On your right is Monsoon Gallery… and yeah, it’s big-actually the largest independently owned fine art gallery in the Lehigh Valley. Step close and peek in: the light hits canvases and sculpture like it’s trying to start a conversation. What makes this place hum is the range-local makers sharing wall space with artists from across the country and across oceans.
You might spot work by Salma Arastu, an Indian mixed-media artist whose pieces have traveled the world… or Alexandru Darida, who once painted officially for Romania’s Nicolae Ceauşescu. There’s Howard Finster’s folksy, gospel-charged imagery, and Stanley Mouse-legendary for those psychedelic Grateful Dead album covers. That’s a lineup.
The person curating this controlled chaos is owner-director Ranjeet Solanki Pawar, who’s also served Bethlehem’s arts community-his family story stretches back to India, even brushing politics when a great-grandfather became prime minister in 1979.
When you’re set, Philip J. Fahy Memorial Bridge is a 6-minute walk heading west.
