Reading Public Museum

Small but delightful. We spent a few hours here on a family vacation when we saw an advertisement for the Curious George exhibit. The facility was spotless. The staff very friendly. The price of admission was perfect for the size. We had a lot of fun and hope to visit again.

Reading doesn’t have many claims to fame. The Pagoda. The Outlets. A Railroad? None of these are relevant in 2014. The Reading Public Museum has tried to become a staple attraction, but has failed to properly execute every time.
The Museum, as locals simply refer to it as, is located in West Reading/​Wyomissing, alongside a small creek. It’s got a beautiful view of the ever-​growing Reading Hospital, and some residences. Outside you will find some sculptures, benches, and squirrels. I wish I could go into greater detail, but that’s about it.
The Museum itself offers a pretty unique gift shop, and a decent size of collection of artifacts and art through various time periods. The problem with this museum is that it fails to bring in special collections that would excite the locals. If you can’t snag the stars, you’re not going to grow your fanbase. The locals get tired of seeing the same stuff that they saw a decade ago, and for that reason, that stale taste of imagry, it’s not more popular. You will find that this location is more often used for photo shoots, joggers, and wedding receptions then what it should be used for; celebrating art and experiencing creativity.

great place!!! and the outside is just as great as the inside!

I have visiting this museum since childhood and it gets better every time. The permanent collection used to be housed in such a
Boring fashion. In the last 5 years they have really stepped up their presentation of these fabulous artifacts especially the PA German room and the «mummy». The moving of the animatronic founder to the ground floor was a wise move and he makes more sense there in order to free up space for traveling exhibits. The exhibits they have gotten in recently included, Marilyn Monroe, Dora & Diego, war posters and Presidential photographs. This museum is unique in that it includes a planetarium. Consider a membership if you are local as they have reciprocal visits with other science and art museums. Their café is really a bit of a joke especially compared to the Allentown museum’s café. Don’t forget to plan time to walk the acres of grounds along the creek!

Pretty cool little museum. Upstairs is art, downstairs is anthropological stuff.
Some highlights include a mummy, a Bertoia Sonambient sculpture that you can actually hear, and a Pennsylvania German gallery for the PA Dutch enthused visitors.
Unfortunately, the museum actually charges an admission and not a recommended donation. I know money is needed to keep the museum going but it seems like a crime to deny people the ability to see these things based on a few dollars.

My wife and I went to the Reading Public Museum today. One of the visiting shows is «Remembering the Battle of Gettysburg: The Civil War Art of Mort Künstler».
He works in oils and the paintings have an almost 3-​dimensional quality. The paintings are extremely brilliant in his color palette, a departure from other artists who depict the same time period. The paintings are quite realistic; natural and artificial lamps, uniforms and other clothing, etc. According to the documentation, Künstler is meticulous in his research for each painting. Several of the paintings are displayed with the preparation studies in charcoal, which is also interesting.

If you keep it in perspective, you will realize that this is a great place to bring your kids to, especially during the week. Service is only so, so. This is especially true in the evening and at the planetarium, where at least one guy (a bit overweight, glasses, with a beard) can be not helpful and sometimes moody.
Other than that, great.

This museum is in serious need of some updating and cleaning! If layers of dirt and dust are part of history, then they get a thumbs up. Broken exhibits, lots of open floor space and a need to update are in serious order.
For what it costs to get in, you clearly do not get your moneys worth. Did not vist the Planitarium.

This place for us can only be given a provisional review. Why provisional?
Because it’s hard to review a place when you can’t experience most of what they offer.
The RPM has three parts:
The Planetarium, The Arboretum, The Main Building Exhibits
The Planetarium is currently closed for the entire month of August for repairs and upgrades. Normally prices would be $ 7.00 per person non-​member and $ 5.00 for members on top of the regular admission price.
We couldn’t see the Arboretum because it was pouring the day we were there.
What little we did see looked to be small but possibly interesting in better weather.
The main building exhibits are a real mixed bag.
On one floor they currently offer various galleries of artifacts from different cultures around the world. Native Americans, a real Egyptian mummy, and various suits of armor are just a few of the numerous examples.
On the next floor they offer a few rooms of paintings. Some of which have been in the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art and some look like they were painted by a 5^th grader.
On the other half of the floor they offer part of display called Toothpick World where you can see numerous buildings from around the world made out of… toothpicks.
And then there is the grand finale of the Dinosaurs: T-​Rex Face-​to-​Face.
While this has been on several billboards around the area it really fails to deliver because there are only three dinosaurs.
Yes they move and yes they make a lot of noise but the whole display is very, very small and quite honestly underwhelming especially if you just paid $ 10 per adult and/​or $ 5 per child to see in essence one room of three dinos.
(Mercifully we’re members of another museum with reciprocal admission privileges so we paid $ 0.)
I guess at some point we’ll give the RPM another try when it’s nicer out and when the main exhibits change but in the meantime there really is no reason to go back.
This is not a one star place like how Phillip Y. reviewed it but going over two or stretching beyond a three is also equally unreal.

Well, I must say that the museum website looks really nice with everything advertised from natural science and history, art, planetarium, and arboretum. When you actually visit it, you have to put some things in perspective. Places that advertise everything rarely are good in all areas except if it’s renowned like NYC’s metropolitan museum of art (history, art, etc). Okay, I will start with the positives which are the natural history and science part of the museum is quite well done. You really get to see all sides from all around the globe from Asia, Japan, Egypt, African, Mexican, native American, Central and South American to name a few. No flash photography on this floor and dimmly lit so difficult to get nice photos. The other side is more updated with natural science for the kids.
Walk upstairs (no photography) to the special exhibit which was the Tiffany’s glass lamp exhibit and some paintings as well in the permanent collection. Unfortunately, this exhibit only had two small rooms with about 20 to 30 lamps to see. Not bad but it’s a small museum. There was a TV and a few people watched the video on Tiffany’s glass. The other rooms had American, European, and French art. The Asian art room was cleared out (bunch of stacked boxes with bare walls) probably for the next special exhibit. I think this place has alot of potential to be a great museum. It is in serious need of updating its exhibits and a renovation would make it less drab inside. Art pieces are okay but just needs better lighting in the building in general.
I had my Franklin membership with me so I got in free. But, this is too far from Philly to make the trek out here. Plus, I took a peek of the arboretum and it is nice but small. I have seen larger ones that have better landscape done to it like the National Arboretum outside of DC. According to the newsletter, it will be revamped soon so hopefully it will be nicer. I decided against going to the planetarium since it was getting late. Well, there is French Creek state park nearby as well as the Hopewell Furnace national historic site. At least, you can visit these places nearby if you find it too short like me. I finished the museum in less than 30 minutes. If you have kids, this might take you longer maybe an hour. A little longer if you decide to do the planetarium and the arboretum. Overall, not bad but you are better off to visit the museums in Philly like the Academy of Natural Science, Franklin Institute, Penn Museum, and Phil Museum of Art.

Note: This is only a review of the Planetarium.
My astronomy class decided to take a trip to the planetarium to watch some shows that would benefit our class.
The building itself looks very out-​dated. The interior isn’t too bad: there’s a huge dome area where you walk in at as well as the obvious dome area inside the theater.
Thankfully, there was a wedding over the weekend and there were couches in the rear part of the auditorium to sit on rather than the hard plastic chairs.
I felt the shows were geared toward both children and adults alike. Most concepts they discussed were on a slightly more advanced level than say PBS, but they were told with characters and a bit of a plot line to cater to their younger audience.
The second show we saw was actually not going to be released to the public until Jan 2010, so we actually were the first group to see it.
The place was alright, but if you want me to come and watch, you’d better make those couches a permanent fixure!

«Shrunken heads in my local museum? It’s more likely than you think.»
I give this four stars in terms of local venues, it’s nothing world renowned but if you’re in the Reading area and you’re looking for something to do or to support the area it’s a good place to check out. It’s a great facility.
I was here in the summer of 2006 for the PostSecret exhibition which was small but interesting and well displayed.
There are a few floors and they have art, some science exhibits as well as items of anthropological interest, the best of which… shrunken heads! It’s a little bit art museum, a little bit Franklin Institute, a little bit country, and a little bit rock and roll.
They also have a beautiful garden with paths and benches and a little creek running through it which is a great place to go and relax in the summertime.