Jeannette's You Are Here gallery gets cosmetic updates

Visitors to You Are Here in Jeannette will notice cosmetic updates to a hallway used for up-and-coming artist exhibits and the gallery’s popular Oh, Scrap! art materials thrift shop.

Volunteers updated the flooring and replaced old carpeting in those two spots during the gallery’s annual January closure and walls have a fresh coat of paint. It reopened Feb. 2 with ACRE Exhibition.

“We saved up and this used to be really ugly blue carpet,” said Mary Briggs, who created You Are Here with Jen Costello.

You Are Here has been a thriving part of Jeannette’s downtown for more than five years. The spot regularly hosts exhibitions and classes and is behind pushing art out in the community in varied forms, including a new mural next to its Clay Avenue building.

Shelves and materials were moved back into the Oh, Scrap! room late last month after the updates were complete.

Briggs and Costello said the thrift store is popular and offers a wide variety of donated materials to assist with creative ventures, such as jewelry making and scrap booking supplies. Costello said canvases and paints typically go fast when they’re in stock.

“Those are the things that we can’t keep in the shop,” she said.

But there’s plenty of yarn.

“Yarn is very popular, crocheting is having a moment,” Briggs said.

You Are Here has a busy 2024 schedule on deck.

First up is the current exhibit, which runs through Feb. 17 and features artwork from members of the Alliance for Creative Rural Economies of Johnstown, Greensburg, Wheeling and New Kensington.

Women in Art, a biennial juried exhibition, will begin March 2. Artwork in the exhibition will focus on issues and preconceptions affecting female lives and bodies. All of the participants will be female or female-identifying. Other exhibits are scheduled throughout the year.

Workshops open to the public will include lessons on crocheting, photography, drawing, painting and other skills. You Are Here also has MadLab events in which participants are tasked with making art with a variety of medium. This year, participants will be making birdhouses.

For details on exhibits, classes and events, visit yah406clay.org.