“It’s hard to explain what all we do here,” Carolyn Glaub says of the Center of Music and Art in Wintersville, Ohio. It’s a retail store, it’s a music and art school, but it’s also a place of growth, enlightenment, friendship, and acceptance. It’s a business, but it’s also a community.

Mrs. Glaub’s passion for music started when she was just ten years old. She would stop by the corner store at the end of her street and the owner would let her play around on the piano that was in the store. Mrs. Glaub showed such interest and aptitude that her visits turned into regular lessons. One day, when the owner didn’t have the time to teach her, she headed home, dejectedly. When she opened the front door to her house, there it was. The patient store owner and piano teacher had given Mrs. Glaub the beloved piano to keep.

With a drive to help others in need, Mrs. Glaub eventually went on to become a nurse. But her passion for music persisted.

The Center of Music and Art was founded in Weirton, WV in 1990. This location was fully focused on education. The business flourished, and in 1995 an opportunity for a bigger space materialized in the form of an old grocery store building in Wintersville, Ohio. She and her business partner, her husband Jody, began the renovation process that transformed the store to fit the needs of a thriving music and art school. The new larger building provided the opportunity to add retail space to the school. Mrs. Glaub notes that although their focus is always on education, the ability to sell instruments, equipment, and art supplies solved many of the students’ common problems: the inability to get high quality and suitable instruments. This added a new income stream to the business which helped make more classes and workshops possible.

The classes and workshops have always been the heart of the Center. They offer one-on-one and group lessons for most band instruments, from flute to percussion and everything in between. They also offer voice lessons, piano and guitar. Visual arts education includes traditional mediums like painting and drawing, as well as cartooning and anime. Their summer theater camp for children is always very popular.

Another large part of the business is instrument repair. Musicians from all over the tri-state area come to the Center for expert knowledge and in-house repair skills.

As their retail business has grown in their new location, so has their relationships in the community. The Center for Music and Art began to supply instrument rentals for local schools, which they continue to do today.

The Center has also become a destination for field trips for all ages. There are children that come to learn about music and the creation of instruments as well as older adults from the Academy of Lifelong Learning from Franciscan University in Steubenville.

“Music and art give people a common interest, people come together when they have a common cause,” says Mrs. Glaub. She is passionate about the way art and music can unite people of all abilities, races, socioeconomic levels, political leanings. It has been shown that art can foster empathy, something in short supply these days. After all, one of the main purposes of art is to communicate what the artist is feeling, from bright splashes of paint across a canvas to a haunting piano solo. According to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, “It can remind us as humans what unites us greatly outweighs what divides us.”

Mrs. Glaub recalls the time that she was asked to provide piano lessons to a young blind girl. She had never taught piano to a blind person before but was determined that the little girl be given the same opportunities for learning music as anyone else. She had the girl lay her hands on top of her own to experience the movement across the keys. The foot pedals were a bit more complicated, as the girl had to climb under the piano and feel Mrs. Glaub’s feet on the pedals. The improvised lessons were successful and the girl was able to learn and play beautifully.

On another occasion, a woman stopped into the store to buy art supplies for her husband. Mrs. Glaub learned that the husband was waiting in the car, as he suffered from agoraphobia. Agorophobia is an anxiety disorder that causes an intense fear of going into public spaces. Mrs. Glaub was unable to accept that this man couldn’t come in and pick out his own art supplies, so she offered to let him come in before the store was publicly open in the mornings, so that he could explore the art supplies in an environment that he felt safe in. Weeks later, Mrs. Glaub was shocked to find the man shopping in the store among the other customers. The Center had become a safe place for him, which gave him the confidence to face his fears with gradual exposure.

These human connections are at the core of what the Center of Music and Art strives to provide for the community. A love of art and music that brings people together despite their differences. This is the mission.

The future looks bright for the Center of Music and Art. On the immediate horizon is greatly anticipated guitar competition on January 18th, The Art of Shred, where guitarists will battle it out to show off their skills.

They also plan on adding workshops and are always looking for opportunities to work with others in the community.

You may have driven past the unassuming store front every day, without having ever stopped in. The next time, pull into the parking lot. You may leave with a newfound interest, curiosity, or even just a great conversation.

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