A year ago, arts planner Nina Sauer of Most Wanted Fine Art met the socially conscious owners of Penn Avenue Eyewear at an event at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont. They began to explore ways that the eyewear company could help starving artists build collections and find health care. 

A year later, they are joining together with the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation, an organization uniting to rebuild the Bloomfield, Garfield and Friendship neighborhoods by energizing the members of the community and Healthy Artists, a corporation that supports artists’ health and fights to fix the broken health care system. They created an event where artists will showcase and sell their work, some of which are wooden eyeglass frames.

“Some [glasses] are paint splattered and some are like graffiti,” Sauer said. “It is really interesting to see what artists can do with glasses as a canvas,” Sauer said.

All proceeds are split between the artists, the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation and Healthy Artists charities. The artists will receive a free pair of eyeglasses from Penn Avenue Eyewear for prescription or non-prescription eyeglasses.

“We love working with them and we believe they do a lot of good for the community,” said Penn Avenue Eyewear creative director Caitlin Northup regarding the staff of Most Wanted Fine Art during a telephone interview.

All of the glasses will be sold in a silent auction during the Penn Avenue Eyewear Art Exhibit at 5430 Penn Ave., the site of the former Quiet Storm Restaurant, beginning at 6 p.m. and continuing until 10 p.m. 

One of their artists in residence, Tara Sherry-Torres, has taken over the building for her Café con Leche project that builds, connects and promotes the Latino culture in Pittsburgh.

The location of the event was originally inside the former Pittsburgh Burger Company in Homestead, but the venue changed with the plans to shut down the former restaurant for the winter. 

Jason Sauer, who owns Most Wanted with Sauer, said he believes the location change will work out for the better.

“It helps Tara gain awareness for the restaurant she’s creating and lets others know it will be open officially next week…It works well for Penn Avenue to have a restaurant and some artistic identity,” Nina Sauer said.

This unique event will provide a confluence of art and entertainment.

Comedian Davon Magwood will host the event and will feature musical performances by resident hip-hop artist Holly Hood, and classical artists Anqwenique Wingfield and Joe Sheehan.

Ricardo Iamuuri will present a silent film he directed, “Mars is Underwater,” while also giving a live score performance.

“Davon has hosted and performed a few comedy shows here, and I’ve only seen a few snippets of Ricardo’s silent film, but I know it will be great,” Nina Sauer said.

Nina and Jason Sauer’s gallery, which showcases work by 32 other artists, has garnered them numerous awards. The primary goal isn’t to sell art as much as it is to build community and help as many people as they can.

“We joke that we are a community service organization disguised as an art gallery,” Sauer said. “We work hard to help people get jobs and grants. Our goal is to be good people.”