Pittsburgh's Art House damaged after weekend fire
A fire damaged the Art House in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood on Sunday.
Artist Vanessa German wrote in an Instagram post Sunday that no one was injured.
“Everyone is OK,” she wrote. “The Art House caught on fire last night. There is a lot of damage, but everyone is OK.”
She did not describe the extent of the damage but said she would “share more when I know.”
The fire started on the second floor of the Hamilton Avenue home when a tenant left candles burning on the edge of a tub, which in turn ignited the shower curtain, according to Pittsburgh’s fire investigation unit.
While there was no fire damage, said Public Safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz, there was water damage to the first floor where the gallery is located.
German founded Love Front Porch and the Art House, community-based art initiatives, after she ran out of room in her basement and moved her art-making to her porch.
Children in the neighborhood, she told NPR in 2016, would watch her paint and ask if they could help. Instead, she gave them the tools to make their own art. When no more kids could fit on the porch, a neighbor offered up a home, the outlet reported.
“I experience such joy and a sense of deep rightness and completeness when I’m making things,” German told NPR. “Like when I’m deciding how I’m going to engineer some sculpture to stand so it looks like it’s defying gravity, and I’m using my brain, and I’m moving around, and I feel like giving myself a high-five, and I was like — why wouldn’t kids feel that too?”
In 2019, German was named Artist of the Year in the Governor’s Awards for the Arts. Her work has been exhibited across the country, and she has starred in a number of stage performances.
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