ON THE ROAD WITH ‘ART’
If you’re looking for a summer road trip destination, consider one of the five Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art venues, each an easy day drive from Pittsburgh. Those include the new kid on the block, which opened in Bedford on May 3.
Other locations are Altoona, Johnstown, Ligonier and Loretto.
A relaxing drive on scenic highways, art exhibitions, and a variety of dining and shopping choices make for the perfect staycation.
Each of the five sites are different, said G. Gary Moyer, Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art executive director. “They vary from a campus setting to a rural environment to Main Street America,” he said.
Exhibitions, events and hours differ by location. Site coordinators organize exhibitions and programs at Altoona, Beford and Ligonier. Museums curator for visual arts V. Scott Dimond, who was hired in 2010, organizes exhibitions for Lorettoand Johnstown.
Exhibitions include art drawn from the museum collection, occasional loaned or traveling artworks and invitational or juried shows of work by local artists.
The variety of art presented by the museum is exemplified by current exhibitions that range from works by Old Masters like Rembrandt at Bedford, to film, theater and dance posters at Loretto, to Australian aboriginal paintings at Ligonier. Programming, for all ages, is similarly diverse, from an August watercolor class at Altoona to a July lunch with collector Anne MacDougall in Ligonier.
Mr. Dimond, who holds a doctorate in art history from the University of Pennsylvania, acknowledged the educational role of a regional museum system that has a mission to provide a variety of cultural services to a broad, widespread and underservedrural population.
“We’re trying to reach the people by showing the value of art in everyday life, not just in the museum. We view ourselves as a public trust,” Mr. Dimond said.
The Arts-in-Education program takes museum educators and select works from the collection to schools for students to experience and learn about first hand. An Artist-in-Residence program, held in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, pairs professional artists with students to share the creative
process. In 2003 the Museum/Healthcare Partnership Program began to provide services to elderly populations, and has since expanded to include veterans and mentally challenged persons.
The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art opened in 1976 on the campus of Saint Francis University in Loretto. Its original collection of 67 works has grown to more than 5,000 works of fine art.
The Altoona satellite was opened in 1979, followed in 1982 by Johnstown. The Ligonier Valley site opened in 1997 and this year formally initiated a sculpture garden that, Mr. Moyer said, “will over the years continue to grow.”
SAMA is the nation’s longest-running museum satellite system.
The combined sites attract 85,000 visitors annually and Mr. Moyer predicts that number to grow with the establishment of the Bedford branch. People from the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore metro areas own property in the region, where they frequently weekend, while others stay at the tony Omni Bedford Springs Resort. “They’re looking for something to do after theyfinish golfing,” he said.
SAMA’s budget is “a little over $1 million a year,” Mr. Moyer said, which is close to what it was when he became executive director in 2008. It’s surprisingly frugal when compared to the several-million-dollar cost of mounting a major exhibition at a large metropolitan museum, and when considering the expansion and programming accomplished.
The five sites operate with nine full-time staff and approximately nine part-time staffers. And it has a wealth of volunteers. “We couldn’t function without our volunteers,” Mr. Moyer noted.
Mr. Moyer plans to retire this year and the board of trustees has initiated a search committee to replace him. He will remain on staff for a time, probably reducing his work week beginning in July as the committee interviews candidates. He said the museum is on solid ground and is confident in the museum’s continued success, bolstered by support from the museum communities.