East Suburban Artists League marks 60th anniversary
The first East Suburban Artists League show took place in 1965, in an empty storeroom next to the old Murrysville A&P store.
Local developer Orin Sampson donated the storeroom and some 4-by-8-foot boards to display paintings. With the first ESAL show taking place on a freezing cold weekend in late February, Sampson also provided a gas heater.
Today, the league’s exhibits are a little fancier. In early June the group — which draws members from all over Pittsburgh’s east suburbs — marked its 60th anniversary.
“I’ve met great people from here in Pittsburgh, across the country and really across the world,” said Pittsburgh pastel artist Cindy Berceli, who joined ESAL in the mid-1980s. “I was getting back into art after I hadn’t done it for a while, and I wanted some support, encouragement and a good time.”
Berceli’s story was echoed by several ESAL artists who rediscovered their passion for art after retiring.
Darlene Miklos of Murrysville retired in mid-2018. By the fall, the watercolor artist had joined the league.
“It’s given me a lot of incentive,” she said. “We do a lot of show-and-tell at our meetings, and it gets you motivated to paint.”
ESAL began life in artist Mary Ann Clarke’s Plum home as the Holiday Park Artists League. Its first official meeting took place in the Holiday Park School cafeteria. By the early 1970s, the league’s annual “May Array” spring art show had become a tradition, and by 1978 the league achieved nonprofit status.
The league works to encourage arts and crafts through lectures, forums, panels and critiques and by league-sponsored shows, displays and juried exhibits.
Over the years, it has held shows all over the east suburbs, from Monroeville Mall, Miracle Mile and Newlonsburg Presbyterian Church in Murrysville, to the McKeesport Little Theater, Allegheny County Community College’s Boyce campus and Penn State’s New Kensington campus.
In 1980 the group officially changed its name to the East Suburban Artists League, and today it hosts monthly meetings at Christ’s Lutheran Church in Murrysville, where featured guest speakers give presentations about their artistic process.
Monroeville pen-and-ink artist Larry Brandstetter, 73, also joined the league in retirement.
“They were really inviting,” he said. “I like that they’re very active in putting on art shows and having league artists participate in shows. There’s a lot of talent among the artists, and it’s great at the show-and-tells to hear about how they’ve done their artwork.”
ESAL President Dan Yaklich of Delmont said variety is the spice of life in the league.
“There are so many different artists using different media, and it makes you want to be more creative, especially when you see what other people are doing,” said Yaklich, who has been a league member for about a decade along with his wife, Sue. “It inspires you to want to try new things.”
The drive to be creative has paid off for Yaklich — he recently won a “Best in Show” award at Calvary Lutheran Church’s annual Christian art show and another of his pieces recently earned an honorable mention.
As Yaklich looked to the league’s future, he hopes to see more young people getting involved.
“Most of our folks are older, and a lot are retired,” he said. “We get a few young people here and there, but it would be nice to get an even wider range of art and ideas.”
For more about the league, visit ESALart.org.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.
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