Oct 15, 2025

Culture And Establishment Ties That Bind

 In a recent Facebook post, The Allentown Parknership said....Allentown park fact: The Arts Park connects the Allentown Art Museum, Baum School of Art and Symphony Hall along the Arts Walk. The pocket park is an oasis of green space downtown for nearby residents, visitors and office workers alike. Well actually, not for much longer.

Allentown NIZ Czar J.B. Reilly is moving the art museum up to his own new arts district at 10th and Hamilton. This move will nullify the 5th Street area as the art district. The board of Baum School has said nothing. Our blue bloods go along to get along. The museum, the Baum School, and Trexler Trust are inter-related.

 I expect the current museum to become a charter school or home to a non-profit. If they really cared about art in the city they would stay there on 5th, and purchase and preserve the post office, an art deco masterpiece.

I'm not here to be polite

26 comments:

  1. Nullify?
    I’m thinking evisceration.
    The is absolute madness.
    This is incomprehensible.

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  2. Kitty Merle-Smith is rolling over in her grave.
    Appalling!

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  3. It’s interesting to consider the current Board of Trustees serving the Allentown Art Museum. Long time residents will be surprised by some of the names they recognize, the ones that don’t and the ramifications they have on what can only be an as yet unknown, intriguing, byzantine, backstory.
    This represents a sea change at the elite levels of Allentown politics.
    “Oh, what a tangled web….”

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  4. Between the Baum currently expanding, and Pat Browne putting that Charlie Tuna Silly Sculpture in front of Reilly's theater, I had to speak out....I'M NOT HERE TO BE POLITE

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  5. No one I've talked to thinks moving the Art museum is a good idea, in fact, they think it makes absolutely no sense. Such is Allentown where bad ideas are de rigueur.

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  6. The art museum board made a mistake 60 years ago when they bought the old Presbyterian Church on 5th when a space at Cedar Crest and Tilghman was offered, but back then downtown was the place to be. Now it’s the place to avoid. Sadly, I don’t think there is enough big money in the area to fund a new building and the regular donors were just tapped for the most recent building enlargement a dozen years ago. I don’t see it happening especially at a time when arts involvement in public schools is at an all time low. Another ambitious, but I don’t think the local interest is there. I’m sure Reilly offers great things, but he’s never been a big Art Museum supporter, so why should he be now? Because it benefits him.

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    1. The Old Guard didn’t want a suburban setting, to their credit, and the young art makers fought the idea of the Lehigh Valley Center for the Performing Arts out on 22.
      It took this band of philistines to come up with this plan.
      The worst of all worlds.

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    2. Reilly has already made a zillion dollars and provided for generations of his offspring. He’s now busy with establishing a family legacy like every robber baron before him.
      He’s feeling sentimental, art itself has little or nothing in particular to do with it.
      He’s already established his zone as an epicenter for fine dining in the region, art is the logical progression.
      Yes, the plan on the table is indeed the worst of all possible worlds.
      So what.
      MM, your complimentary tickets to the annual gala are unlikely to be coming this year.
      Bummer.

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  7. This Parknership Facebook post has the same exact kind of optimistic, hopeful bureaucratic propaganda speak as those touting the new DeSales University campus to Hamilton Street two years ago; "a bridge between DeSales and the City" "a dream for DeSales to be immersed in the City" "will bolster Allentown's downtown vitality". Of course we learned yesterday the inevitable result; DeSales bailing on the downtown campus after two years

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    1. anon@8:21: There has been other examples, i.e.,LVHN putting physical therapy above the arena entrance in Reilly's portion of the building. However, taking the art out of the long established existing district, requires a lot of silence from a lot of people. I wonder if the Browne/Reilly partnership will come back to bite Shapiro down the road?

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    2. The LVH Board was the intellectual nexus for the entire NIZ project. Without the collaboration and collusion of Snelling Inc.’s OPM (Other People’s Money) LVH cabal the NIZ would never have been possible. LVH was there from jump street to guarantee an entry level institutional baseline…and that’s a fact, Jack.
      Let’s give credit where credit is due. Pat B went from a State Rep. with a crash pad in his office to pulling off on of the greatest scams in the history of the Commonwealth.
      The proof is in the pudding and the pudding is pure gold.

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    3. Shapiro will never be a POTUS candidate in the contemporary Dem Party. Too cerebral for starters and the woke doesn’t do his tribe.
      Newsom will require an Identity Politics approved running mate, no Jew need apply.
      Those days are long gone.
      No one in State politics gives a good G-d damn about Allentown and whenever the name Allentown shows up in the national dialogue it’s either the punchline of a bad joke or as an insipid little ditty in an oldies quiz.

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    4. Shush, we’re not authorized to talk about DeSales departure. They have gotten enough negative publicity coming out of there Criminology Dept.
      Button it up.

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    5. Browne/Reilly/Shapiro partnership effect? Probably none. That would require someone to do a thorough, comprehensive, and honest investigation. Hasn't happened yet after 15 years of obvious failure. At the very least, no one outside the Lehigh Valley even knows about this 'one-of-a-kind' arrangement.

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    6. @9:42AM
      Failure!
      It’s the most successful hustle in Penn’s Woods since the Walking Purchase.

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  8. An even worse idea than the “Hamilton Mall” fiasco.

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  9. The arts in Allentown have long been under attack one prime example was the brutal arrest of the Shula's singer who was performing for the public free of charge. While his rendition of "Barbra Anne" may not have been everyone's cup of tea busking is a widely accepted practice in all free lands.

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  10. “The Art of the Steal II”
    The Allentown Art Museum episode.

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  11. I should reveal that I also thought moving the Da Vinci Science Center to 8th Street was a mistake. When they claimed that it would be easier for inner city children to drop in, I rolled my eyes. Allowing development to use Parking Authority surface lots for easy convenience, has made parking in center city inconvenient. Had the surface lots remained, Hamilton Street would be more successful.

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    1. ABSOLUTELY! I've made this same claim all along. Losing the surface lots made the whole area less appealing for several reasons.

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  12. I would say that I completely agree with your analysis of the Science Center relocation but I respect your policy about not commenting in agreement with previous statements.

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  13. Sure, better/CHEAPER parking may have helped, but that boat has long since sailed. Let's not mention the sale of lots for building... Truth be old, Park & Shop was a sweetheart deal for the former owners as was mentioned on this blog.
    It would be great if the "parking gestapo" would be more in the rest of the city along with our non policing police. It's no fun driving thru downtown. At one time, the signals were reasonably timed... now with the quite expen$ive centrally controlled system, we stop at nearly every signal... wasn't timing the lights for a) convenience and b) for pollution 'concerns'??? Curious minds want to know!

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  14. anon@12:21: For the last fifteen years I have been blessed with an infamous troll, who made comment moderation a necessity in the local blogosphere. While approving comments, I do tend to skip over the "I agree" ones ,and other low information submissions. I also shy away from the satirists, who often put great effort into their clever comments. But, at best, my policy is inconsistent.
    anon@12:45: In town, I'm noticing many turns from the wrong lane, on a one way streets. How square we old timers are!

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    1. Yes, silly us for following the rules of the road and very uncommon "common sense" while in the driver's seat...

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  15. Why stifle clever in this era of vanilla/chocolate commentary?

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    1. anon@3:21: I find many of the comments by these poets repetitious. While some bloggers fish and dance for comments, and some visitors enjoy them, this blog isn't here to be polite or entertaining.

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