Ambridge gets artsy at the historic Silk House
Step into the Silk House, and behold the big chandelier made from recycled glass and metal.
Cast in a warm, seasonal shade of red, that functional piece of artwork grabs your attention as intended.
“(I) like to make an entrance; to make big, big pieces that stand out,” said the object’s artist, Belgium-born Kevin De Landtsheer who recently moved to Ambridge.
De Landtsheer’s artwork, titled “Diamonds,” symbolizes the potential for re-purposing at the Silk House, a 19th century Ambridge building that’s hosting the Holiday Art Pop-Up Mart each Saturday and Sunday through Dec. 18.
The free show features 14 local artists offering paintings, drawings, sculptures, jewelry, photography and mixed media items for sale.
Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays inside the red frame building on 14th Street, a few blocks from Old Economy Village.
The Harmonists who founded Old Economy built the house in the 1820s, using it as their silk manufacturing site. Over the past decade, the restored structure has accommodated a coffee shop and an antique shop, but recently was vacated.
The Ambridge Historic District Economic Development Council thinks there’s plenty of potential for the building, and so to attract the eye of potential new tenants hatched the idea for the Holiday Art Pop-Up Mart, displaying local artworks on two floors.
“It’s a wonderful location for artists,” Ambridge Historic District EDC co-chair Roberta Sciulli said, adding that an artists’ co-op could be one possible re-use for the building.
Pet portraits, nature photos, abstracts and a tree made from re-purposed wine and spirits bottles are among the art mart’s pieces. Featured artists include Sandy Endler, Tikvah Feinstein, Marge Gardner, June Kielty, Nadya Lapets, Erin Ninehauser, Andrea Paradiso, Vickie Schilling, Alicia Stankay, Brian Strong, Colleen Tittiger, Debra Tobin and Jim Tobin, along with four Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School students, Alyssa Hoy, Lauren Kovolenko, Dawson Rauch and Mason Zabrucky.
The mart also provides a chance for De Landtsheer to introduce his art in his adopted new home.
“I moved to The States so I could show my work — It’s something I’ve been doing for a long time, 20 years in my own country,” De Landtsheer said.
After his wife’s employer, FedEx, agreed to reassign her to the company’s Pittsburgh-area operations, headquartered in Moon Township, the couple found a home in Ambridge, where De Landtsheer soon discovered there was plenty of metal and glass ready for him to re-purpose into chandeliers.
He said, “I’ve always believed the United States would be a great place for me to show my art, and I think that it fit right in here.”