Pittsburgh ? A multimedia designer and artist, Jesse Hambley dabbles in Web and graphic design, photography and even film work. But when he started looking for a photography studio, the 23-year-old realized he couldn’t afford a place on his own.

So Hambley and some associates decided to form the Creative Treehouse, a membership club for artists to share creative space in a borough just outside the city line. Their goal: to support each other’s talents and grow the grass-roots arts community here.

“People still have the impression if you’re still such a great artist, such a great photographer, why aren’t you living in New York? Why aren’t you living in San Francisco?” Hambley said. “I think a lot of us want to change that.”

No longer the smoky steel town of days past, the hometown of pop artist Andy Warhol is increasingly becoming known for its thriving arts community. This year alone, the city will host three national and international arts conferences, including a yearlong celebration of glass art and a gathering of museum directors.

“Many people from the outside still remember Pittsburgh from its steel days. It’s really transformed itself,” said Jason Busch, curator of decorative arts at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Busch is helping to organize a decorative arts symposium in April for members of The Decorative Arts Trust, a national nonprofit group made up of collectors, museum professionals and others.

“There’s a rich artistic and cultural heritage to Pittsburgh and that’s something we will really show through in this particular visit,” Busch said. “For many people, it will be their first visit to Pittsburgh.”

Pittsburgh has a long history of cultivating the arts, dating back to the city’s early industrialists. In 1896, for example, Andrew Carnegie established the world’s second-oldest contemporary art exhibition. Known as the Carnegie International, the show is still held approximately every three years.

The city boasts famous art museums, including the Carnegie, the Andy Warhol Museum and the Frick Art Museum. And its arts community, traditionally located on the city’s eclectic South Side, now is also prospering downtown and in neighborhoods such as Lawrenceville, which calls itself the “Design Zone.”

“Pittsburgh has successfully remade itself into one of the strongest arts and cultural centers in the United States,” said Mitch Swain, CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, a group that provides professional development, technical development and educational services for artists and the arts community.

This summer, the group said a new study by the Americans for the Arts will be released looking at the economic impact of arts in cities across the country. The last study to measure that, in 2002, found that arts organizations had a business impact of $251 million in Pittsburgh alone, a number that Swain expects is much higher now.