Enduring Beauty: Treasures of the Reading Public Museum

January 24 - April 11, 2004

On January 24, 2004 the Reading Public Museum will launch its 100th Anniversary Year with the groundbreaking exhibit Enduring Beauty: Treasures of the Reading Public Museum. This exhibit, which runs through April 11, 2004, will be mounted in the Museum’s Temporary and Founder’s Galleries. The exhibit’s focus will be seldom or never-before-seen works from the permanent collections of the Reading Public Museum. Masterworks from painting, print, and sculpture, and objects from the ethnographic and science collections will be highlighted. Ron Roth, Museum Director/CEO and Exhibit Curator comments, “The collections of the Reading Public Museum are among America’s most important. Few museums have the level of variety and quality as that of our Museum. The 100th Anniversary is an opportunity to increase the level of awareness in our community of the unique treasure that is the Reading Public Museum.”

Enduring Beauty: Treasures of the Reading Public Museum is sponsored by Yuasa Battery, Inc. and supported by the Friends of the Reading Museum, The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Regular Museum admission is $7 adults and $5 children 4 to 17. Museum hours are Tuesday, Thursday-Saturday 11am to 5pm, Wednesday 11am to 8pm and Sunday 12pm to 5pm. The exhibit opens Saturday, January 24th and beginning at 5:30pm Ron Roth with give a lecture about the exhibit in the Auditorium and a reception will follow from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. Regular admission charged, Members are free.

The Reading Public Museum has one of the country’s largest collections of Pennsylvania Impressionists including Edward Redfield, John Folinsbee, Daniel Garber and Robert Spencer. One of the highlights of Enduring Beauty: Treasures of the Reading Public Museum is the exhibition of most of the Museum’s collection from the New Hope Art Colony and other American Impressionists associated with Pennsylvania.

Another highlight of Enduring Beauty:Treasures of the Reading Public Museum is the “floating exhibit” staged in the second floor Asian Gallery. The Museum’s collection of approximately 14,000 prints includes significant holdings of Japanese woodblock prints of the ukiyo-ye school, referred to as the “floating world.” This “floating exhibit” will feature some of the Museum’s most important prints of this school including masters Hokusai and Hiroshige.

Other highlights include a “Sculpture Salon” that will showcase the Museum’s holdings of late 19th and 20th Century sculpture including Auguste Rodin, Antoine Louis Barye, Paul Manship and Alexander Sterling Calder. Also featured will be the work of Albrecht Durer, Germany’s great 16th Century artist including a complete set of one of his most important series of prints, the engraved Passion. This series of engravings, printed in book form, was produced between 1507 and 1512 and is one of the most important acquisitions by the Museum in its 100-year history. The Museum’s ethnographic holdings will be represented with a sampling of very rare artifacts from the Lenape and Sioux nations including a rare silk decorative ribbon, a one-of-a-kind artifact that was presented by the Lenape to the Osage nation in the latter 19th Century. Lastly, the Museum’s Science collection will be showcased including rare, exotic birds and mammals and physical science treasures. The visitor will be able to see a large portion of the gem and mineral collection in the upcoming exhibit Gems and Minerals…Nature’s Underground Treasures January 31 – April 18, 2004.

Related Programming for Enduring Beauty: Treasures of the Reading Public Museum
WEDNESDAY TREASURE LECTURE SERIES – March through May, 2004
Content-based talks led by experts in specific fields to highlight the collections and objects at the Reading Public Museum. Lectures in Museum Auditorium on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. $10 for members and $15 for non-members (no pre-registration required – tickets sold at door). For more information call 610.371.5850 x227.

Wednesday March 10 - Treasures of the Reading Public Museum by Dr. Fred Heffner

Wednesday March 24 – A History of Art in Berks County by Mr. George Meiser, IX
President of the Historical Society of Berks County

Wednesday March 31 - Shearer, Spang, Devlin by Ms. Valerie Malmberg, co-owner of
Greshville Antiques and specialist on Berks County Artists

Wednesday April 7 – Homage to Tintoretto by Mr. Ronald Roth, Director and CEO of Reading Public Museum, in honor of the Jesuit Center. The Raising of Lazarus, a work on loan to the Reading Public Museum

Wednesday April 14 - Birding in Berks County by Mr. Bill Uhrich, science and natural history writer and author of “A Century of Bird Life in Berks County, PA.”

Wednesday May 5 - Pennsylvania German Art and Artifacts by Mr. Richard Machmer, major collector and specialist on Pennsylvania German Folk Art

Wednesday May 12 - Ralph Blakelock by Dr. Norman Geske, America’s leading expert
on 20th Century American Art and the work of Ralph Blakelock

Wednesday May 19 - History of Photography by Dr. Archibald Perrin, art history professor,
Albright College

Wednesday May 26 - 20th Century Art by Dr. Robert Metzger, a leading authority on 20th Century Art and Director Emeritus of the Reading Public Museum