Love visual art, music, film? Pittsburgh’s annual Gallery Crawl in the Cultural District takes place Friday, Sept. 27, 2019 and will be jam-packed with dozens of art to see. This FREE event is open to all ages and features 30+ crawl stops at various locations and public art places throughout the city. Here’s your chance to see some truly amazing work by talented individuals — all for free! The Gallery Crawl in the Cultural District is a production of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. The fall Gallery Crawl is presented by UPMC and UPMC Health Plan.
See a list below for all of the great events a part of the gallery crawl.
Fall Gallery Crawl in the Cultural District Events
VISUAL ARTS
Wood Street Galleries
601 Wood Street
Boat Trip
Boat Trip investigates recent artist projects, installations, and videos related to the fast-disappearing Arctic Circle. Artists: Jacob Kirkegaard, Finnbogi Petursson, Jean-Piere Aubin, Matt Beiderman, HC Gilje, Esther Kokmeijer, and Michael Dax Iacovone.
SPACE
812 Liberty Avenue
Mutant Media
9/27-11/3
Mutant Media is an exhibition of American artists working within the DIY aesthetic. Featured artists often work in the form of zines, t-shirts, posters, box-art, trading cards, and more. The exhibition explores these bodies of work, which mutate media, iconography, and advertising. Curated by Joshua Rievel and Jesse Hulcher.
Social Status
717 Liberty Avenue
Survey The Culture
Tyler Calpin, a PGH based photographer and graduate of Point Park, will curate a submission-based multimedia showcase of local artists. This exhibition will be a survey of work centered on streetwear and editorial fashion, and seeks to explore a larger culture within the city, one that focuses on fashion as art.
love, Pittsburgh
805 Liberty Avenue
Small Mall Wall
Stop by to see what is new from over 100 local artisans at love, Pittsburgh. Also check out new artists featured on our Small Mall Wall.
Trust Arts Education Center
807 Liberty Avenue, Peirce Studio
(5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
ArtTech by SYLA PGH
Pittsburgh is a city where tech and art meet. Join us as ArtTech marries the two for a night of interactive displays.
937 Liberty
937 Liberty Avenue
When the Bough Breaks
Organized by Susanne Slavick
9/27-12/31/2019
In a 1940 poem, Bertolt Brecht asked: “What kind of times are they, when A talk about trees is almost a crime. Because it implies silence about so many horrors?” When the Bough Breaks responds to this and other questions, featuring paintings and drawings by artists who embrace the tree materially and conceptually through figure and metaphor, analysis and allegory, and as record and reflection. Artists: Patricia Bellan-Gillen, Denise Burge, Zoe Charlton, Ellen Harvey, Alex Lukas, Clayton Merrell, Lavar Munroe, Sarah Slavick, and Susanne Slavick
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Pittsburgh
212 9th Street
Murals of Maxo Vanka
It’s All About Perspective
Bring your perspective and creativity to “It’s All About Perspective” with the Maxo Vanka Murals. Work with others to create replicas of Vanka’s Justice and Injustice Murals. It takes 64 individual drawings to complete each one. Every grid mural is unique just like the artist’s murals in St. Nicholas Croatian Church in Millvale.
All ages and artistic abilities are welcomed. Collaborate and create a one-of-a-kind replica of Maxo Vanka’s Art of Social Justice. Gallery Crawl visitors will also have the chance to share their perspective on Justice and Injustice in our world today. Discuss or draw the thought-provoking images that Vanka might be painting today!
August Wilson African American Cultural Center
980 Liberty Avenue
The galleries at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center will be open from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the evening of the September 27th Gallery Crawl for the Governor’s Awards for the Arts Ceremony. awaacc.org
Resurgence – Rise Again by Ben Jones
Gallery 1
9/27-12/15/2019
Resurgence – Rise Again features large-scale work by seminal artist Ben Jones that brings awareness to the plight and ascension of humankind. His artistic practice has been inspired by African spiritualism and ritual, and revolutionary struggles, especially of the people of Cuba. Ben Jones (b. 1941) is a New Jersey–based artist, activist, and educator.
Amani Lewis: Subjective Nature
Gallery 2
9/27-12/15/2019
Amani Lewis: Subjective Nature features intimate, mixed-media portraits of friends and family members with the goal of showing their humanity, which often goes unnoticed. Amani Lewis (b. 1994) is a visual artist based in Baltimore, Maryland.
Visual Art at the Backstage Bar
655 Penn Avenue
Works by Vicki Shilling and Nadya Lapets
Walls of the Backstage Bar are adorned by work from two Pittsburgh-based artists:
Vickie Schilling is an artist working with oil and pallet knives and traditional Japanese Nihonga mineral pigments. Exploring the concept of representation in a unique way, she creates works inspired by her travels and creative imagination. Nature, everyday life, and everyday objects are the subjects of her creative process.
A personal interpretation – not hindered by reality – creates a unique perspective and portrayal of landscapes, still life, wildlife, and the human subject. Images based on reality, yet culled from the realm of imagination, form the foundation of her works.
Nadya Lapets is a Russian-born American artist. She has duel education in Science and Arts: MD, People Friendship University, Moscow; graphic communications degree, CCAC, Pittsburgh.
Nadya is a passionate oil artist and graphic designer. She loves to experiment in different styles: from Impressionism, to Conceptual art, to Abstract Expressionism. Her works are vibrant and full of sunlight. Nadya Lapets has been participating in various national and international juried art shows and has multiple awards for her works.
707 Gallery
707 Penn Avenue
Fine Print: An Exhibit by PULLPROOF Studio
What makes screenprinting cool or important? You’ll find the answers here in this exhibit. The works are unified through the medium itself – one that is vast in its potential function, aesthetic sensibility, and messaging. This exhibit features works by PULLPROOF members Charlie Barber, Matthew Constant, Max Gonzales, Christina Lee, Aaron Regal, Anna Shepperson, Harriet Smith, Matthew Van Asselt, and Laura Zurowski.
Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council
810 Penn Avenue, #600
Art on the Walls: WE ARE HERE: Asian Pacific Islander American Artists in Pittsburgh
Through January 2020
Although Asian Pacific Islander Americans (APIA) have been present in Pittsburgh since the 1870s and represent an ever-growing community in the city and in the country at-large, APIA’s continue to struggle for representation. This exhibition aims to provide visibility for this community. For the first time in Pittsburgh’s history, every exhibiting artist in We Are Here identifies as APIA. While some of these artists create work directly informed by their race, family backgrounds, and socio-political history, all possess an identity created in the context of omission and discrimination.
By giving a physical space for viewers to look at and engage with these artists’ work, we hope to set a precedent for the local art scene, educate the larger public, develop dialogue, and voice that We Are Here, we have been here, and we will continue to create.
Urban Pathways 6-12 Charter School Gallery
914 Penn Avenue
5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.: Student Steel Pan Performance
8:30 p.m.-9 p.m.: Teacher Talkback
Join Urban Pathways Charter School for a brand new year of student art and performance.
Art in the Alley
Tito Way, Exchange Way, Garrison Way
Returning for the first time since last fall’s Gallery Crawl, this expansive event takes place in the Cultural District’s alleyways and invites you to experience interactive art, music, performances, installations, food trucks, and more in a pop-up outdoor setting.
Art in the Alley: VisitPITTSBURGH
Tito Way
Join as local artists decorate Pittsburgh parking chairs in celebration of VisitPITTSBURGH’s 90 Painted Chairs program.
VisitPITTSBURGH, along with the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, announced the creation of the 90 Painted Chairs program earlier this year. The program allows local artists to paint parking chairs that will be auctioned for a local charity. This follows the unveiling of the 8-foot parking chair at the 2019 Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival. Both events are intended to help promote the marketing campaign that is built around Pittsburgh as a welcoming city and the act of offering someone a chair – a sign of hospitality.
Art in the Alley: Community Canvas
Exchange Way
Get hands-on with this community painting of three murals, designed by artist Alison Zapata.
Art in the Alley: The Ibeji Drum Ensemble (20 minute performances: starting at 6 p.m.; 7:30 p.m.; 9: p.m.)
Exchange Way
The Ibeji (Ee-bay-gee) Drum Ensemble was founded by Dr. Anthony B. Mitchell (Baba Tony), Beatrice Y. Mitchell (Iya Bea) and their twin sons, Anthony, Jr. and Dante. Ibeji means “twins” in the West African Yoruba tradition. As a family, the Mitchell’s embody the traditional musical heritage of Africa. In 1995, the Mitchell Family formed The Ibeji Drum Ensemble to “edu-tain” (educate and entertain) audiences of all ages and ethnicities, and to preserve and cultivate an awareness of the rich musical traditions of West Africa.
The Mitchells have traveled numerous times to Senegal, Guinea and Ghana, West Africa to study traditional drum, dance and culture. They have also traveled to Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
Art in the Alley: KRUNK Movement (6:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.)
Exchange Way
The KRUNK Movement is a youth micro-enterprise designed as a production company. Students use the elements of Hip-Hop to communicate messages to peers about mental and physical health while simultaneously learning the basics of the music business. Featured artists: Amani Howze, Naji Andrea, and Dorian Hicks will be performing original music at 6:30 p.m.
Art in the Alley: Madame Trio (8:30 p.m. – 8:50 p.m.)
Exchange Way
Jazmine Bailey, also known as Madame Trio, and Pittsburgh native, uses dance to communicate message about social and economic climate of our society, through stimulating abstract movement performance.
Art in the Alley: Watering Hole by Spectacle Create and Capture
Exchange Way
Watering Hole acts as a gathering space that attracts the viewer from afar with the feeling of a distant mirage. Up close, a low audio rumble vibrates the water contained in the sculpture to create moving patterns – this water ripple is reflected on the walls of the alley generating a shimmering shadowscape.
Art in the Alley: DJ Femi and DJ SMI
Garrison Way
Party under the lights of Garrison Canal by artist Andrea Polli with DJ Femi (5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) and DJ SMI (7:30 p.m. – 10 p.m.).
Welcome Pittsburgh Information Center and Gift Shop
120 Fifth Avenue (entrance to event is on Penn Avenue)
runwithitcreative
Featuring pen and ink drawings of Pittsburgh by Cathy Connor with a special giveaway.
Emmanuel Fine Art Photography Gallery
100 7th Street
Interact with new work captured by one of Pittsburgh’s premiere photographers. Experience his stunning outdoor images, collected in the course of his travels across the United States and his native Greece.
Pittsburgh CAPA
111 9th Street
Murals for Glasshouse Pittsburgh (5:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.)
On display, student-designed murals for the new Glasshouse Pittsburgh (located at 160 E. Station Square Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15219).
Performances, Activities, Artisan Market
Crazy Mocha
801 Liberty Avenue
Steel City Clown Brigade
The Steel City Clown Brigade was founded in 2006 in Homestead PA. It teaches juggling, balloon sculpture, and other circus crafts to inner-city youth and also visits local nursing homes and hospitals to entertain residents and patients.
Trust Arts Education Center
807 Liberty Avenue, 4th Floor (5:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.)
The World Market
Presented in partnership with All for All Artisan Network, The World Market will feature one-of-a-kind original art from more than twenty of the region’s finest artisans representing diverse immigrant communities and the African Diaspora.
Liberty Magic
811 Liberty Avenue
House magicians from Liberty Magic will delight Crawl visitors of all ages with world-class illusions.
Food Trucks
917 Liberty Avenue
Food truck vendors will be selling a variety of options from desserts to snacks, and light supper fare throughout the evening of the Crawl.
Arcade Comedy Theater
943 Liberty Avenue
Improv Comedy Shows (6 p.m. – 8 p.m.)
Short improv comedy shows every half hour.
Theater Square
655 Penn Avenue
Backstage Bar at Theater Square
George Jones New View Trio (5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.)
A self-taught percussionist, George Jones has been a mainstay on the Pittsburgh music scene for more than 30 years and recognized as the finest conga player in the area. George has performed countless concerts and club dates with Pittsburgh jazz greats and internationally known artists Pharoah Sanders, Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes, Ray Mantilla, and Larry Coryell. In 1984, George co-founded the seminal Latin Jazz group “Salsamba” with guitarist Eric Susoeff, recording six CDs with the band. George continues to play and teach in the Pittsburgh area.
Agnes R. Katz Plaza
House of Soul Band (6 p.m. – 9 p.m.)
Voted the #1 R&B band in Pittsburgh several times, The House of Soul Band has been playing funk, R&B, and soul music from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s for more than 25 years.
Ten Penny
960 Penn Avenue
Live Music with Bobby V (6 p.m. – 9 p.m.)
Bobby V (5) is a well-known musician in western PA as well as the south Florida area. Singer-songwriter, acoustic guitarist, harmonica player, and percussionist, he covers over 1,000 songs from the 1950s to present day with no backing tracks. Genres range from classic to modern rock, blues, folk, bluegrass, and country. He has written more than 200 original songs as well.
India Palace
137 6th Street
Free Henna
Stop by this first-time Crawl stop for free henna and complimentary beverages. The restaurant will also offer 50% off its entire menu for Crawl visitors.
Social House 7
123 7th Street
Live Music with Craig “Izzy” Arlet (5:30 p.m.– 9 p.m.)
Live music is featured at this first-time Crawl stop.
Public Art in the Cultural District Commissioned by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
Trust Oasis
133 7th Street
Trust Oasis: featuring Los Trompos, interactive public art
Opening in the Cultural District on September 27, 2019.
In support of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s mission to develop and promote Pittsburgh’s vibrant Cultural District, Trust Oasis is a pop-up arts experience featuring temporary installations designed to enliven your visit to Downtown and contribute to our city’s tradition of infusing art into everyday living. The first temporary installation in Trust Oasis is Los Trompos by Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena which first appeared in Pittsburgh in June of 2019 during the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival—also produced by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
Los Trompos draws its inspiration from the form of a spinning top, a toy popular with children around the world. The project features three-dimensional, larger-than-life tops in a variety of colors and shapes. The colorful surfaces of each “top” are created in part by fabric woven in a traditional style by Mexican artisans. By working together, visitors may spin the tops on their bases as they interact with the structures.
Outdoor public art throughout the Cultural District, including:
Agnes R. Katz Plaza
Allegheny Riverfront Park
Art Bicycle Racks
Cell Phone Disco
FLOW
Haas Mural
Magnolias for Pittsburgh
Marx@200
Water Cube
168 Lightbulbs
Cultural District Walking Art Tour
Other Happenings on September 27, 2019 in and around Pittsburgh’s Cultural District
Governor’s Awards for the Arts Ceremony & Block Party
August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC)
980 Liberty Avenue
Event Information: pittsburghartscouncil.org
Block Party: 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.: Block party in front of the AWAACC, featuring DJ Nate Tha Barber; the Funky Fly Project, and Hill Dance Academy Theatre.
Governor’s Awards for the Arts Awards Ceremony: 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. RSVP/Registration required.
Ceremony after-party: 8:30 p.m. -10 p.m. for Award Ceremony attendees in the AWAACC lobby and café, featuring a cash bar, dessert, and music.
For the first time since 1997, the Governor’s Awards for the Arts will be hosted in Pittsburgh, honoring five outstanding Pennsylvania artists, arts organizations and cultural leaders who have made significant contributions to the advancement of the arts. Governor Tom Wolf will present the awards on September 27 at 7 p.m. at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC). This is the first time the event has been held in a facility named for a past honoree. The late August Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, was recognized with a Governor’s Award in 1990. The statewide awards ceremony is open to the public, by registration only, and is free of charge. Following the ceremony there will be a free after- party for award ceremony attendees, including snacks and a cash bar.
This year’s roster of honorees include, Artist of the Year Award: Vanessa Berman, Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Awards to Roger Humphries, Sr. and Joe Negri, Creative Industries Award: Rock Lititz, and Arts Leadership & Service Award: Mary Brenholts.
Market Square
2 South Market Square
WorldSquare
Welcoming Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership
WorldSquare will showcase businesses, artists, makers, performers, food purveyors, and more from Pittsburgh’s international and newcomer communities.
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Downtown
612 Smithfield Street
Single Mom Defined (6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.)
Join the artist, Heather Hopson, and members of Single Mom Defined, for an interactive discussion about the exhibit, which encourages all to celebrate motherhood and elevate the voices of African-American moms, who are often left out of conversations about raising children in America. Everyone is invited to join the discussion and participate in hands-on art activity.
Public Art Opening:
Eighth Street & Penn Avenue
SQR
Artist: Erwin Redl
Curator: Trek Development / Q Development
SQR is a permanent light installation with acrylic, glass and programmable RGB-LEDs. The building’s bridge exterior is transformed into a living, breathing skin. The light permeates the architecture and places people at the center of the spatial event. The installation opens on September 27, 2019 with artist availability for interviews.
Crawl After Dark begins at 10:00 p.m. and will feature the film screening of The Last Dragon with Live Score by DJ Soy Sos. This event is presented in partnership with Film Pittsburgh. (Location: Peirce Studio, Trust Arts Education Center, 807 Liberty Avenue.) Screened with subtitles and scored live by DJ Soy Sos, the 1980s cult classic follows the life of a young martial artist in Harlem (produced by Barry Gordy and directed by Michael Schultz).
Salsa Friday will feature a Kick-Off Party- For the Love of Bachata – Fall Festival at the Greer Cabaret Theater, 655 Penn Avenue, ($5 at the door/free with same-night Cultural District ticket stub) 10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Free Bachata dance lesson with Jeff and Colleen Shirey of Salsa Pittsburgh. Music provided by DJ Jeff and DJ Tay.
Parking and important details
For more information about the Gallery Crawl in the Cultural District, visit: TrustArts.org/Crawl or call 412-456-6666. Free bike parking is available where designated. Pop Up Bike Parking by BikePGH is located on 7th Street & Penn Avenue, 8th Street & Penn Avenue and 917 Liberty Avenue. All Gallery Crawl locations are universally accessible, unless otherwise noted.
Share your images from the event using the hashtag #CrawlPGH.