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Art lovers flock to Parkersburg

PARKERSBURG — The Parkersburg Art Center’s first art yard sale – or Y’Art Sale – drew a lot of interested art lovers Saturday in downtown Parkersburg.

Even before the doors opened at 10 a.m. Saturday at Eighth and Market street, interested buyers were lined up down the sidewalk, said Abby Hayhurst, the art center’s executive director.

“We had people coming in early, they were lined up to come in the door and lined up to check out,” she said.

By noon Saturday with several hours yet to go, additional items were being brought out of storage to refill tables depleted of items for sale, Hayhurst said.

Over 200 works of finished art were pulled from the art center’s collection or donated by local residents for the sale, ranging in price from a few dollars to over $300, Hayhurst said. They ranged from prints to watercolors to oil paintings and included prominent local area artists like Don Whitlatch, Rebecca Noble and Pat Evans.

The sale also featured a wide variety of display materials, art books, textiles, paints, papers, and other art and craft materials.

Dorsey Northrup, the event chairperson, said buyers seemed equally interested in finished art pieces and the art supplies on sale Saturday.

“It’s been really fun to see … we have sold things for 25 cents up to $300 or $400. It’s really been a fun community event. People have thanked us and said what fun it is, we’ve had fun doing it and they want us to do it again,” Northrup said.

Randi Marshall, of Parkersburg, was looking at the art supplies available for sale at Saturday’s event. She attended with her mother, who was interested in seeing what was available, and Marshall said she decided to look for things she could use in her own crafting hobbies.

“I do a lot of crafting and things myself,” she said.

She also liked seeing some of the paintings and books available for sale and thought she might leave with some additional items.

“There are some books that I really do think I’m going to get,” Marshall said as she browsed the tables Saturday.

Marshall said she has been a Parkersburg resident her whole life but Saturday’s sale marked her first visit to the Parkersburg Art Center, something she found she enjoyed doing. She believes there is now more of a chance of her returning to the art center, especially if events like Saturday’s sale continue.

Patti Cutlip and her daughter, Megan, of Elizabeth, were also looking through the items on sale Saturday. Cutlip said her daughter regularly takes children’s art classes at the art center and they were looking for things she could paint, since that is Megan’s main interest.

“It was very nice,” she said of the sale. “I think it would be neat to see more of this.”

Hayhurst said she didn’t know if the art center had enough items in storage to hold the “Y’art Sale” every year, but the success of Saturday’s event was encouraging and will likely mean such an event will become a regular one at the art center. She said several people on Saturday mentioned they had art pieces they would be interested in donating and excess art supplies are never a problem, so she definitely expects to do the sale again in the future.

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