Pittsburgh Gear Up For The G-20 Conference
By Michael Hepworth
Pittsburgh will be in the international spotlight in 2009 when it hosts the G-20 conference in September, and already the city is being besieged by secret service agents working to make everything go smoothly. The President must like Pittsburgh, because in recent years the city has really rebounded from the perception that it is a grimy industrial metropolis, to what it is today.
To think that as late as the mid-thirties, mid-afternoon in Pittsburgh meant the air was so bad with soot and grime that it looked like night. Now it is one of the greenest cities in the USA with a host of new industries moving in the area such as health care and technology, and a decent place to live with a growing arts and cultural scene. Unemployment is also well below the national average, adding to its appeal as a place to live and work.
I could sense that on my recent fact finding visit, although I did find it a rather difficult city to become familiar with, since it consists of 89 districts and the traffic is also an issue that is becoming an increasing irritation for the locals. It is also a major sports town dominated by the Super Bowl Champions the Steelers, and now the Stanley Cup winners the Penguins. The Pittsburgh Pirates are currently struggling in baseball, and have not been a force in years, but the stadium is so fresh and modern that the fans still come in droves to cheer their last place team.
The purpose of my visit was to check out the art and cultural scene, and one of the main highlights has to be what is a pilgrimage to many, a visit to the Andy Warhol Museum. Whatever you may think of the multi-talented Pittsburgh native, the main impression you leave with is how prolific the man was. Start out at the 5th floor with the Velvet Underground and Rolling Stones room with Warhol’s impressive portraits of Mick Jagger, and work your way down.
The facility is the most comprehensive single artist museum in the world and contains more than 8,000 Warhol works of art and 273 of his films that have been preserved in their entirety. Warhol also created over 100 time capsules, and they are being released on a regular basis, and the exhibits and live music performances are constantly being updated.
The Senator John Heinz History Museum is a mish-mash of all kinds of exhibits ranging from Abraham Lincoln artifacts to the Heinz Museum, Indian Wars display, Sports Museum, etc. etc. that is hard to take in all at one time. A section highlighting all of the Pennsylvania mining disasters is particularly galling, and I also enjoyed hearing from another Pittsburgh fellow Andrew Carnegie, although it is hard to fathom how such a dull and ordinary speaker became the richest man in the world.
The main reason for going to this museum however has to be the H.J.Heinz section, chronicling the rise of the Pittsburgh company, which even today is used as the perfect example of how to run a business and how to market a product and keep market share.
One very interesting Museum in Pittsburgh I enjoyed a lot was the Mattress Factory, a hip contemporary space that features innovative local sculptors and artists in an area known as the Mexican War Streets neighborhood. In its previous life it was a Stearns & Foster facility, and is considered the best facility for installation art in the USA.
Currently there are over 80 pieces of wood sculpture from local artist Thaddeus Mosley on display on two floors, the largest single display of his work ever, and the exhibits which are also innovative change about every three months. Coming up, Berlin artist Peter Kuhn will install a lighted sculpture on the roof of the building with six cold cathode light bars (100 feet in length), and the impression will be that the lights will pierce through the buildings walls and exterior.
There are also several permanent exhibits, none more magical than Danae, a display by artist James Turrell, a man who works with light exclusively. Everything is seen in a completely dark space, and as you walk towards the blue screen, it changes format until you realize that you are looking into a separate room. Magical stuff. This artistic jewel of a facility was also the first museum in the USA to exhibit works from the highly controversial UK artist Damien Hirst in 1994.
The great black playwright August Wilson was born in Pittsburgh, and a new Center for African American Culture and performing arts center is scheduled to open this year. A hard hat tour of the impressive facility had me slightly wondering how they were going to open in time, but when they do it will be impressive. Showpiece of the new facility will be the 486 seat Theater, which will be more than capable of presenting every discipline from dance and music to plays and film screenings.
Wilson (1945-2005) was a prolific playwright who grew up in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. and whose crowning achievement was his 10-play “Century Cycle,’’ where each play was set in a different decade of the 20th century. Nine of the 10 plays were set in the Hill District, and include well known pieces such as Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
One of the most noteworthy art/community projects I have ever seen is taking place in Pittsburgh through a group called the MLK Community Mural Project. What this group does is hire budding young artists to paint murals throughout the city, many in black poorer neighborhoods.
These murals frankly are not artistic masterpieces, but with a jazz/abstract theme and bright colors they certainly liven up some dull looking areas.
One spot near Squirrel Hill so changed the area from a drug/gang infested haven to a tranquil place of solitude, that Laura Bush plus squadrons of local politicians turned out for the grand unveiling a couple of years. There is a location map on their web site, and it is well worth the effort to track some of these murals down.
On a slight tangent, the National Aviary is well worth a visit when you are in Pittsburgh. Granted that honor by President Clinton, the new Penguin Point exhibit has garnished a lot of attention, but as of those writing the likes of superstar hockey players Crosby and Malkin have not made it over there yet. With 600 birds of all types on display, the parrot section is particularly impressive, and the live shows have always proved to be popular.
www.AugustWilsonCenter.org
www.pghhistory.org (Heinz ctr)
www.mattress.org
www.warhol.org
www.mlkmural.com
www.aviary.org
Pittsburgh will be in the international spotlight in 2009 when it hosts the G-20 conference in September, and already the city is being besieged by secret service agents working to make everything go smoothly. The President must like Pittsburgh, because in recent years the city has really rebounded from the perception that it is a grimy industrial metropolis, to what it is today.
To think that as late as the mid-thirties, mid-afternoon in Pittsburgh meant the air was so bad with soot and grime that it looked like night. Now it is one of the greenest cities in the USA with a host of new industries moving in the area such as health care and technology, and a decent place to live with a growing arts and cultural scene. Unemployment is also well below the national average, adding to its appeal as a place to live and work.
I could sense that on my recent fact finding visit, although I did find it a rather difficult city to become familiar with, since it consists of 89 districts and the traffic is also an issue that is becoming an increasing irritation for the locals. It is also a major sports town dominated by the Super Bowl Champions the Steelers, and now the Stanley Cup winners the Penguins. The Pittsburgh Pirates are currently struggling in baseball, and have not been a force in years, but the stadium is so fresh and modern that the fans still come in droves to cheer their last place team.
The purpose of my visit was to check out the art and cultural scene, and one of the main highlights has to be what is a pilgrimage to many, a visit to the Andy Warhol Museum. Whatever you may think of the multi-talented Pittsburgh native, the main impression you leave with is how prolific the man was. Start out at the 5th floor with the Velvet Underground and Rolling Stones room with Warhol’s impressive portraits of Mick Jagger, and work your way down.
The facility is the most comprehensive single artist museum in the world and contains more than 8,000 Warhol works of art and 273 of his films that have been preserved in their entirety. Warhol also created over 100 time capsules, and they are being released on a regular basis, and the exhibits and live music performances are constantly being updated.
The Senator John Heinz History Museum is a mish-mash of all kinds of exhibits ranging from Abraham Lincoln artifacts to the Heinz Museum, Indian Wars display, Sports Museum, etc. etc. that is hard to take in all at one time. A section highlighting all of the Pennsylvania mining disasters is particularly galling, and I also enjoyed hearing from another Pittsburgh fellow Andrew Carnegie, although it is hard to fathom how such a dull and ordinary speaker became the richest man in the world.
The main reason for going to this museum however has to be the H.J.Heinz section, chronicling the rise of the Pittsburgh company, which even today is used as the perfect example of how to run a business and how to market a product and keep market share.
One very interesting Museum in Pittsburgh I enjoyed a lot was the Mattress Factory, a hip contemporary space that features innovative local sculptors and artists in an area known as the Mexican War Streets neighborhood. In its previous life it was a Stearns & Foster facility, and is considered the best facility for installation art in the USA.
Currently there are over 80 pieces of wood sculpture from local artist Thaddeus Mosley on display on two floors, the largest single display of his work ever, and the exhibits which are also innovative change about every three months. Coming up, Berlin artist Peter Kuhn will install a lighted sculpture on the roof of the building with six cold cathode light bars (100 feet in length), and the impression will be that the lights will pierce through the buildings walls and exterior.
There are also several permanent exhibits, none more magical than Danae, a display by artist James Turrell, a man who works with light exclusively. Everything is seen in a completely dark space, and as you walk towards the blue screen, it changes format until you realize that you are looking into a separate room. Magical stuff. This artistic jewel of a facility was also the first museum in the USA to exhibit works from the highly controversial UK artist Damien Hirst in 1994.
The great black playwright August Wilson was born in Pittsburgh, and a new Center for African American Culture and performing arts center is scheduled to open this year. A hard hat tour of the impressive facility had me slightly wondering how they were going to open in time, but when they do it will be impressive. Showpiece of the new facility will be the 486 seat Theater, which will be more than capable of presenting every discipline from dance and music to plays and film screenings.
Wilson (1945-2005) was a prolific playwright who grew up in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. and whose crowning achievement was his 10-play “Century Cycle,’’ where each play was set in a different decade of the 20th century. Nine of the 10 plays were set in the Hill District, and include well known pieces such as Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
One of the most noteworthy art/community projects I have ever seen is taking place in Pittsburgh through a group called the MLK Community Mural Project. What this group does is hire budding young artists to paint murals throughout the city, many in black poorer neighborhoods.
These murals frankly are not artistic masterpieces, but with a jazz/abstract theme and bright colors they certainly liven up some dull looking areas.
One spot near Squirrel Hill so changed the area from a drug/gang infested haven to a tranquil place of solitude, that Laura Bush plus squadrons of local politicians turned out for the grand unveiling a couple of years. There is a location map on their web site, and it is well worth the effort to track some of these murals down.
On a slight tangent, the National Aviary is well worth a visit when you are in Pittsburgh. Granted that honor by President Clinton, the new Penguin Point exhibit has garnished a lot of attention, but as of those writing the likes of superstar hockey players Crosby and Malkin have not made it over there yet. With 600 birds of all types on display, the parrot section is particularly impressive, and the live shows have always proved to be popular.
www.AugustWilsonCenter.org
www.pghhistory.org (Heinz ctr)
www.mattress.org
www.warhol.org
www.mlkmural.com
www.aviary.org
