Nina Sauer co-owns Most Wanted Fine Art with her husband, Jason Sauer. She shares her schedule for this week as she wrangles her 2 1/2-year-old named Rowdy, three gallery locations, a contracting business, as well as 12 resident artists and their community programs.
Monday Nov. 10
Every day starts with a meeting with our team of four general contracting guys going over the schedule followed by me taking care of Rowdy who is not in daycare. Rowdy and I will stop in Kraynick’s bike shop on Penn Avenue. The annual Bike Before Christmas Program is looking for several hundred “gently used” bicycles for children age 3 to 12. Last year they gave away over 110 bikes to boys and girls. The program depends on the public making donations, so we are trying to see how we can help. Around 6 p.m. we will head to the Pittsburgh Public Market to celebrate Awesome Pittsburgh’s third anniversary.
Tuesday (Veteran’s Day), November 11
Rowdy and I are going to Sweet Peaches on Warrington Avenue around 11 a.m. to meet with owner Bek Hlavach. The food at Sweet Peaches is a unique blend of simple bites. I love it. It’s a belly hug. Then meeting up with some mom friends for tiny tots day at Romp n’ Roll skating rink in Glenshaw. It’s only $5 and covers skates, pizza and drinks. Jason, Rowdy and I will have dinner at People’s Indian on Penn Avenue to meet with Tara Torres to chat about her Most Wanted Fine Art (MWFA) resident artist project, Café con Leche. She is ordering shirts from us as well, which we will print in our shop, the Pittsburgh Printing Press. After dinner, Rowdy and I are headed to the East Liberty branch of the Carnegie Library for Pajama Story time from 6:30 to 7 p.m. while Jason goes to work hours at our Waterfront gallery.
Wednesday, November 12
Rowdy and I will meet with Penn Avenue Eyewear this morning to pick up glasses they are donating to artists who were part of #artisticvisionpgh art show. Afterward, the whole team will meet Eanna Holton who was the manager of the late great Specter Studios, to say good-bye to another lovely establishment that is closing, Station Street Hot Dogs. Eanna started a new natural health and wellness company called Shaklee, and I’m picking up some natural stress relief products to help as we move into the busy holiday season. On the way home I’ll stop by Princess Beauty on Penn Ave. to pick up some of the best leggings in town. In the evening we have a meeting with Goodwill Industries about our newest Learn to Earn intern. Goodwill pays young men recently released from jail while we teach them general contracting. Then we’ll head to Rock Bottom Brewery for their special Brewmaster’s happy hour where brewer Brandon McCarthy will create a recipe from a dish made using Rock Bottom beer which guests can sample. Then it’s on to Biddle’s Escape coffee shop for their Pretty Owl Poetry Spotlight Series featuring Margaret Bashaar. We’ll close out the night at The Park House on East Ohio Street for free bluegrass night and $2 Yuenglings.
Thursday, November 13
Morning: Rowdy and I will go to The Bloomfield Sandwich Shop for pancakes to drop off donations. The Sandwich shop is our favorite pancake spot but they also do great community work! Every year they give out over 200 Thanksgiving dinners for free. If you want to donate, they need: turkeys, mashed potato flakes, green beans, cans of evaporated milk, butter, sodas, napkins, plastic silverware, aluminum foil, and desserts. Then it’s back home to ready the gallery for Make Mine Words: A Reading featuring the Women of Sojourner House, a residential drug and alcohol treatment facility for mothers and their children. This special reading is part of the Words Without Walls program. Once Jason is set up, I’m off to the Pittsburgh Opera for Eco Art PGH: Visions of a Sustainable Pittsburgh. I’m excited to see Tracksploitation perform again.
Friday, November 14
Lunch at the Birmingham Bridge Tavern with the whole team. We love everything they have on the menu but have a special spot in our hearts for the Bunk Bed Burger; it has a pierogie as a “pillow” on the double decker burger. Then we head back home to get ready for Word Circus, which is a free monthly reading series we host that features a mix of poetry and prose writers from Chatham and a poetry Open Mic. Will also try to make it to Dee Briggs’ artist talk at The Mine Factory, from 6 to 9 p.m.
Saturday, November 15
We’re spending the day at the Pittsburgh Retro Gaming Expo at the Irish Centre as a family. Since we’ll be in the neighborhood, we’ll head to the Waterfront to hang new art at our MWFA location there. Then we’ll stop by Artist and Craftsman Supply in Squirrel Hill to pick up art supplies for our events. Then head home to meet with the Magical Girl Wrestling Federation, a charity wrestling promotion with a cartoon influence, who are wrasslin for Persad Center at MWFA. After this event we’re off to The Dirtiest Show in Town, an art show at Trundle Manor. Resident artist Sam Thorp and photographer Mia Donna Maneer curated the show, which includes sexy sensual pieces as well as rope suspensions, a naked buffet and more.
Sunday, November 16
First we’ll get set up for open hours at MWFA on Penn Ave., where we will have a reading of the Mozelle Thompson illustrated children’s book Pumpkinseeds to coincide with the exhibit of his art. Later, Rowdy and I will head over to the Pittsburgh Public Market from 1:30 to 3: 30 p.m. for the Farm to Table Harvest Tasting. The Market Kitchen initiative is about to open and they are having a preview. Should be great!
Photo by Jason Sauer, from the Most Wanted Fine Art Mugshot Series.
