Pa., N.J. museums offer alternative entertainment

For students whose budgets don't include a Caribbean cruise for spring break, enough money for tolls will still buy a little culture.

From beer tasting to star gazing, a wide range of opportunities are available just outside the area with a mini road trip to any of the art museums in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg or New Jersey.

As part of its Wednesday night programming, the Philadelphia Museum of Art will have an Irish theme March 11, featuring The Campbell School of Irish Dance and a beer tasting, courtesy of Guinness Import Co.

The museum will also be exhibiting more than 100 prints by leading French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists from its permanent collection in "Paris in the 1890s: Painters' Prints in the Age of Bonnard, Vuillard, and Toulouse-Lautrec."

Jim Stephenson, director of the School of Visual Arts, said the impressionists' exhibit, which will run through April 5, may interest to college students.

In the Pittsburgh area, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh will be exhibiting significant ceramic art works from local collections of corporations and private individuals.

The museum is part of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, which includes The Andy Warhol Museum, a self-proclaimed "primary resource for anyone who wishes to gain insights into contemporary art and popular culture."

Also a part of this network is the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, which will present "Lapidary Art," an exhibition of objects made with various gems, and "Pole to Pole: The Arctic and Antarctic," featuring 90 photographs by local Pittsburgh photographer Donald Robinson.

Don Underdonk of the museum's public relations department also recommends crawling through their life-size replica of a Pennsylvania limestone cave, which he says is "a little safer than crawling through a real cave."

In New Jersey, the Montclair Art Museum will host a gallery talk by Native American curator Twig Johnson called "Collecting Culture: Grace Nicholson," on March 15.

Lisa Batitto, public relations coordinator for the museum, said students who have extra travel time could take one of the many art courses the museum offers.

"We have a whole range of classes for every interest and ability," she said.