Friday, March 1 through Sunday, November 3, 2019
Sunday, April 28, 1:00 - 5:00 pm, during the Sacred Arts Festival
Tuesday-Friday with 2:30 pm tour or by appointment
Weekends 1:00 - 4:30 pm, self-guided by donation
Admission included with guided tours and events
Closed Saturday, May 11, due to the Les Canards Chantants concert; and Thursday, July 4, due to Independence Day.
Explores themes of sacred and celestial imagery in the traditional arts of the Pennsylvania Dutch, with special emphasis on the decorated barns of Southeastern Pennsylvania. This exhibition, which features actual examples of barn stars, decorated objects, and related images, is guest curated by Patrick Donmoyer, director of the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University. Donmoyer is the author of Hex Signs: Myth and Meaning in Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Stars (2013). The Heritage Center and Glencairn Museum will collaborate on a full exhibition catalog for the Glencairn exhibition. This is the second collaborative exhibition between Glencairn and the Heritage Center at Kutztown University. The first exhibition, in 2017, was titled, Powwowing in Pennsylvania: Healing Rituals of the Dutch Country. Donmoyer will be leading a Hex Signs Folk Art Tour of Berks County in conjunction with the Glencairn exhibition; the bus will leave from and return to Glencairn on March 23, 2019.
The Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University is a folklife museum and research center on the Kutztown Campus. Patrick Donmoyer is a fluent speaker of Pennsylvania Dutch and advocate for regional folk culture. His folklife research blends language, traditions, and vernacular architecture. Patrick is the President of the Historic Barn and Farm Foundation of Pennsylvania and the author of numerous articles and books. His most recent work is on the ritual healing traditions of the Pennsylvania Dutch: Powwowing in Pennsylvania: Braucherei & the Ritual of Everyday Life (2017).
The exhibition catalog, Hex Signs: Sacred and Celestial Symbolism in Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Stars, is available online as a special issue of Glencairn Museum News, where it is also available as a downloadable pdf file. In the coming weeks a printed copy of the catalog will be available for purchase at Glencairn for $10.