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Show blends old cars and art
Photo
Tony Lombardi of Warren poses with his 1930 Model A that won the best-in-show award at Sunday’s second annual Artists of the Rust Belt car show and artists’ market at the B&O banquet hall, 530 Mahoning Ave., Youngstown.
YOUNGSTOWN
Throngs gathered for a downtown event that blended a car show outdoors with artists and craftspeople indoors at the historic B&O railroad station, which now serves as a banquet hall.
Sunday’s show was the Artists of the Rust Belt’s second annual car show and artists’ market, in which the Roadhounds Car Club showcased hot rods and automotive artwork in a tree-lined setting along the Mahoning River.
Original paintings, handcrafted jewelry, prints, pottery and photography were among the art forms being sold by more than 35 artists inside the station.
More than 300 people attended the show, in which about 110 historic cars were exhibited under sunny skies and comfortable temperatures.
Chris Morey of Moon Township, Pa., near Pittsburgh, received the car club’s choice award for his 1963 Impala, dubbed Old Dirty.
Morey bought the car three years ago from its original owner, who told him “he took a spray can, and he was trying to fix it up a little bit, probably about 25 years ago. He kind of sprayed it [paint] on there, and it didn’t work out that well. That’s what it ended up being, and that’s why it is Old Dirty.”
“The only thing that I’ve done is I kind of fixed the interior up a little bit, but, other than that, it’s pretty original,” Morey said.
Old Dirty was the only car of its make and model year known to have been ordered and built without a driver’s-side door mirror because it was bought specifically for drag racing, Morey said.
Morey had just learned of the Youngstown event at a Saturday car show he attended in Pittsburgh.
“It’s very nice. It’s like a park setting, and the people are great. The food was great,” Morey said of the show at the B&O.
Winning the best-in-show award was a 1930 Ford Model A entered by Tony Lombardi of Warren.
Winning the artists’ choice award was a 1934 Ford pickup truck entered by Matt Thrasher of Middlefield.
“Tying the two together just brought two different kinds of crowds together,” Tony Nicholas of Youngstown, show organizer and director of Artists of the Rust Belt, said of the blending of a car show and an art show.
“It brought people together who might not necessarily hang out together socially, and it’s been a great time,” Nicholas added.
“I think it’s perfect because it brings together the two genres that are so closely related. There’s a lot of interest in the art community in the hot rods and vice versa in the hot rods with the art community,” observed Erica Perna of Niles, a jewelry and accessory vendor.
“It is kind of an artistry the way that they work on these cars,” Perna added.
“Just like a lot of the life and culture is coming back to Youngstown, I think the art scene is really coming back in a big way, too,” Perna said, crediting social media for its resurgence.