Out & About: Weekend kicks off with Westmoreland Museum’s Art After Hours

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art stayed open late on Friday for Art After Hours, a happy hour-style event that offered a little something for a variety of tastes and interests.

Pittsburgh fiber artist Tina Williams Brewer was on hand to talk with guests about her artistic process and the story quilts featured in her exhibition, “Cultivation: Journey of the Work,” a career retrospective running through April 24.

Art lovers with a bent for sleuthing could take part in an art scavenger hunt, finding a series of tiny vignettes contained in artworks displayed throughout the Greensburg museum.

Music lovers could groove to the easy listening song repertoire of Greensburg musical duo, Laurie Fox and Eric Schaus.

 

For those needing a bite to eat, a cool drink and a chance to unwind at the end of the work week, there was socializing in the community room.

PJ Colligan and Jessica Voloch, both of Greensburg, were scoping out the facilities for another reason — they’re planning their Halloween-themed October wedding reception there.

The site has special significance for the couple. They knew each other while students at Hempfield Area High School. They reconnected years later through mutual friends, with group date nights, including the Art on Tap happy hours that were the predecessor of Art After Hours.

Pat Maloney and Linda Hammers, also of Greensburg, were among those working on the scavenger hunt. The exercise tested their powers of observation, Maloney said, but also “makes you really look at the art and appreciate it.”

If the hunters couldn’t locate any of the items, he added, museum staffers and other participants were willing to share hints.

Those who found all of the featured artworks were entered into a drawing for the book, “Picturing America: Signature Works From the Westmoreland Museum of American Art,” by the museum’s chief curator, Barbara L. Jones.

 

Seen after hours: Keith and Shirleah Kelly, Marcia Dolan, Wendy Hager, Chuck Bowman, Barbara Ferrier, Greg Murman, Jackie Tumulty, Linda Damico, Brandi Slider, Julie Greathouse, Andrew Barnette, Brynn Denny and Brittany Sines, George and Cindy McFarland, Jim and Jackie Willkomm, Rowan and Mary Reid, Matt and Demetra Czegan, Pat Parsons and museum staffers Rhonda Madden and Doug Evans.