YOUNGSTOWN — A couple of events keep LOOP Youngstown visible as its founders work to create an arts and culture center in the Mahoning Valley.

The organization is showcasing local artists in an exhibition running through December at the Tyler History Center, and it has a Variety Show and Art Raffle planned Oct. 6 at Westside Bowl to raise a portion of the $100,000 needed for a permanent home.

“We are pursuing a specific building, and so what we’re doing now is raising money to put ourselves in the best possible position (in Struthers),” said Karen Schubert, a poet and founding director of Lit Youngstown who serves as chair of LOOP’s advisory board. “That building would have eight to 10 artist studios and classroom space for offering art classes to the public and a performance space. We think it’s a good fit, so we’re working toward that.”

The $100,000 would cover the purchase price of the building. While they haven’t done an assessment yet, Schubert said she believes the building is close to “move-in ready.”

One of LOOP’s goals is to create opportunities for those in the arts community during this process. The idea for the Tyler History Center exhibition “Art Within the LOOP” came from Rachel Speis, a recent Mahoning County Career & Technical Center graduate. As part of her recently completed media internship with LOOP, Speis interviewed local artists, and one of the things many of them talked about was the desire for more opportunities to get their work seen.

“We’re all about the arts in Youngstown, and I figured we needed to put art in (people’s) faces,” Speis said. “I asked all the artists within the LOOP if they’d be willing to put some pieces in, and nearly all of them said yes.”

Participating artists in the Tyler show are Melissa Hackett, Betsy Ford, Jessica Matusky, Tony Nicholas, Elise McKeown Skolnick, Laurie Anderson, Kristina Rule, Billy Danielson and Speis.

“I wanted a big variety of mediums,” Speis said. “It’s not just painting or watercolors. There are drawings, pen and ink, photography. Art isn’t just one thing, it’s a wide spectrum of things, and I wanted to show all that.”

“Variety” is in the name of LOOP’s upcoming fundraiser. It will include music (the Youngstown Area Community Concert Band, TaeShawn Madison), poetry (Lena Carson, Liz Hicks, Jimmy Sutman, Erin Stubbs), theater (Youngstown Playhouse, Hopewell Theatre) storytelling (W. Rick Schilling, William Mullane, Lowell Satre) and other attractions.

Dragana Crnjak and Mullane donated paintings that will raffled off at the event, and the raffle also will include a a framed message of peace by Yoko Ono (donated by Mullane) that features

“Imagine Peace” written in 20 languages. Raffle tickets are two for $5 and can be purchased in advance at LOOP Youngstown’s website www.loopyoungstown.org/category/all-products.

A chance art auction featuring work by Eric Alleman, Brian Hill, Carl Leet, Robyn Maas and other artists also is planned at the Westside Bowl event.

“We’re very excited, very grateful for all of the community support,” Schubert said. “We are learning so much, and it’s been such a pleasure building this community of artists and people who care about the way arts can be such a vibrant part of community revitalization. The process itself has been meaningful and super fun, and we’re not we’re not in any way daunted that it’s taking a while to find and purchase a building. We really want to take our time and, you know, make sure we end up in the best possible place.”