Fall 2020

Dear friends,

As we begin this new academic year and re-open LUAG on September 1, we do so in a dramatically changed world.  A global pandemic rages on, requiring new programming approaches, masks, and social distancing.  We continue to battle systemic racism, xenophobia, and partisan division.  And as many find themselves more isolated than ever--physically and ideologically--art museums may not immediately come to mind as holding the solutions that we seek. 

However, we believe that it is precisely in museums where we can discover how people from diverse time periods and cultures have addressed challenges.  Museums are critical convenors that bring together different voices, where we can interrogate history, and where we can hypothesize about the future.  Museums are interdisciplinary engines for advancing critical thinking, cultural understanding, and well-being--the central aims of LUAG’s mission.

This fall, we invite you to make an appointment to visit us, and to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience:  to have the museum all to yourself.  Special days and times are reserved for public access, and we look forward to welcoming you in the galleries (masks and social distancing required).

Coinciding with the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, we hope that you will explore Doing Democracy:  Photography from the George Stephanopoulos Collection, on view in our Main Gallery and also outdoors along the South Bethlehem Greenway.  Explore 20 reproduced photographs during our opening reception on the South Bethlehem Greenway on Friday, Oct. 2, 5-6:30pm.  Presented in partnership with the SouthSide Arts District, enjoy refreshments, LUAG giveaways, and a free audio guide created by Lehigh students that you can access on your smartphone.  We look forward to seeing you at this event where we will keep safety front of mind.

We hope you will visit LUAG often, and see all museums as places of possibility--where we can begin to address the challenges that we face today, and ultimately make our world what we want it to be. 

Be well and stay safe,

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William B. Crow, Ph.D.
Director and Professor of Practice