Here is something that most people in the Lehigh Valley do not realize: the Allentown Art Museum is one of the finest regional art museums in the country, and admission is completely free. Not free on Tuesdays, not free for kids under 12. Free for everyone, every day, forever. That alone makes it worth a visit. What you find inside makes it worth coming back.
From the Depression to the Renaissance
The museum was founded during the Great Depression by Walter Emerson Baum, a teacher, painter, and critic who believed art belonged to everyone. It was incorporated in 1939 and spent its first two decades in a city-owned Federal style house. The transformation came in 1960 when Samuel H. Kress, a native of nearby Cherryville, gifted 53 Renaissance and Baroque paintings and sculptures. That single donation turned a community gallery into a museum of national significance.
Today the collection spans more than 20,000 works covering nearly two thousand years of cultural heritage. The strengths include European Renaissance and Baroque paintings, including a Rembrandt, American paintings and sculpture, including a Franz Kline mural, Southeast Asian sculpture, international textiles, decorative arts, and over 400 prints dating from the Renaissance to the 21st century.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Room
The museum's crown jewel might be the complete interior from a Frank Lloyd Wright designed library. Originally part of the Francis W. Little House, built between 1912 and 1915, the library was saved before the building was demolished in 1972. It is the only public display of an entire Frank Lloyd Wright interior in Pennsylvania, and it is extraordinary. The clean lines, the built-in furnishings, the way light moves through the space. It is a masterwork of American design, and you can experience it right here in downtown Allentown.
Always Evolving
The museum underwent a major renovation between 2010 and 2011, adding over 10,000 square feet of new gallery and public space while refurbishing 25,000 square feet of existing facility. Current exhibitions rotate regularly, with recent shows including German Expressionism, Tiffany glass, and inventive 19th century quilts. The permanent collection alone is worth repeated visits, and the free admission policy means there is never a reason not to stop in.
