RENOVATION UNDERWAY AT CARNEGIE ONE IN BRADDOCK EARLIER THIS YEAR. | PHOTO BY HUCK BEARD

Quantum Theatre, known for staging productions in out-of-the-ordinary locales, in 2007 performed “Thérèse Raquin” in the defunct swimming pool inside the Braddock Carnegie Library.

At the time, the building was operational — but only using about 50% of its available space. Andrew Carnegie’s first library, built in 1889, had closed in 1974 and had been working its way back to prominence in this once-thriving steel town.

Eighteen years later, the building is using 100% of its space after a $21 million renovation. It has a new name — Carnegie One — to go with a 500-seat music hall, an updated gymnasium, a revitalized ceramics studio, a multi-purpose community space dubbed “The Book Dive” where the pool used to be and (of course) all the trimmings of a library.

Oh, and Quantum was back for a show there, “The Return of Benjamin Lay,” in January.

The arts are alive and well in Braddock, where theater companies Barebones Productions and RealTime Arts also mount outstanding productions. Award-winning choreographer Staycee Pearl recently moved her company, PearlArts Movement & Sound, into a 5,000-square-foot space there with two dance studios, two recording studios and a workspace.

“I think [the recent arts scene] has brought a lot of new people to town, and it’s also highlighted people who have been longtime residents and are artists but other people haven’t been exposed to their work because there just wasn’t an outlet for it,” says Braddock Carnegie Library Association Executive Director Vicki Vargo.

“I think people have more venues to showcase their work or to explore their abilities.”

The library is its own artistic hub, offering a free alternative lending library of artwork, tables, chairs and miscellaneous items — including giant puppets from Cheryl Capezzuti’s Puppets for Pittsburgh — and classes for adults and children in screenprinting, ceramics and in the Fab Lab, a fabrication laboratory.

“Those are all outlets for people who might have had a desire but had no place nearby [where] they could actually explore it,” Vargo says.

Molly Rice, co-founder and co-artistic director of RealTime Arts with Rusty Thelin, says not only is she impressed with the number of offerings at the library, but they’ve also been an amazing collaborator for the theater company.

“When we first got here, that was our central hub,” she says. “That library is incredible … Libraries are a lifeblood to communities, and that one in particular went above and beyond.”

In 2015, RealTime premiered “The Saints Tour: Greater Braddock,” partnering with the library and several other organizations and in collaboration with Bricolage, another production company in the region. “The Saints Tour” is a traveling piece rewritten with and for the community in which it occurs — the audience travels by bus through the neighborhood with a “Tour Guide” character and meets musicians, artists and other performers along the way.

“The way it works, you go into a neighborhood, spend some time there — in Braddock, we spent two years — and you learn about arts in the community. [It] uncovers the talent that already exists in the community,” Rice says. “In every town, state, neighborhood in this country, there are artists living in that community … The arts have always been in Braddock.”

An employee at the library, Mary Helen Carey, was the inspiration for another RealTime production, “People of Pittsburgh II: The Constellationist.” The show was performed at Attack Theatre Studios in Lawrenceville — a venue in Braddock wasn’t available — and RealTime offered pay-what-you-can tickets and shuttles for Braddock residents.

“That’s really what I feel like all of us doing the arts in Braddock are trying to do, inviting other people into the community but also uplifting people in the community to make sure they have pathways to be a part of the arts, too … pathways for folks in some cases who have absolutely no disposable income,” Rice says.

Vargo says all of the movement can mean good things for the community.

“Things like PearlArts moving in down the street, that’s awesome, and you have to wonder, what’s five years down the road? How many more organizations will be here? How many more businesses [will move in] to supplement those organizations? It is exciting.”