CENTER VALLEY, Pa. — Penn State Lehigh Valley’s historic art collection is the newest addition to the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture's digital archives, a platform designed to preserve and provide access to collections from visual centers across Penn State.

The archives, titled “Digital Exhibitions At Penn State: A Selection,” feature work from units including the Palmer Museum of Art, Center for Virtual/Material Studies, the Steidle Collection of American Industrial Art, and most recently, the Penn State Lehigh Valley Art Collection, among others.

“Our collection is impressive,” said Ann Lalik, gallery director for the Ronald K. De Long Gallery and arts coordinator at Penn State Lehigh Valley. “The art on display in the hallways, in faculty and staff offices, and in the gallery has gained us the reputation as the ‘art campus’ among the Commonwealth Campuses.”

When Lalik was hired in 2009, one of her earliest responsibilities was to organize and catalog the art on campus.

“When I joined the team, Lehigh Valley had close to 100 works of art and now we’ve acquired over 200," Lalik said.

In 2013, Lalik created a database to house information about each artwork, including the donor or purchase information and its location on campus. With a special interest in pieces that depict diversity, Lehigh Valley’s most recent art additions include a Bart Cooper print from a series celebrating Black women and three “ledger paintings” completed by Native American artists.

As Lehigh Valley’s campus collection grew, so did Lalik’s interest in sharing the pieces with an audience beyond the campus walls.

“I started researching options,” she said.

In 2025, Jen Jarson, head librarian at the Lehigh Valley campus library, connected Lalik with Catherine Adams, research assistant, and Carolyn Lucarelli, research project manager, from the Art History Department in the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture.

“They had exactly what I was looking for,” said Lalik. “'Digital Exhibitions: A Selection' is a webpage that houses art collections from units across the University. After a few meetings with Catherine Adams to determine our needs, she created a template for our Lehigh Valley campus collection. Over the last year, I organized the list of artwork and prepared to make it public.”

Lalik notes a large portion of the project was photographing the art that would be featured online — a task she credits to Theresa Bongiorno, videographer/editor for the Lehigh Valley Multimedia Innovation Center, for completing.

“Theresa spent many hours locating the art on campus and photographing it for the project,” Lalik said. “Once the list and photographs were complete, I entered them and created our Penn State Lehigh Valley digital exhibition.”

Lalik notes the role the archives will play in providing accessible, niche information to users conducting research.

“If someone is researching the work of an artist in our collection, they will be able to see it on our digital exhibit, and there is a good chance they will find a piece of art that they won’t be able to find anywhere else,” she said.

The archives currently feature more than 140 pieces of art from the Lehigh Valley campus collection, providing access to a range of art from across the University to users online.

“This digital, public platform helps our campus have the opportunity for a global presence,” Lalik said.

The exhibit "From the Archives" is on display in the Ronald K. De Long Gallery for the summer and features some of the art that is in the Lehigh Valley Art Collection. The entire art collection can be viewed in the College of Arts and Architecture's digital archives. For more information on the arts at Penn State Lehigh Valley, visit lehighvalley.psu.edu/gallery.