“Summer of Tiffany” at the Allentown Art Museum
Monumental windows, exquisite lamps, and activities for all ages
Allentown, PA –On Saturday, April 26, the Allentown Art Museum opens its doors for the first time on an extraordinary pair of 14-foot-high landscape memorial windows created by Tiffany Studios. The windows, designed and produced early last century, were formally acquired by the Museum late last year after a multiyear campaign to conserve and bring the windows to Allentown.
Admission to the Museum is free this weekend and always, Thursday through Sunday, 11a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Third Thursdays 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Parking is free in the Museum’s lot at Fifth and Linden Streets.
Stunning in their beauty, these leaded-glass windows demonstrate artist and Tiffany Studios founder Louis Comfort Tiffany’s pioneering use of landscape to commemorate a lost loved one. Agnes Northrop, a key creative force at Tiffany Studios for fifty years, likely designed these floral-filled, evocative compositions featuring rivers as a metaphor for the passage of life and offering nature as solace.
“These particular windows are incredibly special because they have such emotional power after more than a hundred years,” says the Museum’s vice president of curatorial affairs, Elaine Mehalakes.
The luminous designs reflect Tiffany’s technical innovations, their glow created by layers of opalescent Favrile glass that transmit light and intensify color.
The acquisition, conservation, and installation of these remarkable windows is the culmination of a community effort supported by more than 220 individuals and foundations. Their purchase benefits the United Presbyterian Church in Pottsville, PA, for which they were originally commissioned, by allowing the organization to continue and expand social programs in their community. The Allentown Art Museum is honored to be able to conserve and preserve these important works for generations to come.
Also opening Saturday in the same space, the newly renovated Kress Gallery, is a complementary exhibition of Tiffany lamps on loan from the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in New York. Tiffany’s Gardens in Glass explores Louis C. Tiffany’s enduring interest in the natural world and illuminates his studios’ path from inspiration to expression. Featured are ten of Tiffany Studios’ famously lush botanical lamps and gardens windows, along with nine nature study photographs drawn from the Studios’ own extensive reference collection.
Today, floral lamps and landscape windows are among Tiffany’s most recognizable and celebrated works. Perpetually in bloom, these gardens in glass are a passionate celebration of nature, and a testimony to the sophisticated design and exquisite craftsmanship of Tiffany Studios.
Tiffany’s Gardens in Glass was curated by the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Queens, New York. This exhibition continues at the Museum through June 29, 2025.
To celebrate the arrival of the windows in their new, permanent home, the Museum is offering a full schedule of programs and events related to Tiffany, most of them free to the public. For a complete schedule, visit www.allentownartmuseum.org or CLICK HERE.
ABOUT THE ALLENTOWN ART MUSEUM
The Allentown Art Museum is the premier arts institution in the Lehigh Valley, housing a collection of more than 20,000 works and offering dynamic public education and engagement programs. Since eliminating admission fees in 2022, the Museum has become a vital cultural resource for the community, fostering creativity, inclusion, and lifelong learning. For more information please visit AllentownArtMuseum.org.
Information provided to TVL by:
Chris Potash
