THIS TRIP HAS SOLD OUT. We are maintaining a waiting list.
Saturday, March 23, 2019.
$50 per person (members*); $65 per person (non-members).
Advance ticket sales begin Wednesday, January 23.
Deadline for reservations is Thursday, March 21 at 5pm.
Continental breakfast and box lunch included.
Advance tickets go on sale beginning January 23. Register by calling 267.502.2990 or emailing info@glencairnmuseum.org.
*The members’ discount also applies to members of the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University. Participants who do not wish to begin the tour in Bryn Athyn may have lunch at the Heritage Center and board the bus at that time; the bus will return to the Heritage Center before departing for Bryn Athyn.
Join us for an exploration of the barn star region of Northern Berks County, an area with the highest concentration of decorated barns in Pennsylvania. With a special emphasis on the hills and dales of Albany Township and the surrounding communities, participants will discover a wide variety of traditional barn stars (also known as hex signs), and explore the folklore of this diverse and colorful artistic tradition. The tour will be led by Patrick J. Donmoyer, guest curator of Glencairn’s featured exhibition, Hex Signs: Sacred and Celestial Symbolism in Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Stars.
Joining us on the trip will be Eric Claypoole, the region’s foremost barn star painter. Eric will share his knowledge and expertise as a second-generation painter throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania, and especially in Kempton, Berks County. With just under 100 barns painted throughout his career, Eric’s first-hand accounts and down-to-earth stories will shed light on the tradition from a creative perspective.
The day will begin with a continental breakfast at Glencairn and an introduction to the exhibition. The bus will then take participants to the classic 19th-century farmstead on the grounds of the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University. (A box lunch will be provided at this site.) Finally, participants will board the bus again and tour the rural landscape of the region, featuring country churches, one-room school houses, and Pennsylvania Dutch farms punctuated with colorful folk art.
Eric Claypoole (left) and Patrick Donmoyer (right).
