Art will pop up across region thanks to PMA, community program

Pop-up art exhibitions will begin to appear throughout the region Wednesday, when high-quality reproductions of artworks from the Philadelphia Museum of Art will be installed in public places from Coatesville to Doylestown.

About 70 works from the museum's collection - everything from portraits of Jacqueline Kennedy by Andy Warhol to landscapes by Claude Monet - will be exhibited in Coatesville, Doylestown, Lansdowne, Narberth, and Old City and Tacony in Philadelphia as part of the second year of Inside Out, a community project funded by the Knight Foundation.

The project began last year when about 60 works were displayed in Media, Newtown, Haddonfield, and several Philadelphia neighborhoods.

Constance H. Williams, chair of the PMA's board of trustees, said the museum "recognized [its] civic responsibility to foster engagement in the arts."

The project is funded by a $340,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, which has seeded similar projects around the country. The works will remain on exhibition through July.

Timothy Rub, museum director, said Inside Out represented "what we can do together."

"The project is not simply about the museum sharing its masterpieces," he said. About a dozen community representatives were on hand at the Art Museum for the announcement Tuesday.

"I think it's fabulous community-building," said Doylestown Borough Council member Elnora West. "The artworks they selected are absolutely stunning."

The first work of the entire project will be installed at 11 a.m. Wednesday in front of the Chester Valley Bank in Coatesville; it will be a two-dimensional scan of a suit of 16th-century German field armor.

Teresa Salinas, program manager of Art Partners Studio in Coatesville, said she brought Inside Out to the attention of city officials.

"I'd heard of Inside Out," she said, "but I was not aware it went so far out into the countryside."

Distance proved no handicap. Coatesville will eventually install nine works around town, including a portrait of a young boy by Joshua Reynolds, a still life by Rubens Peale, and two Monet landscapes.

Salinas said a kickoff ceremony would take place in connection with another exhibition at the Coatesville Savings Bank.

"We try to ensure that art is part of the downtown community," Salinas said of her organization, adding that educational and other Inside Out-related programs are being planned.

West, of Doylestown, said that docents will conduct tours of the works, once all are installed, discussing the artworks and weaving in the history of the borough.

On May 20-22, the museum will offer free admission to residents living in Coatesville (19320), Doylestown (18901, 18902), Lansdowne (19050), Narberth (19072), Old City (19106, 19107), and Tacony (19135).

Communities participating in the program in the fall will also receive a weekend of free admission at a designated time during that installation.

Towns participating in Inside Out from August to November will be Brewerytown, Bristol, Conshohocken, Jenkintown, Phoenixville, and Upper Darby.

ssalisbury@phillynews.com
215-854-5594