August 7-13, 2003

art

Road Shows

Barbara Danin, Wings for the Soul (2002), 17 inches by 17 inches, watercolor, at Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts; Tiffany & Co., covered presentation vase (1915), 22 inches by 10 3/4 inches, silver with Limoges porcelain enamel decoration, at Allentown Art Museum.

Scratching the travel itch with the art of the greater Delaware Valley and beyond.

by Susan Hagen

This summer my family and I decided to do something different: Rather than having the standard one-shot, two-week vacation, we’re having lots of little vacations. We realized that we had overlooked many of the cultural and natural treasures in the vicinity of Southeastern Pennsylvania and have been planning a series of day and weekend trips spread out over the whole summer. Here’s a short list of the museums and galleries that stood out in our research and travels.

One of our favorite destinations for a short trip from Philadelphia has always been Doylestown. The first stop is usually the Mercer Museum, a fantastic cast-concrete neo-gothic edifice made by visionary founder Henry Mercer, which features a jumble of implements from pre-industrial America. Across the street is the James A. Michener Art Museum and its current shows are "Japanese Prints from the Michener Collection" and "Latin Jazz," a multimedia exhibit featuring documents, photographs, instruments and recordings. A visit to Doylestown could also include a stop at Fonthill, the home of Henry Mercer, and the adjacent Moravian Pottery and Tile Works. Hot tip: Families with young kids will want to visit Kids' Castle, an incredible playground on the southern side of Doylestown, with eight levels of secret passageways, drawbridges and escape hatches.

There's much to be seen in the diverse area northwest of Philadelphia. "Treasures of the Greater Lehigh Valley," at the Allentown Art Museum, is a wonderful display of choice items, such as an illuminated book by William Blake and a Scottish Lass cigar store figure. Nearby in Bethlehem an inviting show called "Arts, Botanicals & Calligraphy: Going to School in Early Bethlehem and Nazareth" can be seen at the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts. Also in Bethlehem, you can stop in to see sculptures by Philadelphia-area artist Steve Tobin in a show called "Natural Progression." Tobin is known for his abstract glass sculptures, but this show includes a series of recent bronze sculptures of shoes filled with produce and foliage. At the Schwenkfelder Library and Museum in Pennsburg, a pair of interesting shows explores gender in early America. "Needle Arts" includes samplers, quilts and costumes, which are contrasted with the pocket watches, fraternal ephemera and weapons of "Manly Objects."

Going west from Philadelphia, the Charles Demuth Museum in Lancaster offers a selection of work by Demuth, as well as a current exhibition called "John Covert: Rediscovered." At the Emil R. Weiss Center for the Arts in Carlisle, a show called "With and Against the Grain: Five Centuries of Woodblock Printing" groups together woodcuts by Hokusai Katsushika, Albrecht Dürer, Kathe Kollwitz, Winslow Homer, Rockwell Kent and many others. At the Juniata College Museum of Art, the exhibition "Along the Juniata: Thomas Cole and the Dissemination of American Landscape Imagery" reveals the influence of Cole's landscape drawings on American soup plates and other functional items. Nearby, you can visit Peace Chapel, which was designed by Maya Lin, creator of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, at The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, it's time for the annual "Art of the State," a huge juried art exhibition of work by Pennsylvania artists in a variety of media. Watch for the award-winning work of local artists Sara Lee, Warren Holzman, Chris Cooper, Sumi Maeshima and Rain Harris.

If you're going south to Delaware, you can see more artwork by Philadelphia-area artists in "Barbara Danin: Intimate Journeys" and "Kocot and Hatton: Wake" at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts. Plus, there's always something interesting at Winterthur's museum and gardens (especially "A Moment in Time: Photographs by the Allen Sisters" and the Enchanted Woods children's garden) and at the nearby Hagley Museum. If you're headed north toward New England, be sure to stop at Storm King Art Center, one of the world's greatest gardens of contemporary sculpture, and Dia:Beacon, a brand-new museum of environmental and site-specific sculpture. Both are easily accessible from I-87. Call Dia in advance for a guided tour of Michael Heizer's huge sculptural construction, North, East, South, West. In New Jersey, The Noyes Museum of Art in Oceanville is featuring jewelry, wearable art, baskets, dolls and furniture in a show titled "Craft Concepts." I always look forward to seeing the wonderful ice fishing decoys in the main foyer of the Noyes. Just over the bridge at The Stedman Gallery in Camden, a captivating show called "Magnum Cinema" features photographs of offscreen actors and directors from the Magnum archive.

Reaching a consensus on our itinerary hasn't been easy (in fact, it's required some intense negotiation) but so far we've been able to combine all of our trips to regional summer art exhibitions with recreational stops to enjoy caves, waterfalls and other natural wonders, as well as playgrounds, diners and miniature golf -- making our many vacations a lot more fun for all of us.

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