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El Museo has been open in Allentown since 1981, serving its mission of exhibiting contemporary works by artists of color. Its initial focus on works by Latino artists is complemented by representations of African, African-American, Asian, American Indian and Caribbean culture, in visual art as well as other media. El Museo presents six to eight exhibitions per year and is an excellent place to appreciate groundbreaking works created by emerging artists from the local area who reflect cultures that are traditionally underrepresented in the art world.
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Elisabeth Samuels curates this neighborhood art gallery on Allen Street that opened in 2008 and is at the former East End Salon. Supporting emerging artists from Buffalo and the surrounding region working in such diverse media as drawing painting, sculpture, photography, textile art and printmaking, Indigo Art displays changing exhibitions of the work of Western New York's vibrant arts community.
A comprehensive list of all the architecturally and historically significant private homes in Allentown and the Delaware District would make this article far too lengthy to be useful; however, the two-story, front-gabled Italianate cottage at 29 Irving Place in Allentown is especially significant for a number of reasons. First and foremost, this is the house where F. Scott Fitzgerald, famous as the writer of The Great Gatsby and other magnificent works of Jazz Age literature, lived for five years during his childhood. Fitzgerald moved with his family to Irving Place at the age of seven, in 1903, after having lived briefly in the Hotel Lenox on North Street and then in Syracuse for a few years. His childhood friends said later that even at this young age, his intellectual curiosity and interest in literature as a student at Nardin Academy were apparent. Though his family was forced to move away after his father lost his job, he remembered his childhood in Buffalo fondly; even today, it does not take much imagination to envision Irving Place as a setting for some of the scenes in his novels. The later history of the house is a testament to Allentown's decline and rebirth after the stock market crash of 1929; by 1970, when its current owners purchased the place and restored it to its former glory, it had degraded into a seedy rooming house rented to scruffy transients. The F. Scott Fitzgerald House is also notable for having one of the few examples remaining in Buffalo of an intact Italianate portico — a style that is ubiquitous in Allentown.
The only property in Western New York operated by the National Park Service, the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site is in Allentown, in a lovely 1838 Greek Revival mansion that was the residence of Ansley Wilcox, a Buffalo lawyer and politico. In September 1901, several days after President William McKinley died in Buffalo of gunshot wounds he sustained while greeting attendees of the Pan-American Exposition, Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt stayed at the home of Wilcox, an acquaintance of his, and the Oath of Office was administered to him there. Planned demolition of the house in the early 1960s was averted at the last minute, and today the Wilcox Mansion has been thoroughly restored inside and out, and features historical displays related to Roosevelt, McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition as well as occasional temporary exhibits. The grounds of the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site are planted with herb and flower gardens in season.
An art appraiser and philanthropist who was responsible for, among other accomplishments, directing the selection and inclusion of public art displays in the NFTA Metro Rail system, Nina Freudenheim has operated her eponymous art gallery on the first floor of the Hotel Lenox since 1975. Both the permanent collection of the gallery and the traveling exhibitions that are held reflect the curator's enduring commitment to showing the finest contemporary art, craft and photography by both well-established and emerging artists. The Nina Freudenheim Gallery has placed works in a number of prestigious institutions including the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. as well as Buffalo's own Albright-Knox Art Gallery. In addition, fine art consulting and appraisal services are also offered.
Sisti Park is a small public sculpture garden at the corner of Franklin and North Streets established in 1981 in homage to sculptor Tony Sisti (1901-1983), who lived and operated his studio in Allentown beginning in the 1930s, and taught at the prestigious Art Institute of Buffalo. The park contains two untitled metal sculptures by local artist Duayne Hatchett, as well as attractive plantings and benches to stop and relax on.
Located in the Elmwood Avenue offices of Autism Services, Inc. — a disability services organization that's famous for using art therapy as a cornerstone of its treatment plans — Atrium 124 Gallery shows changing exhibitions of work by local artists with autism, Asperger's syndrome, and related disabilities.