Bottlebrush Gallery still a space for arts
HARMONY — The Bottlebrush Gallery & Center for the Arts has art of many mediums displayed within its 5,000 square feet, with paintings hung on the walls, masks covering mannequin faces and a lamp with a fish for a base illuminating a corner of the first floor.
It’s almost like the building itself is an art piece, according to one of its owners, MJ McCurdy, who said she gets tons of requests from artists from Western Pennsylvania and beyond to display their pieces in the gallery. Although not every artist can be a mainstay in the shop, McCurdy said they may instead submit art to shows the gallery hosts — providing an outlet for people of all skill levels to display.
“We have everything you can imagine here, and 85 artists — you can't beat it,” McCurdy said. “We get between 30 and 40 pieces of art for every show.”
McCurdy and her husband, Dennis McCurdy, purchased the Bottlebrush Gallery about 13 years ago, but the gallery has been a mainstay at the corner of Main and Mercer streets in Harmony since its establishment in 2008.
Dennis McCurdy said he had already been booking musicians — mostly singer-songwriters and folk players — at Bottlebrush for years before buying the building. The news of its owners planning to close it in 2011 would mean those gigs would have to be relocated, so instead of taking on that challenge, he approached his wife with a different one.
“They said they were going to close down, I said don't do anything until I talk to my wife,” he said. “I went home and said, ‘How would you like to own an art gallery.’ … The next morning she woke up and said OK.”
MJ McCurdy said on Tuesday morning, April 1, that the Bottlebrush is open Wednesday through Sunday for people to browse items for sale, and the record store upstairs, Last Dog Records, also attracts people from across the state.
McCurdy said the art in the gallery is provided by artists who approach her to sell, and she typically makes decisions on whether to include them or not based on their availability and items in stock.
Most of the artists who have items in the Bottlebrush are from a 50-mile radius of Harmony, according to McCurdy.
“Within 50 miles, if they originally lived within 50 miles, and we have guest artists come in periodically,” she said. “I have one or two requests per week, and it makes me wish we had a little bigger than 5,000 square feet.”
The gallery also hosts art shows, which happen periodically, and MJ McCurdy also leads private lessons for painting and other types of visual art. She also started a women’s art group that meets once a month to make a certain type of art, and that group has become popular in the few years she has been leading it.
“I made an event of women getting together and making art one day a month,” she said. “It’s make the time, and that is very popular. It has grown popular, and it meets the third Thursday of every month at 6:30.”
On the upper floor of the gallery is Last Dog Records, a record store that Dennis McCurdy spearheaded because of his appreciation for vinyl records and the physical music format. Over the years, the shop has built its supply, and it regularly attracts people with like minds.
“It started with two boxes of records,” he said. “We’ve only been at this scale for about six years.”
MJ McCurdy commented that some people come for the record store, and then learn more about the gallery after browsing for a bit. Each floor of the gallery offers something that art appreciators will enjoy, she said.
“We sell records every day. It’s not just once in a while,” she said. “They look at stuff downstairs, but when they’re up here they’re here for at least half an hour.”
Dennis McCurdy also said people who visit the record store are often there searching the shelves for a long time.
“They’ll spend a lot of time here,” he said.
In addition to its regular hours of operation, the Bottlebrush Gallery is open during events that take place in Harmony, like its Christmas markets and its New Year’s Eve Sylvester events.
MJ McCurdy said these events also help attract people to the business, and she considers the Bottlebrush Gallery a place for community.
“This town is a gem, it really is. So many interesting people,” she said of Harmony. “That whole community-building thing is my thing, I really enjoy it.”
The week of March 31, the McCurdys also were preparing to host a gallery at Shubrew in Zelienople, which also is a frequent collaborator with Bottlebrush Gallery.
While the gallery has a lot of art from established artists, MJ McCurdy said the Bottlebrush is meant to provide an outlet for artists of any level of experience. The place can take a person from being a beginner artist with no experience to selling their own pieces all in one 5,000 square-foot building.
“They just need a chance sometimes,” she said of new and aspiring artists.
For more information on the Bottlebrush Gallery, visit its website at bottlebrusharts.com.
