JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
A dozen local artists participate in the successful launch of the “Other Side of the Tracks” exhibition last Friday in Berlin. The show, held at the Steel N Glory studio on Washington Street, is expected to be the first of many in the location to be organized by Jordan Pippin and Pete Mueller.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Dec. 20, 2018) Cold-weather art strolls in Berlin generally are not as well attended as their summertime counterparts, but that wasn’t the case last Friday when Jordan Pippin and Pete Mueller hosted a special 2nd Friday exhibition at Steel N Glory on Washington Street.

The show featured a dozen artists, from jewelers and printmakers, to mixed media collage makers and abstract painters.

There was also live music by Kaleb Brown, as well as free food and beer provided by Gilbert’s Provisions and Evolution Craft Brewing Company.

Pippin and Muller named the event “Other Side of the Tracks,” both a play on the location – inside Pippin’s metalworking studio that’s adjacent to train tracks – and on the “nontraditional art for nontraditional people” promotional tag used in posters and on social media.

The unusual approach and diverse offering of artists worked, as large crowds filled the two-story building virtually from the opening at 6 p.m. until closing five hours later.

“I think it went great,” Pippin said Monday. “It was a great turnout and I’m really pleased by the response I received, both by the artists that were involved as well as the people that came to the event.

“I have a 3-year-old daughter, so I don’t really get out to the bar scene very much anymore, so it was really nice to catch up with some people that I haven’t seen in a while,” Pippin continued. “Obviously, it’s just a good time seeing people having a good time whenever you’re hosting an event.”

Pippin hoped to shut down around 11 p.m. and said that’s about when the beer started to dwindle. When that happened, so did the crowds.

“It was kind of perfect,” he said.

Pippin said he and Mueller had not yet discussed plans for future shows, but with the success of “Other Side of the Tracks,” that’s something of a no-brainer.

“We haven’t put together anything definitive yet, but I think we both feel the same way as far as it went well and we want to do it again,” Pippin said. “We had talked about doing it kind of quarterly, so tentatively the next one would be March 8. That’s kind of what I’m planning on.”

He said additional shows would likely feature a mix of new and returning artists.

“We’d love to give some opportunities to other artists, but we probably won’t change out all of them,” Pippin said. “We’ll see, but there’s definitely some interest in getting some other people involved.”

For information on upcoming events, follow www.facebook.com/steel.mule.39 or “Steel Mule Curations” on Instagram.”