Dear Friends of the Allentown Art Museum:
At the time of this writing, I have officially been The Priscilla Payne Hurd President & CEO of the Allentown Art Museum for a little over two weeks. I am truly honored and feel privileged to have been appointed to such a distinguished and responsible position. The Allentown Art Museum is a highly regarded art museum nationally and a much loved and venerated institution locally and regionally. I bring to the art museum over forty years of museum and art history experience from teaching at the university level to curatorial and administrative posts in both the United States and Canada. I have also been active in art critical and historical writing on the academic level and in arts journalism. I feel confident that I can make a positive and lasting contribution to the already impressive history of the Allentown Art Museum. With your support and with the dedicated service of our Board of Trustees, staff, volunteers, patrons and members, I believe that we can bring the Allentown Art Museum to even greater levels.
In my first two weeks in the Lehigh Valley, I have enjoyed exploring the region, attending special events, getting acquainted with our staff and Trustees and quietly discovering the remarkable permanent art collection. Our Kress Collection may be the finest of its kind, apart from the National Gallery of Art, that I have ever seen. I must applaud our devoted SOTA organization for a very successful Showhouse & Boutique project which I visited on my first day in Allentown. During these first several days, I was introduced to the long established art museum’s Auxiliary, who presented the museum with yet another beautifully crafted bench for the galleries and a sizeable cash donation for our textile collections. I had the pleasure of attending the Kress Society’s festive special event at the fascinating Martin Guitar Museum and headquarters in Nazareth; had a most informative lunch with the Mayor of Allentown, the Honorable Ed Pawlowski, and attended several events including the Allentown Arts Commission Ovation awards luncheon. I also had the wonderful experience of touring the Baum School of Art, our neighbor across Fifth Street.
Over the next several months and into 2011 the Allentown Art Museum will experience many noticeable changes, many related to the much anticipated expansion and renovation of our building, which will begin in the fall/winter of 2010 and continue through the summer of 2011. The expansion and renovation project will create an entirely new appearance and footprint to the art museum on both the exterior and the interior. It will provide better access, an exciting new Fifth Street elevation and reception area, more gallery space and other much needed improvements.
Any inconvenience to our public due to the construction should be understood as a prelude to a better and much improved facility when the work is completed. Our two important summer 2010 exhibitions, the last before construction work begins, “In Stitches: Quilts from the Allentown Art Museum Collection,” and “Myths, Religion & Ritual: Indian Art From the Koblenzer Collection,” are contrasting explorations of the power of color and design with the physical experience of the devotional or ritualistic imagery of Indian art.
I look forward to meeting all of our members and patrons over the next several months. Once again thank you for your support of the Allentown Art Museum.
J. Brooks Joyner
The Priscilla Payne Hurd President and CEO