to see the first major “rearrangement” of the museum’s permanent collection in more than a decade.

Here are some of the highlights of the event schedule:

• 11:00 a.m.: Ceremonial Ringing of Gongs: Art Museum President and CEO Max Weintraub will welcome the community near the large bronze Double Branch Gong sculpture next to the museum. Then the artist Val Bertois will sound a sculpture of gongs to mark the moment of the liberation of the museum.
• 11 am to 5 pm: Opening day of New American Galleries and New Art Ways: The first 100 visitors will receive a special gift suitable for all ages. You can also see the recently renovated and re-installed American galleries on the first floor. On the second floor, you can visit the grand reopening of Art Ways, an interactive family gallery complete with three new Maker Stations where families can explore 3D printing, art conservation, and the art and science behind architecture, design and construction .
• 11.15 and 11.45: Bertoia plays the sound of Harry Bertoia’s sculpture at the Trexler Gallery.
• 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: First Tour of New American Galleries Led by AAM Vice President of Curatorial Affairs Elaine Mehalakes
• from 13:30 to 14:30 and from 15:30 to 16:30: Tour of the New American Galleries under the guidance of a museum teacher
• 2 to 4 pm: Meet artist Emil Lucas, whose work Expander (2020) is showing for the first time at Trexler Gallery as part of New American Galleries.

Other activities include:

• Two self-propelled treasure hunt, one inside and one outside the museum,
• Practical the art of making for all ages during ArtVentures (11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.)
• Sidewalk chalk, graffiti, bubblesan ice cream truck near the museum

• 11 am to 5 pm: Self-guided tour of the New American Galleries; live music in the galleries, two independent treasure hunts, one inside and one outside the museum.
• 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM: Docents in the Kress Gallery
• 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.: Hands-on art making for all ages during ArtVentures
• from noon to 1 p.m.; 2 to 3 p.m.: Guided tours of the New American Galleries by a museum educator (noon) and a curator (2:00 p.m.)
• From noon to 2:00 p.m.: Meet artist Angela Fraley, whose painting And Then We’ll Go Straight to the Sun (2016) is on display for the first time in Trexler Hall as part of New American Galleries.
• 2 to 4 pm: Meet artist Ángel Suarez-Rosada, whose White Fences (2003) is on view for the first time in Trexler Hall as part of the New American Galleries.

The admission fee for visitors can be waived with the help of the $2 million Allentown Museum of Art Endowment, which will be administered by the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation. The fund is one of three recent gifts from the Century Fund. Free admission is also made possible by additional multi-year support from Lehigh Valley Health Network, City Center Allentown and JB and Kathleen Reilly.

information: allentownartmuseum.org/

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