Funded Projects from 2003
American Shorts Reading Series
$10,000 » Suzanne Pace, 2003 Seed Award project support
American Shorts Reading Series created a forum that delivered classic and contemporary short works of American fiction to a diverse audience. In an accessible, animated, community setting, the series presented live readings “performed” by an eclectic cross-section of the Pittsburgh community.
architecture experience identity design
$8,700 » EDGE studio, 2003 Seed Award project support
Architecture Experience Identity Design, a project of Garfield design firm EDGE studio and San Francisco-based 3A Garage Architecture, combined a webcast, professional exhibition, and student showcase under one umbrella. The exhibition series created an opportunity for young designers and architects-as well as students in both fields-to display their work and discuss the artistry and practice of design with experienced professionals.
“Birds Eye View” (2003)
Kristin Williams, 2003 Community Murals mural
Artist Kristin Williams worked as a bird illustrator at the National Aviary in the Northside for years, and brought her discipline to this highly detailed mural. By utilizing old aerial photos of Regent Square, Kristin was able to compose a stunning preliminary mural design that won the hearts of the community. As a testament to their tight-knit spirit, community members helped in the painting of the mural, lending their expertise to assure the design would be as accurate as possible when transferred to the wall. They also helped in the painting phase by painting solid-colored portions of the mural, with Kristin adding the finishing touches. The result is an extremely detailed and very accurate rendering of Regent Square as seen from above. Even the birds, which add a depth and flourish of color to this intricate design, are accurate: all are indigenous species to Regent Square and the neighboring splendor of Frick Park. The design is so intricate, in fact, that local residents can be seen portrayed in 1/100 scale, walking their dogs, doing roof repair, and window shopping in the business district. The combination of color, detail, and community involvement make this piece a true cooperative achievement with a lasting impact.
BlackPittsburgh.com
$10,000, 2003 Seed Award project support
BlackPittsburgh.com was an online resource for the African American community. Compiling information on black-owned businesses, events, happenings, and news, the website was both a database and a virtual community center.
A Broken Landscape
$5,700 » Partnership for Minority HIV/AIDS Prevention, 2003 Seed Award project support
A Broken Landscape, a project of Partnership for Minority HIV/AIDS Prevention and organized by Action Aid USA, presented an international traveling photography exhibit in East Liberty that documented the impact of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa. Exhibited alongside a number of community events, including a youth arts festival and national HIV Testing Day, A Broken Landscape shed light on what was often ignored.
Celebrate Diversity
$6,525 » Pittsburgh International Lesbian and Gay Film Fest, 2003 Seed Award project support
Celebrate Diversity, a project of Pittsburgh International Lesbian and Gay Film Fest, broadened the definition of diversity in Pittsburgh through a series of six film screenings and community forums in East Liberty. The program highlighted the overlapping of the GLBT and African American communities.
Diatribe Magazine
$10,000, 2003 Seed Award project support
Diatribe Magazine communicated views often missing in mainstream media. The publication addressed community and regional issues not only from a young person’s perspective, but from all sides, and provided an alternative media outlet that gave voice to the underrepresented.
DiverseCity Pittsburgh
$5,000 » GLENDA, 2003 Seed Award project support
DiverseCity Pittsburgh, a project of GLENDA, built on Pittsburgh’s strong foundation of pro-diversity activism by combining the efforts of various religious, ethnic, corporate, student and cultural groups to achieve common goals.
Everyday Art Assignments
$8,000 » Studio Capezzuti, 2003 Seed Award project support
Everyday Art Assignments, a project led by Pittsburgh artist Cheryl Capezzutti, educated the community and promoted local artists. Using an online platform, the project connected budding artists 24 hours a day and encouraged community members to work on their own independent crafts, as well as to seek out established local artists.
Festival of the Salvage Arts
$7,500 » Construction Junction, 2003 Seed Award project support
Festival of the Salvage Arts, a project of Construction Junction, was the premiere event of SALVO. This two-day open house at Construction Junction’s retail warehouse in Point Breeze provided an opportunity for the community to explore their artistic and creative potential. Activities included hands-on projects for people of all ages to experiment with salvage materials, as well as an exhibition of salvage arts by Pittsburgh artists.
Flicks on Bricks
$7,000 » Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project (PUMP), 2003 Seed Award project support
Flicks on Bricks, a project of Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project (PUMP), introduced film buffs, young people, and community members to Pittsburgh’s rich cinematic tradition and compelling urban venues. The series offered creative presentations of films in different Pittsburgh neighborhoods, highlighting the unique character of each community and presenting films to a diverse audience.
Giving young adults in Pittsburgh the basic tools to run for office, including information on finding open positions, forming committees, creating budgets, and working with the media.
$8,730, 2003 Seed Award project support
Run Baby, Run gave young adults in Pittsburgh the chance to seek political office. Through a series of nonpartisan educational workshops, young people were given the basic tools to run for office, including information on finding open positions, forming committees, creating budgets, and working with the media.
Homewood Community Garden Classes
$625, 2003 Grand Ideas project support
Homewood Community Garden Classes offered free classes on sustainable gardening to initiate the first step in advocating for community gardens throughout the city.
“I Myself am That” (2003)
Laurie Marshall, 2003 Community Murals mural
Artist Laurie Marshall based this mural on the concept that “The Kingdom of God is within you,” interviewing more than 50 people of all ages and walks of life from McKees Rocks, and asking them what they thought of when they heard this phrase. The figures standing along the bottom edge of the mural correspond to the community members that Laurie interviewed, and the design is her rendition of how they described their vision. The windows they look through frame a view of an imagined McKees Rocks. The landscape is lush and wild, with the famous McKees Rocks Bridge as the only man-made structure in the panorama. Additionally, each window is designed to correspond to the different ethnic groups who call McKees Rocks home: from left to right they are Polish, Carpo-Russian, Ukranian, German, African, Irish, and Native American. The windows themselves are based on Italian Renaissance paintings, representing the Italian community. Shortly before the mural was commissioned, Focus on Renewal, the community applicant, brought the building on which the mural was painted and turned it into an art center. After the mural was completed, Focus on Renewal went on to adorn all the walls of the building with additional murals. The art center is now a thriving community gathering space and a source of identity and pride to the McKees Rocks community.
Italian and Yugoslav National Film Series
$7,000 » University of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Filmmakers, 2003 Seed Award project support
Italian and Yugoslav National Film Series, a project of University of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Filmmakers, combined the unique perspectives of international cinema with Pittsburgh’s own intercultural roots to create a multifaceted event. Highlighting the film, food, and culture of the Italian and Slavic traditions, the event united local cultural groups, restaurants, and film buffs in mutual celebration.
Jazz on the Hill
$10,000, 2003 Seed Award project support
Jazz on the Hill showcased local artists and musicians every Tuesday evening from April through September and served as a vital connection between the Hill District and its incredible jazz history. Held outdoors, the series furthered the sense of revitalization brought by the creation of a community garden on Center Avenue.
Jefferson Presents
$5,000, 2003 Seed Award project support
Jefferson Presents was a monthly microcinema that screened underground and experimental films at Garfield Artworks. The series engaged audience participation with live performances and provided a resource and venue for independent filmmaking in Pittsburgh.
“Life In Motion” (2003)
Monique Luck & Leslie Ansley, 2003 Community Murals mural
This mural’s colorful and energetic design emerged after weeks of meeting with community groups, who felt it should express the diversity of Central Northside. Muralist Monique Luck states that the mural “reflects the diversity of the community through representation of different ages, races, and genders, as well as the vibrant restoration of the neighborhood and its people.” Along with diversity, members of the Northside community wanted the mural to depict a popular community pastime known as “stooping”— the act of sitting on your stoop and visiting your neighbors as the pass by, which is a fundamental way of communicating and building neighborhood connections. The painting of this mural was part of a larger community effort to transform a vacant lot into a beautiful and functional gathering space with a garden, playground equipment, trees, art, and benches. Community members, Home Depot, Kaboom (a national nonprofit dedicated to playground construction) and the Sprout Fund created this park in just one day! Together, the mural and the park combine a comfortable gathering space with true aesthetic beauty.
“Listening Through Time” (2003)
Chris St. Pierre, 2003 Community Murals mural
Reaching into the Hill District’s rich past and lighting the way to the future, this lively mural depicts a saxophonist symbolically filling Centre Avenue with the energy of Jazz. The Hill Community Development Corporation, the House of the Crossroads, Freedom Unlimited Inc., and the office of then City Councilman Sala Udin collaborated with artist Chris St. Pierre to develop this idea, which draws on the Hill District’s history as home to a vibrant, world-class Jazz scene during the mid-20th Century. Legends Lena Horne and George Benson have roots in the Hill District, and drummer Art Blakey’s family still reside there today. These luminaries lend their spirit and energy to the mural, radiating a sense of hope and promise for the future while connecting to and commemorating the past.
Multi-Tool
$7,000, 2003 Seed Award project support
Multi-Tool offered resources and space to artists, community members, and groups with limited budgets. The project functioned as an art space, meeting area, and community venue in Wilkinsburg, housing projects including a bicycle education initiative, a number of local bands, and a bookstore.
Pittsburgh Creative Nonfiction Festival
$7,000 » Creative Nonfiction Foundation, 2003 Seed Award project support
Pittsburgh Creative Nonfiction Festival, a project of Creative Nonfiction Foundation, included workshops, readings, and panels organized by the writers and editors at Creative Nonfiction magazine and The New Yinzer online journal. Bringing The New Yinzer and its young, Internet savvy audience together with the international readers of Creative Nonfiction, as well as local editors, publishers, and writers, the festival cross-pollinated the already fertile Pittsburgh literary scene.
Pittsburgh Green Consumer Project
$3,300, 2003 Seed Award project support
Pittsburgh Green Consumer Project taught area residents how to make environmentally responsible decisions about consumer goods and services and how to live more ecologically conscious lives. By offering public workshops and open houses, the project encouraged participants to change their daily habits to benefit the environment, globally and locally.
Pittsburgh Love Stories
$8,395 » The New Yinzer, 2003 Seed Award project support
Pittsburgh Love Stories, a project of The New Yinzer, was New Yinzer’s first full-length, professionally designed, printed and bound book. Storybook #3: Love Stories examined Pittsburgh through the theme of love, with contributions including essays, immersion pieces, fiction, and poetry.
Pittsburgh Net Radio
$3,000, 2003 Seed Award project support
Pittsburgh Net Radio used online audio streaming to bring local music to a wide audience. Giving exposure to emerging and established local talent, Pittsburgh Net Radio acts as an electronic events calendar and meeting place for a community of young music enthusiasts.
Press Play Video Series
$2,000, 2003 Seed Award project support
Press Play Video Series was produced by a collective of artists, educators, and activists dedicated to bringing independent work by emerging and established video makers to Pittsburgh. Committed to an inclusive vision of video, The Press Play collective sought work from all genres, including experimental, animated, performance, documentary, and activist work.
Puppet Uprising
$3,500 » Black Sheep Puppet Festival, 2003 Seed Award project support
Puppet Uprising, a project of Black Sheep Puppet Festival, was a puppetry festival that promoted the form’s long history as a means of poignant social critique, and as a legitimate form of entertainment for adults. The day-long event combined lectures, film screenings, performance art, and educational workshops surrounding puppet artistry that addressed issues of social change, activism, and art.
Renegade Performance Downtown Lunch Series
$9,600 » Junction Dance Theatre, 2003 Seed Award project support
Renegade Performance Downtown Lunch Series, a project of Junction Dance Theatre, took place during lunch breaks at many office buildings, food courts, and public spaces in downtown Pittsburgh. The performances promoted the many possibilities of dance and expanded the definition of live performance in an exciting and unexpected fashion.
RiverCubes Project: Pittsburgh
$10,000 » Three Rivers Rowing Association, 2003 Seed Award project support
RiverCubes Project: Pittsburgh, a project of Three Rivers Rowing Association, constructed sculptures from refuse gathered along Pittsburgh’s rivers to draw attention to the future of the city’s waterways.
Salt
$5,500, 2003 Seed Award project support
Salt, a seasonally published literary journal, incorporated lively, varied, and intellectually stimulating themes and perspectives. Each new release was launched at a promotional event taking its theme from the issue. Committed to reinterpreting archetypes and rethinking the commonplace, Salt gave young writers a means to publicize their work and connect with other writers in Pittsburgh.
Sidewalk Chalk Mural Competition
$2,000 » University of Pittsburgh Office of International S, 2003 Seed Award project support
Sidewalk Chalk Mural Competition, a project of University of Pittsburgh, was one of six new events for International Week at the University of Pittsburgh in 2003. Inviting collaboration among participants, the murals encouraged student organizations to beautify the campus’s sidewalks, while providing an opportunity to celebrate the intercultural diversity of the city’s largest University.
Sonic Bridge Project
$2,600 » Frank Ferraro, 2003 Seed Award project support
Sonic Bridge Project transformed unnoticed community spaces into interactive exercises in soundscape listening. Artist Frank Ferraro conducted a series of performances premiering site-specific sound installations in Downtown Pittsburgh. A permanent installation was installed in the Homestead Library.
Steel Dragon Lion Dance Team
$2,400, 2003 Seed Award project support
Steel Dragon Lion Dance Team brought a unique blend of culture and spectacle to Pittsburgh. The project shed new light on an ancient art form, a dance originally performed to scare away malevolent spirits and to bring good luck to the performance location and those present.
Students for a Younger Pittsburgh
$6,600, 2003 Seed Award project support
Students for a Younger Pittsburgh worked with student organizations at each local college, connecting area leaders and organizations to campuses in the community to recruit and retain young talent in Pittsburgh.
Students Uncensored
$7,000 » Red Tape Productions, 2003 Seed Award project support
Students Uncensored, a project of Red Tape Productions, was an all-evening music festival intended to create awareness of issues in the lives of young people, to empower young voters, and to encourage and feed youth culture. The concert featured Afrika Bambaataa, a deejay recognized for fighting gang violence in the 1970s and giving minorities a positive outlet through Universal Zulu Nation, one of the earliest hip-hop crews dedicated to social change.
Support Mass Transit Bumper Stickers
$1,000 » Kate Trimble, 2003 Grand Ideas project support
Support Mass Transit Bumper Stickers responded to the reduced funding to Port Authority and its first service cuts. The project distributed thousands of Support Mass Transit Bumper Stickers to call attention to the essential services provided by Port Authority and the threats to its sustainability.
Theatre Festival in Black & White
$5,000 » Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, 2003 Seed Award project support
Theatre Festival in Black & White, a project of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, showcased the plays of eight young playwrights, four African American and four Caucasian. To encourage an appreciation and understanding of different cultural perspectives, the plays by African American playwrights were directed by Caucasian directors, and the plays by Caucasian playwrights were directed by African American directors.
Three Rivers Bike Racks
$9,000 » Bike Pittsburgh, 2003 Seed Award project support
Public Art Bike Racks, a project of Bike Pittsburgh, worked to address the dearth of amenities for cyclists in the city. Through the project, Bike Pittsburgh installed artistically designed bike racks in highly visible, commercial areas.
“Tuesday’s Heroic Paragon” (2003)
Kevinn Fung, 2003 Community Murals mural
Despite the colorful and rather dramatic nature of Tuesday’s Heroic Paragon, its subject matter is taken from a very serious moment in Garfield’s recent history. The mural relates to the story of Sidney Barlow, a resident from the Garfield neighborhood. A young man with a wife and five children, Barlow tried to stop an incident of gun violence that arose at the neighborhood’s annual “Turkey Bowl” football game, but was shot and killed. Among Garfield residents, he is an inspiration and a hero, and they wished to pay tribute with this mural. Torn over depicting a violent incident in a public space, the artist and community decided to convey the essence of Barlow’s heroics rather than the tragedy itself; in the mural, an every-day hero is stepping out between a child and an on-coming bus. Sidney Barlow is there in spirit, standing on the sidewalk, a paragon of heroism. Kevinn Fung’s mural preserves this inspirational figure for the future.
Unknown Prose/ Art Greenhouse
$7,040 » Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon University, 2003 Seed Award project support
Unknown Prose/Art Greenhouse, a project of Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon, brought local hip-hop group Unknown Prose to the recording facilities at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Music. The project provided exposure, experience, and viability to emerging local musical talent.
“Untitled (Wilkinsburg)” (2003)
Brian Holderman, 2003 Community Murals mural
Now a popular and prolific artist, Brian Holderman first took on a large scale endeavor with this 2003 mural for the Sprout Public Art Program. This street scene exhibits Brian’s iconic mixture of slightly abstract, modernist arrangements and playful, cartoonish sensibilities. The stylized Wilkinsburg text hidden within the mural gives the piece a welcoming aspect, with a hip, floating style. In fact, the energetic, all-over motion of the composition, combined with the eclectic and disjointed images make this piece come alive with the sense of rhythm that it exudes. The mural location, chosen by the Wilkinsburg Community Mural Committee, overlooks a grassy area where Wilkinsburg stages its summer jazz concert series and other public gatherings and activities.
Wake Up Call
$10,000 » Alexi Morrissey, 2003 Seed Award project support
Wake Up Call added new utility to cell phones. By accessing the Wake Up Call website, users could schedule a time for a poet to call and read a poem or for an emerging band to play a song. The program brightened daily life in Pittsburgh and added a little beauty to the nuisance of living with a cell phone.
“A Walk Through Milvale” (2003)
Sandy Kessler Kaminski, 2003 Community Murals mural
Sandy Kessler Kaminski welcomes visitors to a quaint, amiable part of town in her mural by portraying a memorable array of cultural landmarks and amenities. The original slogan of Ester’s Hobby Shop, “Relax With a Hobby,” is there, and so is famous Attic Records, home to rare and antique vinyl as well as cutting edge independent music. Below the turntables we see a religious icon and the intricate stained-glass windows of the Croatian Orthodox Church. And of course, Millvale is home to the original Pamela’s Diner: vibrant and inviting, abstractions and excerpts of its interior decorate the right hand side of the mural. The 40th Street Bridge spans the scene, connecting it all back to Pittsburgh. Sandy went on to paint a prominent Strip District mural in 2004, and continues to be one of Pittsburgh’s many talented artists.