By Jodi Duckett, Of The Morning Call
As the Allentown Art Museum gets ready to open one of the biggest exhibits in its history, it is also making one of the biggest policy changes in its history — free admission for the summer.
From June 8 to Sept. 7 — the run of "Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Paintings from Glasgow Museums" — everyone will be able to visit the museum free of charge.
"There has been a real interest across the country to ensure the museum is accessible to all audiences," said museum President David Mickenberg. "Admission is at times an impediment to participation."
To offset the lost income, the museum received a grant from the Society of the Arts — SOTA — the women's organization that has supported the museum for 50 years by serving as volunteers and by purchasing art. "It covers most of the historical income that we've gotten here over the summer. We couldn't have opened up free of charge without SOTA's grant," Mickenberg said.
Mickenberg declined to say the amount of the grant, but said, "Numbers divert attention from the true story — that SOTA has provided an exceptional gift."
The free admission — a savings of $12, adults, and $10 students and seniors — means access for everyone to the permanent collection, special summer exhibits and events and activities for adults and children that complement the exhibits.
"Heaven and Earth" features 40 paintings by some of the greatest names in Italian art, including Botticelli, Bellini and Titian. Allentown is the only East Coast stop for the exhibit. Also opening at the museum for the summer is "Francisco Goya — Los Caprichos," a series of 80 groundbreaking etchings analyzing the human condition during a time of repression in Spain.
To encourage accessibility, those exhibits will have all their text available in Spanish as well as English. And the museum is doing outreach to radio stations, publications and organizations that serve the Spanish-speaking community.
Mickenberg said additional benefits will be given to museum members who may have joined to get free admission. Those benefits will include increased benefits in the gift shop and cafe and exclusive activities.
Mickenberg said free summer admission is not an original idea; museums such as the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts and the Dallas Museum of Art have instituted free admission. The number of their visitors increased dramatically, he said.
In addition to increasing accessibility, Mickenberg said the museum sees free admission as "a great way to kick off our 80th anniversary year. It's an opportunity for us to say thank you to the community for encouragement, support and participation."
Mickenberg, who has been at the museum for seven months, said the museum also hopes that free admission will enable it to gather more information from the public about how they feel about the museum — "how we're doing our job, what they'd like to see" — so it can tailor programs to public needs and desires and increase the profile and popularity of the museum.
"For us this is an exploration, experimentation," he said. "Our desire is to communicate to everybody that this is welcoming to all."
jodi.duckett@mcall.com
610-820-6704
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-art-museum-free-summer-admission-20140530,0,5017402.story
Allentown Art Museum
31 North 5th Street, Allentown, PA 18101, USA
