Joan Klatchko, Girl on Tricycle, July 1999

January 25-April 13, 2003
First Union Gallery

In 1953, builder William Levitt's innovative and controversial "assembly-line" method of home construction turned the dream of home ownership into a reality for thousands of people and changed the American landscape forever. This visual celebration of the 50th anniversary of the famous suburb of Levittown included an exhibition of contemporary Levittown photographs by noted photojournalist Joan Klatchko and featured an original Levittown kitchen and other related objects from the State Museum of Pennsylvania.

"Levittown is, in many ways, a microcosm of America, the dreams of the people in this famous prototype suburb are the dreams of all America."
-- photographer Joan Klatcho

Growing up in the most famous suburb in the world, Joan Klatchko dreamed of escaping the "green lawns, Tupperware parties and ticky-tacky houses" -- to someplace exotic and lively, a place "where things happened." As a documentary film producer and noted photojournalist, Klatchko spent more than 20 years living and working abroad, from London to Hong Kong, from Burma to Bangladesh, where her subjects included Indian swordfighters, Australian crocodile hunters and Zulu warriors. In the late 1990s Klatchko returned to the U.S., and, with Levittown¹s 50th anniversary fast approaching, she decided to turn the lens on her famous hometown.

In Klatchko's own words: "By using the suburban setting as the theme -- and not the backdrop -- I was able to explore the lives of ordinary Americans including family, friends and neighbors. These are not people on the margins of society, but rather, those who inhabit that vast, middle ground we call suburbia -- and my pictures reveal that moment of drama inherent within the most ordinary situations. And by focusing on one community -- my hometown -- this project had become universal. Levittown is, in many ways, a microcosm of America, the dreams of the people in this famous prototype suburb are the dreams of all America."

For more on Joan Klatchcko and Levittown, visit: www.joanklatchko.com

	Changing and Permanent Exhibits

	In Doylestown: Lilli Gettinger: Memory Transformed Color: Ten African-American Artists Elliott Erwitt: Dog Dogs In New Hope: Art and the River