Feature: Living art at the Brew House

photos by Mark Rawlings design by Jay Huerbin

The first floor smells like… photos by Mark Rawlings design by Jay Huerbin

The first floor smells like sawdust and the fourth like fresh laundry. On the second floor, you might see the curly haired daughter of Brew House sculptor Colleen Black chasing a pit bull into the storage room dubbed “the O-Zone,” (O for Opportunity).

A freight elevator will take you to a roof deck, a space sporting several grills and lawn chairs for summer use. It’s one of the few common areas for residents at the Brew House, besides the gallery and theater that doubles as a venue for local bands and, sometimes, as a space for weddings.

The six floors are home to 10 artists who pay for low-rent, live-in studio space, while 13 others live elsewhere and use the space solely for work. Those with the latter arrangement include eight individuals in the Brew House’s Distillery Program for transitional artists.

Artists’ membership in the Brew House Association, whether they reside or work in the building, implies that in addition to experimenting with their own projects, they’ll also perform at least 12 hours of community service per month for the nonprofit organization and interact closely with fellow artists on committees and in the community.

Painter Dave Stanger works in his studio space but lives on Mount Washington.

“The Brew House asks that you give your time and energy and know-how and equity to make things better for everybody,” Stanger said.”And that isn’t a deterrent for me at all.”

Other artists live in the building with their cats, children or significant others. Some construct lofts to double their workspaces, which they pay for with day jobs ranging from teaching to commercial work.

Cold cement floors and tall ceilings lend the building an industrial feel, and doors open up to the residents’ masterpiece apartments. Black’s apartment resembles a live-in decoupage, with sculptures and paintings everywhere and a hammock hanging in the middle of it all.

Then, down the hall, Nick Hohman’s tidy space is complete with a piano and guitar cases. It’s fitting considering that his recent art explorations include starting a family band.

Artists have the freedom to construct their spaces from the ground up.

A few remains of Duquesne Brewery are found in the first-floor storage area. Stainless steel tanks claiming “keg” capacity remind visitors and residents that the Brew House and the surrounding three or four blocks on South Side’s 21st Street formerly housed Pittsburgh’s own Duke beer.

The Brew House has operated to serve the arts community in Pittsburgh and provide work and living spaces since 1991, but as the name suggests, the building began with another mission: beer-making.

When the brewery went out of business in the early ’70s, Equity Real Estate began renting out some of the spaces in the building, located on the corner of Mary and 21st streets, to a few tenants who trickled in.

By 1981, Joe Vaughan and about half a dozen other artists had flocked to the brewery for art essentials apart from cheap rent: space and light.

While the tenants kept up with their rent, the building got the attention of several developers who wanted to use the space for other purposes.

For five years, a legal battle ensued between the artists and the developers. Meanwhile, the artist-tenants used the time productively. While Vaughan and the others had initially been fighting for living space, the building became more than low-rent housing to them.

“We can’t just be a bunch of artists out for cheap space. We must pursue a bigger vision,” Vaughan said. The artists started talking to groups in the South Side about their mission and how they planned to use the building: to educate, to exhibit and to perform.

“It gave us time to get our act together. We built relationships,” Vaughan said. They proposed their ideas to the community and gained support from Heinz Endowment Fund, South Side Local Development Company and South Side Planning Forum.

When the artists had finally obtained the space, Vaughan viewed the Brew House like a monastery from the Dark Ages: a place of refuge and education with light filtering through tall windows.

He finally moved out in December at age 69 to be closer to his friends in Butler County, where he teaches architecture at the community college.

Vaughan has witnessed changes in the Brew House, including the addition of executive director Andi Sharp, and believes that positive happenings will continue for the Brew House.

“It’s part of our role to show our work and the process,” president Tim Kaulen, a former resident of five years, said.

Brew House members share their talents and exhibit their work to the community in a number of ways.

On the top floor, The Academy of the South Side offers painting and drawing classes for all skill levels. Students take part in single classes or more concentrated studies as they create their work from live models. The Academy hosts workshops and residencies of nationally acclaimed artists open to the community for affordable prices.

The Brew House’s Distillery program opened up a new exhibition March 28 by Elise Goldstein, 23, called “Sublimation.” It’s an obscure exploration with media ranging from discarded clothing to animal bodies to underwater sounds.

The eight transitional artists work in installation, mixed media, painting and relational art, and the gallery is open to the public Wednesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons.

Members also hold Barely Brunch every fourth Saturday of the month, open to anyone looking to hone drawing skills while socializing over refreshments. They focus on figure drawing from live models, some nude.

All of these classes and exhibitions are taught and organized by Brew House members. While a lack of air conditioning slows work down in the summer, residents keep busy all year with weekly events and collaborations.

Tim Kaulen said that finding the right artists is hard – artists who want to contribute their own time and energy to others, who don’t want to be holed up working independently.

The Brew House is a melting pot of talents and personalities: artists from different generations working with a plethora of mediums. Membership is open and, most importantly, not designed for loners. The Brew House has become more selective over the years and continues to select applicants who seem dedicated to the house’s mission and generous with their time and energy.

Pulling all-nighters for puppet shows or doing work that spills into the streets is not uncommon for the residents on the corner of 21st and Mary streets.

“We’re looking for artists who take risks,” Kaulen said.

Kaulen, a risk-taker long before his residency, explains life before the Brew House: “I was doing artwork in abandoned buildings and in vacant lots