Art Finds Niche in Square

On the corner of Bow and Plymption Sts., there's Harvard Pizza, with its "Help Wanted Experience" sign scrawled on a piece of cardboard in the window. Around the corner, on Mt. Auburn St., Cahaly's and Tommy's Lunch use pink neon to advertise ice cream, and hot pastromi.

And in between--with Chinese flint boxes, fernwood statues and Ashanti artifacts in the window--sits TePaske and Hurst, the art gallery that opened last fall in the building that for 50 years had housed the Gold Coast Laundry.

Though the location may seem a little odd, the proprietors insist it was a natural choice. Instead of going to Boston's gallery-lined Newbury St., they chose the Square because "our objects are of interest to academic people," Derrick TePaske said.

"We are happy to be near the Peabody Museum and the libraries," Nadine Hurst added.

"Quite a few" Harvard students visited the store when it first opened, Hurst said, but she added that the flood had slowed to a trickle, especially during reading and exam periods.