In the screen grab above, Matt Tuerk and Pat Browne are unveiling a replica of a statue that was in the former, long gone Rialto Theater, to enhance Reilly's new theater/art district. Browne designed the NIZ for Reilly, and there has been no constraints on the use of our tax dollars to create and expand it.
I've been the critic since before the first building appeared. As a blogger, the displaced former merchants turned to me in desperation. They were being bullied out their lives, for Reilly's sake. While this blog has documented many of the transgressions, the damage continues. The former Allentown arts district has been compromised to enhance another Reilly position.
I'm purposefully using Sylvester Stallone's movie ad with the picture of the sculpture. Stallone is not really a tough guy, and the theater we built for Reilly really isn't an arts district.
I'm not here to be polite
ADDENDUM:Although I penned this early Sunday morning, the new blog on the block also posted on the statue Sunday evening. This will happen in Dodge with multiple blogs...It's for the good!
Who said that the farce was dead?
ReplyDeleteTwo connoisseurs engrossed in yet another conversation about public art in contemporary culture.
ReplyDeleteThe statue was in the lobby of the 1921 Rialto Theater lobby.
ReplyDeleteWhen the lobby of the theter caught fire in 1946, after the fire the lobby was torn down, but the statue was not included in the rebuilt lobby. The theater closed in 1979 and it could not be converted to a stage or music theater as the origional design was for a film theater, with no real stage or any type of dressing rooms. The theater auditorium was torn down for a parking deck in 1986; the replacement lobby in 2023 after years of use as a converted office building.
If they really wanted to pay tribute to the Rialto Theater, one of the grand theaters of Allentown's Hamilton Street, they would have named the new music venue after it.
They may build boring buildings but they have exquisite taste in public sculpture....No?
ReplyDeleteThe sculpture really doesn’t belong outdoors and looks rather silly where it is. In spite of it having some local history (or the original does) this ends up looking like something found in grammie’s attic that got put out on the street. I hope that if this sculpture has a story to tell that it gets an appropriate place to tell it. If someone is taking credit for “curating” its placement- I wouldn’t. It appears very amateurish. A nude statue doesn’t make an arts community.
ReplyDeleteAny public art is in a critical relationship with its immediate surroundings.
ReplyDeleteSet and setting.
This piece has been plopped down at this location. The overall effect lacks context. A fine piece of classical sculpture looking like it fell off a truck in route to some complementary destination.
Pat and Matt are artless, apparently J.B. is as well.