Art & 'Tique on Hatfield

Hatfield Street Fair
At least 20 local businesses and artists from the Lawrenceville area will come together on one block for one day to showcase all that Lawrenceville has to offer in a block party setting. "Art & 'Tique on Hatfield" will be held on August 18, from 11AM to 5PM, rain or shine, and is free to the public. The location of the "festival" is between the 4700 and 4800 block of Hatfield Street(one block off of Butler). There will be fine art, antiques, clothing, food, music, and live performances.

"Art & 'Tique on Hatfield" is a collaboration between the Hatfield Street Galleries which is comprised of 4 galleries located on Hatfield Street: DNA Blue Collar, Society for Cultural Exchange, Trinity Gallery, and Zombo Gallery. It is a grass roots effort to unite community, commerce, and art.

For more information, contact Dan Gaser at 412-687-2458 or email at imdan@verizon.net

Hill House Soars

We had made kites over the month of March in preparation for a flight festival. We had something like forty blanks, and somehow that wasn't enough! We were at Kennard and Ammens fields and Arcena, which was the designated flight space for adults.

We met in the Hill House lobby, where Bourbon Street Catering had set up a wonderful array of cookies, cheeses and meats. Seriously good cookies. I particularly liked these little butter cookies with raspberry and almonds. Can you tell that I am completely at the mercy of my stomach?



The weather was sunny and warm. The Frustrationless Flyer kites that we used for the project are good in light wind, which is great because we had gusty, light wind in the afternoon. I tested this kite and it goes up really easily, I was able to launch mine with no assistance. I was at Kennard field and I am in love! It was a great place to fly and I can't wait to go back. Next time, I hope there's enough wind to launch my stunt kite.

Images from Kennard Field --



Here are some of the kites that were made during the Community Gallery Project

Persad

Okay, so I think every one should know about these things. So heads up, people.
Time to get behind the cause ...

The Women's Law Project and Persad Center present…

An Evening with Evan Wolfson

Thursday, April 19

Kelly-Strayhorn Theater

5941 Penn Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15206

6:30 pm Wine & Hors d'oeuvres Reception

7:00 pm Presentation and Q&A

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Evan Wolfson, author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People's Right to Marry and Founder of Freedom to Marry, returns to Pittsburgh for this very special event. CLE credit available

For more information, or to RSVP, call The Women's Law Project at 412-227-0301 or via email at treynolds@womenslawproject.org

UPMC presents CELEBRATE LIFE, CELEBRATE ART

An Auction to Benefit Persad Center

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

The Patron Party

Friday, April 20^th - Society for Contemporary Craft, 7 - 10 p.m.

Enjoy a cocktail reception featuring Barefoot Wine, dinner by Kazansky's Catering, and a preview of selected artwork with an award ceremony for prize winning artists.

The Auction

Monday, May 14^th - Carnegie Museum of Art

5:30 for Patron Ticket Holders & 6:00 p.m. for General Admission

Featuring live music by the Renaissance City Women's Choir and Ben Opie, delicious food from over 15 area restaurants.

Celebrate Life, Celebrate Art, formerly known as Art for AIDS/Art for Change, is an annual art auction that benefits Persad Center. Over the past 18 years, the Celebrate Life, Celebrate Art benefit auction has generated over $2.7 million for Persad. Featuring a silent and verbal auction with original artwork from over 175 international, national, and regional artists. All proceeds support Persad's unique counseling, wellness, education, and research programs. Special thanks to 2007 sponsors: UPMC, National City Bank, The Giant Eagle Foundation, Ernst & Young, Mellon, Grubb & Ellis, The Mary Hillman Jennings Foundation, Mullen, The William T. Hillman Foundation, Red Bull North America, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Barefoot Wine, Comcast, Fried & Davis, LLC, Images, Pgh City Paper, and WYEP.

Additional information can be found at Persad Center's website

Hill House Soars

We have been making kites over the month of March in preparation for a flight festival. Sites have been chosen for the day. We'll have kites available for decoration at the sites, so even if you don't already have one, you can pick one up there. Part of the project was conducted with the Community Gallery project although there were additional workshops for kids and adults.

We'll be meeting in the Hill House lobby, where you can pick up kites, snacks and a map to the sites.

I'll bet you're wondering when and where this extravaganza will take place ...

The Hill House Association lobby
1835 Centre Ave
April 21st,
Check in between 11:30am and 12:30pm

The weather forecast is good; sunny and 52, wind at 8mph. I tested this kite and it goes up really easily, I was able to launch mine with no assistance. But hey, if you have your own kite, bring that too!

Graffitiburgh

Graffiti shot at Heppenstall, a defunct steel mill located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh

I was flipping through the Post Gazette and ran across this article about a tagger that was arrested and fined for his graffiti at $560,764.50 in property damages. Two points in the article are very interesting. Daniel Montano has a home here and in San Francisco. The other? To quote --

Only 50 percent of graffiti is reported in Pittsburgh. For years, the city was considered a blank slate for many in U.S. graffiti community. Enforcement was considered weak and the abundance of vacant warehouses and cramped hidden alleyways -- many of them in the Strip District -- offered a canvas for many miscreants wielding a spray can.

The Heppenstall complex and the Armstrong Cork buildings are both within walking distance of my home. I have visited both on several occasions. The Armstrong Cork building has been renovated and is now a loft and business complex. It has been getting more and more difficult to get into the Heppenstall complex. Recently, I noticed bulldozers on the site and there has been talk about turning the five or six block strip into a mixed usage complex. Both sites have been well-documented from deterioration to the proliferatrion of graffiti.

There is a huge divide of perception of grafitti, even among those that follow and create it. Most taggers seem to find havens, like these abandoned buildings, to express their creative energy. Some use whatever blank wall is available. I am of the former philosophy, believing that there are enough abandoned buildings to provide blank canvases that taggers can utilize without intruding on vital and operating properties.

Community Gallery project in the Hill District reception

We had the reception for the Community Gallery project on March 31. The projects were on display in the lobby. It was a lovely afternoon, with children and artists popping in and out. Terri Baltimore was there, along with Lissa Rosenthal from Pittsburgh Celebrates. The post from the kick off is here.

Kites from the project with Deanna Mance. For all of you kite enthusiasts out there, join us for the Soars event on April 21. I'll be making an announcement about this soon, but...
April 21
Hill House Association
1835 Centre Ave

Check in: 11:30am - 12:30pm
pick up kites and maps to the flight sites. Refreshments provided

We have three sites in the Hill district that we have designated as flight zones. And if you don't already have a kite, we will have some available for you at the Hill House.
These are from the assemblage project that Christine Bethea did with the students.
Some of the visitors enjoying the display.
A very crowded lobby! Everybody loves those giant puppets

QUESTY QUEST

Manchester Craftsmen's Guild is an arts organization whose purpose is almost solely educational. And especially for youth. They have a beautiful facility in Manchester on Pittsburgh's Northside. They have been producing student arts programs for well over thirty years. I went to classes there when I was in high school. I can't begin to express my gratitude to this organization or to the instructor that mentored and encouraged me to pursue the arts.

The Manchester Craftsmen's Guild exhibits student work in a small gallery off the lobby of a building on Penn Avenue in downtown. This past Friday, the Guild opened Questy Quest, a combination of performance and static arts where passersby were encouraged to kill the beast with sporks. It was wonderfully riotous.

The detritus from the destruction, as well as the video, are on display through April 15.

QUESTY QUEST The Questiest Quest Ever Requested
A Mentors & Makers Exhibition at 800 Penn Avenue
March 23 - April 15

Free fall

The Rand Corporation recently published a report, Arts and Culture in the Metropolis - Strategies for Sustainability, which is available online. The report, which compared Philadelphia with ten other urban areas comparable in size, includes Pittsurgh as part of the study. The report analyzes the systems of support for the arts.

There are a large number of foundations in Pittsburgh as well as Philadelphia, many of which support the arts in some form. Some support only education initiatives, some support public programs. The public progrms encompass visual, performing and literary arts.

Unfortunately, foundation support is declining. Many of these organizations are in a position of having to develop new arenas of support for their endeavors. Pittsburgh, with its low median income, lacks indigenous support. You can see this when you go to gallery exhibits. Direct support of artists, through the purchase of artwork, is sadly lacking. A red dot is an occasion to celebrate because of its so-rare occurence.

The current exhibit at SPACE gallery, Home Away, expresses this in a very indirect way. The curator and artists in the exhibit have not posted a price list. And if you ask the gallery attendant for a price, your inquiry will be met with a flurry of embarassed activity as the attendant makes a number of phone calls tracking down the answer to your question.

The Post Gazette has an article about the Rand report with responses from Mr. McMahon, the President of the Cultural Trust. Some of the statistics quoted in the article give a very clear snapshot of the reasons for the lack of support. Like the highest per capita number of organizations per resident and the decided lack of cooperation among the organizations.

The solution for this dilemma is an elusive one. The Rand Corporation's conclusion that the arts would be well served if there was a strong central agency is a sound one. However, that conclusion is not neccessarily a solution. It would certainly help the arts organizations to have a strong central leadership and to coordinate their activites and promotions more closely. Individual support for the arts is what needs to be nurtured.

Community Gallery project in the Hill District

Last week, I posted about this really terrific project that is happening in the Hill District and other Pittsburgh neighborhoods. Well, here are some images from the wonderful kick-off event at the Hill House on Saturday March 3. The grand finale will be a reception for the children at the Hill House on Saturday March 31.

The kids will be working with Deanna Mance, Biko, Tim Fabian and Christine Bethea on Saturdays through March. Tasha Watkins is assisting all of the artists at their workshops. And on April 7, we will be holding Pittsburgh Soars, a kite-flying extravaganza. Denys Candy from the Find the Rivers project has located three flying sites in the Hill District.

So get out your calendar and write down the dates!

A special guest, one of the puppets that Cheryl Cappezutti made for Pittsburgh Roars.
Evan Frazier (Hill House) and Lissa Rosenthal (Pittsburgh Roars)
Bill Peduto stopped by to say hello
Vanessa German's Migration project
Christine Bethea's Seussville on the Hill project
Suan Constanse Origami elephant herd

Pittsburgh Community Gallery Project

Celebrate Kids Art, Performances and Fun Hands-on Activities
March 2007 in Pittsburgh Neighborhoods

Saturday, March 3, 12:00 noon-1:00pm.
Pittsburgh Community Gallery Project Kick-Off Reception
Join community leaders and neighborhood kids and families as we kick-off the Pittsburgh Community Gallery Project. (Media is invited.)

Northside, South Side, Hill District, East End and all around the town, navigate your way through youth arts programs with the Pittsburgh Community Gallery Project!

From March 1 – 31, 2007, Pittsburgh children and families will experience and explore dynamic after school and youth programs that engage kids grades K-12 in Pittsburgh neighborhoods.

Visual, performing and written artwork of Pittsburgh youth will be presented through neighborhood community gallery sites. Pittsburgh Community Gallery Project locations will collaborate with numerous after school programs and businesses in their respective neighborhoods.

The neighborhood sites will showcase the impact that each program makes by presenting exhibitions that include special weekend performances and fun hands-on activities by and for kids K-12 and their families. In addition, each branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will have special Community Gallery Project programming.

Together, We All Form a Community of Neighbors! In addition to the programs and activities at each Community Gallery Project site (East Side, Hill District, Northside and South Side,) be sure to visit your neighborhood Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh during the month of March for family stories and group activities that celebrate individuals and families. For more details, check out the events listings on Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh website at http://www.carnegielibrary.org/.

Each neighborhood exhibit and related programming will be free and open to the public.

The Pittsburgh Community Gallery Project began through the collaborative spirit of Pittsburgh Roars and will culminate with a catalog that showcases the creativity from each neighborhood and serve as a resource guide of the innovative after school art programs available to K-12 students in Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh Community Gallery Project is made possible through the generous support of The Grable Foundation. Special thanks to Southside Works for donating space for the South Side community gallery site and to Whole Foods Market for supporting East End activities.

Schedule of Activities
by Neighborhood

• EAST END
  
  
• HILL DISTRICT
  
  
• NORTH SIDE
  
  
• SOUTH SIDE
  
  
• CARNEGIE LIBRARIES O