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Lehigh Valley Live: Lehigh Valley museums shifting history lessons to homes during pandemic
April 16th, 2020 | In The News
Written by Connor Lagore for Lehigh Valley Live
As the residents of the Lehigh Valley continue to stay indoors and the state-wide shutdown remains in effect, museums across the area are making their history more accessible than ever.
A plethora of Lehigh Valley’s most popular museums has been affected by the shutdown, having to close their doors to patrons eager to absorb all of the history inside. While the coronavirus pandemic has turned much of daily life upside down, some of the museums have gotten creative and brought their programming into homes.
From photo collections to live-streamed history talks, museums are going virtual in hopes that patrons can still find ways to engage.
Allentown Art Museum: Remaining closed until further notice.
C.F. Martin & Co. Inc.: Factory tours are temporarily suspended.
Crayola Experience: Crayola has bountiful activities that can be done at home. Parents can download free step-by-step crafting instructions, coloring pages and more on Crayola Experience’s website. They also can watch Create-It-Yourself videos, and learn tips and tricks to get creative with things around the house. Activities, live events, and video premiers will be posted on Crayola’s Facebook channels, and they’ll be adding new activities to their websites in the future.
Da Vinci Science Center: Being a science center, health falls into the Da Vinci Center’s wheelhouse, so the team at the DVSC has put together a resource for parents to talk to their kids about COVID-19. They’ll also soon be releasing a “Science At Home” package full of activities for families to do at home. To be in the know as soon as Science At Home drops, you can sign up for the center’s email updates here.
Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites: Bethlehem’s rich history will be able to be accessed at home as the museum group has content galore available online during the shutdown. Notably, there are options for kids and adults alike, as the Free Sundays At Home E-Blast has plenty of videos and activities for the kids while the adults can sift through the Bethlehem Back When photo collections that dive into the city’s past. Plus, each weekday at noon, the museum is publishing a lunchtime video series with Ilene Wood, who’s showing off her expansive and dazzling handbag collection. The museum’s website conveniently has links to all of its now-online content right on its homepage.
Hunterdon Art Museum: The pandemic has caused the Hunterdon Art Museum to debut virtual exhibitions, which currently includes everything one can see in the museum. The five exhibits, which are all accessible online from the museum’s website, are: Explorations in Felt, Yael Eisner: Member Highlight, Young Artists Showcase, Art + Design and Young Artists Showcase: North Hunterdon High School.
National Museum of Industry History: Got pandemics on the brain? The NMIH is offering an online lecture about how the 1918 influenza pandemic affected Bethlehem Steel. But that’s not all — from other lectures on things like a look inside Martin Tower to a daily storytime to keep the kids occupied with industry-themed books, the museum is taking much of its programming online. It’s also offering a virtual, 360-degree tour of the actual museum via Google Maps. More information on all of its coronavirus programming can be found here.
Sigal Museum: Like most museums, the Sigal Museum in downtown Easton has put together a “Museum At Home” page on its website filled with activities for kids, virtual gallery tours and a “This I Remember” series, a 36-part series made up of reminiscences from the late 19th and early 20th centuries which was published in the Easton Express in 1969. The museum’s highlight, however, is The COVID Chronicles, a journaling project that encourages community members to write about their experiences in this strange time, and when it’s safe to do so, send entries to the museum to be preserved in its archives for future generations.
