Lewisburg, PA (10/30/2019)

Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Made a stopover in Lewisburg, PA, a small borough on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and home to Bucknell University.

Samek Art Museum Downtown Gallery
at 416 Market Street

The downtown gallery exhibit was
"10: Artist as Catalyst"

In 1975, artists formed the Alternative Museum in New York City, as a space to present political art that often criticized government and social institutions. The government reacted by reducing public funds for the arts (in the 1980s). In 1992, ten artists produced a portfolio of prints that they sold to support the Alternative Museum. These 10 prints were on display today, with the print above being the cover sheet (by Robert Storr).

Lotto: The American Dream (1992, by Luis Cruz Azaceta)

Campus Theatre (1941, by David Supowitz in Art Deco style),
at 413 Market Street, belonged to the Stiefel family until
it was sold in 2000 to a Bucknell University film professor, Eric Faden

In 2006 the non-profit Campus Theatre, Ltd purchased the building, and operated the theater in partnership with Bucknell University. The question is: was the Bucknell Bison always on the theater façade? Yes, and the theater was originally painted in the Bucknell colors of orange and blue!

Cupressus nootkatensis 'Pendula'/
Weeping Alaska Cedar

First Presbyterian Church (1857, with renovations),
at 18 Market Street, with a pair of Weeping Alaskan Cedars

Packwood House (c 1796, expanded 19C), at 8-12 Market Street

Bases of two water towers (1883) at Market Street and N Water Street

Soldiers Memorial Park

Remnant of steel truss bridge (c 1912, for Pennsylvania Railroad)
that spans the West Branch of the Susquehanna

At 13:00 we were able to tour the Packwood House;
no photos allowed except in the garden with the
centuries old Cryptomeria japonica/Japanese Cedars

The Packwood House started as a 2-story log cabin tavern (c 1796-1799) for travelers on the Susquehanna River. When the Lewisburg cross-cut section of the Pennsylvania Canal was completed in 1833, the tavern was expanded into the American Hotel. When the railroads came to town in the 1860s, people lost interest in river travel, and the hotel lost business. It was closed in the late 1880s, and converted into three townhouses. Edith Kelly grew up in one of the town houses, and when she and her husband, John Fetherston, decided to retire, they purchased the whole building. The couple was childless, so they established a trust to open the house as a museum upon their deaths. Edith Kelly Fetherston was a painter who kept all her paintings, and they are displayed throughout the house. She also collected glass, ceramics, textiles, furniture, paintings, Pennsylvania German decorative arts, and Oriental art, as well as maintained her garden. The Museum also has a collection of quilts that belonged to relatives of Edith.

Bucknell University Bison (2017, by Craig Campbell) is a
charging bison that replaces a calm standing bison

Samek Art Museum (est 1983) is located on the top floor of
the Elaine Langone Center, but there is limited access
to their extensive and varied collections

Most of the space of the museum was devoted to two special exhibits;
one was "Guerilla Girls: Art of Behaving Badly" with the works of
an anonymous group of activist artists who use visuals to
expose bias and corruption in politics, art, film, and pop culture

The other exhibit was "Damaged Goods: The Punk Aesthetic,
"focussing on the visual aesthetics of punk, as manifested in various kinds
of material culture: posters, concert flyers, LPs and 45s,
zines, photos, buttons and other cultural effluvia (KSS)

Madonna and Child (c 1500-1525, by
Andrea Sansovino), from the Kress Collection

Judgement of Paris (c 1548-1588, by Paolo Veronese),
from the Kress Collection

Samuel Henry Kress opened his first "domestic goods" store in 1887 in Nanticoke, PA. In 1896, he established the chain of S H Kress and Company stores, which resulted in his great wealth, allowing him to collect art and pursue philanthropy. Kress donated part of his art collection to the National Gallery of Art when it opened in Washington, DC in 1941. However, Kress realized that the success of his stores was because of people in small towns and cities, and he wanted to share his collection with them. He organized a traveling exhibition that lasted three years. It was his brother, Rush, who carried Samuel's wishes in regards to the rest of his art collection. Eighteen regional museums and 23 colleges and universities (including Bucknell) were gifted with works from the Kress collection.

Ingrid Bergman on Stromboli (1949,
by Gordon Parks) was acquired in 2008

Miss O'Keeffe, Abiquiu, New Mexico (1980,
by Myron Wood) was acquired in 2007

Joseph Beuys (1980-1983, by Andy Warhol),
a gift of the Andy Warhol Foundation
for Visual Arts, Inc, in 2014

We ended up spending the night in Williamsport, PA, at the historic Genetti Hotel. Built in 1921-1922, it was designed by William Lee Stoddart as the Lycoming Hotel.

Genetti Hotel (This photo of SureStay Collection by
Best Western Genetti Hotel is courtesy of TripAdvisor)

The sink was in the bedroom-room

Tankless toilet

View from our hotel room of Bald Eagle Mountain and
the West Branch of the Susquehanna River