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Local woman has art exhibit at museum

By Jean Lohr For The 4 min read

BROWNSVILLE – Patrick Daugherty always wanted to work in a museum. Now he does. When Madelyn Kacmar Cindric was growing up, she always had a paintbrush in her hand. Now she is a local artist, art educator and entrepreneur.

Daugherty is curator of the Frank L. Melega Art Museum, located at 69 Market St. in Brownsville, and Cindric was recently named Artist of the Pike 2005, to coincide with the National Road Pike Festival. Her paintings, mostly but not all watercolors, are on display at the Melega Art Museum in the Flatiron Building until Aug. 7.

“When I was growing up, I always knew I wanted to have a museum,” said Daugherty, who is an instructor at Penn State Fayette/The Eberly Campus and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. “I was about 9 or 10 years old when I first thought about it.”

Daugherty believes that including art and local artists in the revitalization of Brownsville is important.

For Daugherty, personally, this means he is able to continue working on the permanent display of the works of Frank L. Melega, for whom the museum is named.

“I really enjoy working with the artist’s (Melega’s) son. He is constantly finding new and exciting works his father painted,” Daugherty said. “But this also allows me to work with different artists through our changing exhibits.”

The naming of Cindric as the Artist of the Pike is especially gratifying for Daugherty.

“Traditionally the work of the Artist of the Pike reflects the area – something that relates to the National Road,” he said. “It could be photographs, paintings, sculpture or other art forms.”

Daugherty said Cindric “put a tremendous effort in her exhibition so it would reflect the area. Some of the buildings in her work no longer exist. We are glad she was able to document these for the exhibit.”

Cindric, who grew up in Uniontown and graduated in the last class of South Union High School, said her best childhood memories include “connecting with my cousin, Rose, from Florida (who would visit) every summer. We were probably 5 or 6 when we started painting together.”

Rose Homer Diem is a noted muralist who now lives in West Palm Beach, Fla. Cindric did not even consider being an artist until after trying her hand as an English major in college.

“I found I didn’t relish composition,” she said.

She then changed her focus to biology.

“I can’t do this,” she said in reference to animal dissection.

She finally graduated from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in home economics and a minor in art.

She earned her master’s in education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She was offered a teaching position at Albert Gallatin Senior High School covering both art and home economics.

“I worked 15 years teaching art all morning and home ec in the afternoon, or vice versa,” she said. “I was exasperated, pushed to the limit. Then I finally made the decision and started teaching art full time. That was a good decision.

“I like to accentuate the positive, keep the kids active and involved,” she added. “But the longer I teach, I find, the more things I learn from the kids. The teacher is the one being taught. The kids keep me youthful, they keep my outlook young and fresh. Each class offers me something different.”

She and her husband Jay were high school sweethearts.

“A teacher tried to fix us up during our senior year,” Cindric said. “He sat next to me and would always borrow my P.O.D. (Problems of Democracy) notes.”

They went to the prom together. After graduation, she went to Mansfield. He went to Duff’s Business School in Pittsburgh. They each dated other people.

“After college, we found our way back to each other,” she said.

Jay is a lumber merchant who travels the East Coast buying and

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