If you haven't gotten to the Three Rivers Arts Festival yet, you're almost out of time. The event is a week shorter this year and closes at the end of the day tomorrow.

Here's a user-friendly guide to the visual arts shows that loop up Penn Avenue from Gateway Center and return on Liberty Avenue. Admission is free.

Start with "A Threaded Line" at 709 Penn Gallery, where internationally exhibited clay and fiber artist Lee Renninger displays shawls and dresses that require a second look. The floor-length skirt that flows so softly across a mannequin's hips is actually made of round white clay multiples and stitched together with embroidery thread. The works take about two months each to complete and may weigh 75 pounds.

At the adjacent 707 Penn Gallery, "F295: Pinhole Photography" includes almost 40 works by contemporary photographers who specialize in unusual or historic techniques.

Walk a long block to the Three Rivers Arts Festival Gallery Co-Op at 901 Penn Ave., a mixed presentation by several local commercial and nonprofit spaces.

At 905 Penn, festival highlight "Sarver's Bait & Tackle" continues to lure crowds to artist Tom Sarver's imaginative installation, "Fishing Report" documentary and to talk fishing and other art.

The Three Rivers Arts Festival Retrospective at 907 Penn visits its first 49 years through absorbing archival and video material, including a terrific portfolio of photographs of the festival commissioned to mark its 25th anniversary.

The work in "De-Tranquilizers," 925 and 927 Penn, is sleek, fun and thought-provoking. Selected by Warhol Museum curator Eric Shiner, it includes splendid paintings by Cara Erskine, James Wodarek's so cool contemporary Pop, and an almost solo exhibition of Fabrizio Gerbino's intense latest work. Stay for Lilith Bailey-Kroll's saucy video.

Now cut one block over to Liberty Avenue and "Now I Am the Master" at 937 Liberty (second floor, elevator or steps). Artists market coordinator Sonja Sweterlitsch chose work in a variety of media by a dozen past recipients of the Festival Emerging Artist Scholarship and it's a nice selection. All of the artists made the cut to appear in the 2009 Artists Market, and more than half of them are present this weekend. Particularly noteworthy are Aimee Manion's paintings that link fanciful worlds with scientific and cultural concepts. At booth number 75, she also shows whimsical fiber small bags and jewelry.

At 929 Liberty is "Collective Works," a casual gathering of two- and three-dimensional artworks by almost 100 members of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, with the standout being William DeBernardi's "Pencil," worth a visit on its own.

Children, who make wonderful art, are the focus of "Our Future: Visuals and Voices" at Catholic Charities, 212 Ninth St. at Liberty, where expressive masks and colorful paintings by local youth brighten walls.

Finally, ArtUp, at 820 Liberty, presents the satirical environmental commentary "Revelations: A Post-Apocalyptic Emporium," by C.B. Fisher.

While in the area, you may want to check out two permanent galleries of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (the festival's new presenter). SPACE, at 812 Liberty, opened a new show last night, "Smoke & Mirrors: An Exhibition including the work of 20 Artists who might be faking it," in a variety of media. Wood Street Galleries, in the next block, above the "T" station at Wood Street and Liberty, has "Machine Improvisations," installations mixing intense sound and film by international artists.

Continue down Liberty about three blocks to return to Gateway.