When South Shore Arts Gallery Manager Mary McClelland is given creative reign for curating an exhibit, her tastes admittedly are unconventional.

"I look for things that are a little different and off the beaten path," she said.

"Sometimes I'm looking for someone local who's being creative and who I think deserves the recognition, and sometimes I come across somebody who might not necessarily be local but who is doing something interesting and a little twisted."

Reared and still living in Hammond and a 1985 graduate of Hammond High School, McClelland, 41, received a degree in English literature at Purdue University Calumet.

For several years, McClelland worked as a translator for deaf students at a region-based special education cooperative but decided to explore more creative outlets for herself at South Shore Arts.

In 2002, she was taken under the wing of Ruth Crnkovich, then the gallery director at South Shore, which was known at the time as Northern Indiana Arts Association.

Two years later, she took over the managerial reins, facilitating, coordinating and occasionally cultivating exhibits at the two galleries at South Shore's Munster headquarters and at its satellite galleries in Hammond and Crown Point.

McClelland credits her old mentor along with South Shore Arts Executive Director John Cain as her primary artistic influences.

"Working alongside Ruth, I discovered that I actually had a pretty good eye for art," she said. "And working for John, I realized that it was okay for me to like the things that I liked in regard to art because he liked them, and we agreed on many things."

In addition to her work at South Shore Arts, McClelland lends her talent to her hometown's Towle Community Theater. She dabbled in acting as a student at Hammond High and decided to throw her hat in the ring in 2006 when her friend, Jeff Casey, became the theater's managing director.

McClelland has performed in past Towle productions such as "The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe," "Red Dirt" and "Jeffry."

"When Jeff became managing director, I started paying more attention to what the theater was doing and then finally got the nerve to audition," she said.

"The Towle tends to chose pieces that that are different and left of center, which always appeals to me."

Location, she says, also plays a role in her loyalty to Casey and Towle.

"It's close to home for me," she said. "That, and I'm a very proud Hammond resident, and I'm always trying to promote the things that are going on in Hammond."

For more information on exhibits at the South Shore Arts branches, (219) 836-1839 or southshoreartsonline.org.