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| - The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts wears many hats: it's a place to go for art-related classes, a small museum/exhibit space, and a gift shop. It's a pretty building, set back a bit from Fifth Avenue in Shadyside, with a parking lot behind the building (metered, bring your quarters).
The exhibit space is small, but the exhibits are always of the highest quality, eclectic (I mean this in the best possible way), and interesting. No charge for admission and you could easily take a thoughtful tour in an hour or less.
What makes the Center for the Arts a hit for me is their gift shop. What sets these gift shop from other museum gift shops in the area is their wide selection of work by many local artists and artisans, including watercolor prints, photographs, jewelry, clothing and knitted items, ceramic and hand-blown glass items. The list goes on and on.
I especially like all of the watercolors and photographs of different Pittsburgh landmarks and neighborhood scenes. I often get a set of watercolor notecards, mat and frame them, and then give as inexpensive gifts to guests staying at my B&B.
During the holiday season, the gift shop expands--literally--and besides all the wonderful merchandise they normally offer, they add all sorts of holiday items, such as hand made ornaments, Christmas cards. The salespeople are friendly and helpful if you have any questions, but otherwise unobtrusive.
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