Brath & Hughes Fine Art, the new art gallery that opened in downtown Mechanicsburg last fall, has a name that is simple, yet distinguished.
“We kept playing around with these cutesy type names and decided we just wanted it to be professional,” said Mary Beth Brath, the co-owner.
Brath and business partner Brownyn Jean Hughes are artists in their own right. Two years ago, Brath started the Daily Painters of Pennsylvania, which has grown to a group of more than 40 professional artists from across the state who show their works annually in the state Capitol. After the Daily Painters exhibit this coming June in the Capitol’s East Wing Rotunda, their works will show for the month of July at Brath & Hughes.
For both women, this is their first business venture they had been selling out of another gallery in town for a couple of years, but decided to go out on their own.
Fitting to their name, Brath & Hughes occupies a distinguished, late 19th- century space, the 1,500-square-foot first floor of the Mechanicsburg Bank Building that has sat vacant at 41 W. Main St. for four years. The spacious lobby has tall windows that allow plenty of light.
“It’s really a perfect space for an art gallery,” Brath said. “It has a character all its own.”
The building’s interior appears pretty much unchanged, with its original white marble wainscoting and floor, black marble teller counters, varnished woodwork and walk-in vault.
The vault is reserved for special exhibits, such as the current “Tears of the World,” a series of abstract paintings by Hughes–ranging from $40 to $600– of which 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the Red Cross.
Brath & Hughes also carry artwork by local, regional and nationally known artists such as Patricia Griffin and Linda Benton McCloskey. A list of thier artists is on their blog site www.brathandhughesfineart.blogspot.com.
The gallery also sells hand-made jewelry and offers service that include select corporate art installations, social media workshops and fine art event consulting and planning.
While Brath and Hughes are serious-minded artists, they enjoy a asense of humor. Added to the name of their gallery is this phrase: “Galerie de la Muse.”
“Our husbands think of us as muses,” Brath said. “So we put that little catch phrase there.”
