arts Archives - Pittsburgh Quarterly

In order to bring life in Pittsburgh back to normal, we need leaders with the courage to make bold decisions even when conditions may not yet be perfect. And that’s just what the Pittsburgh CLO did this winter and spring in deciding to move ahead with its 75th anniversary season and bring entertainment back to …

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Regional News

The Curtain Rises, At Last

by Julia Fraser

On an evening in early June, people lounged in camp chairs and blankets on the grass at Point State Park, lines formed at food booths on the edge of the lawn and people stood shoulder-to-shoulder, swaying to the sounds of blues rock and soul music performed by Celisse on the main stage. It was more …

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Arts

Photo as Fact?

by Vicky A Clark

Living through the COVID-19 pandemic will become another watershed moment in our lives, and we will be asking “Where were you when…” for years to come. I remember what I was doing when the planes hit the twin towers on 9/11, but the event that rocked my world was the assassination of JFK. I might …

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Regional News

The Curtain Rises on a New Reality

by Julia Fraser

The music of Chopin isn’t soaring through Heinz Hall. “Jersey Boys” won’t dance in sync on the Benedum stage. And a mid-June Friday night at Point State Park won’t be packed with concert-goers in lawn chairs. Instead, the Pittsburgh region’s arts and cultural organizations—which employ 15,000 and add roughly $1 billion in direct spending into …

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Arts

Restarting Pittsburgh’s Arts Economy

by L.E. McCullough

In late summer of 1606, one of the liveliest theatre seasons London, England, had known was abruptly shut down by the sudden onset of bubonic plague. When public entertainments were allowed to resume almost two years later in April 1608, several drama companies that had flourished pre-plague were nowhere to be found. William Shakespeare’s company, …

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Regional News

No Contest

by Julia Fraser

Pittsburgh’s arts and culture sector outperforms many of its peer cities when it comes to arts participation, organizations per capita and economic impact, but equity issues persist, according to a new from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. Attendance of arts and culture events dwarfs that generated by the region’s professional sports teams combined—Steelers included. “It’s …

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Events

Photographer George Lange Debuts Personal Collection

by PQ Staff

World-renowned, Pittsburgh-native photographer George Lange debuts new prints and stories from his private collection on Thursday, November 14 at Weisshouse (324 S. Highland Ave.). Photographing for publications and clients world-wide left Lange with little time to examine his work, and few prints were made. Having recently returned to Pittsburgh, Lange opened his collection of photographs—kept …

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Arts

Still Squonky After All These Years

by Matthew John Milligan

Leave your preconceived notion of an opera in the car. Whatever Squonk Opera is, it certainly isn’t what you’re thinking. A description that succinctly encapsulates this Pittsburgh native is futile. Not quite a rock band, anything but an opera. So, what then? Squonk’s strength lies in its innate pliability. Each show is built atop a …

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History

Exploring Andy Warhol’s Ancestral Home

by PQ Staff

Andy Warhol once said that he came “from nowhere.” And if ever you find yourself exploring the Lower Beskid mountains along the Polish-Slovak border, you might think he was right. At first glance, it appears there are no signs human beings were ever there. But if you look closer, you’ll realize that the holes and …

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Arts

Internationals I Have Known…

by Vicky A Clark

When the Carnegie International opens this fall, it may appear as if the world’s latest art elegantly touches down like an ethereal being whose time to visit us has come ‘round again. But if you knew it as I do, you would know that this periodic being is full of, shall we say, blemishes and …

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Arts

Different Takes on Homelessness

by Matthew John Milligan

Given the unprecedented recent spate of destructive hurricanes, Contemporary Craft’s exploration of homelessness couldn’t be more timely. Running through Feb. 17, “Shelter: Creating a Safe Home” is a cross-cultural exploration of the work of 14 artists on homelessness, refugees and relocation, gentrification, and individual sanctuary. “We want people to be more aware of these issues …

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Arts

A Bold Look at Race Through Art at the Carnegie Museum of Art

by Vicky A Clark

When Vogue lauded “20 / 20: The Studio Museum of Harlem and Carnegie Museum of Art” as the most important art show in America, they guaranteed a critical response. Setting aside the hyperbole, the magazine established race as the context for viewing and thinking about the exhibition, stating that “as monuments to Confederate generals come …

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Events

The Frick Pittsburgh Opens “Undressed” with Gala

by PQ Staff

The Frick Pittsburgh marked the opening of “Undressed: A History of Fashion in Underwear” with a gala held on the evening of October 19. The sold-out “Undressed” gala provided four hundred guests the opportunity to experience the blockbuster exhibition before it opened to the public on Saturday, October 21. Gala co-chairs were Ina Gumberg, Peggy …

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Arts

From Pittsburgh to Venice, Through the Looking Glass

by Steve Mendelson

Maybe my 6th or 7th Biennale. I can’t remember anymore. The art, the parties, the timeless beauty of this most impractical, magical city blurs my vision, my memories. The Bellini, the Prosecco, the Aperto spritzes, the Veneto wines, the dinners and endless exotic hors d’oeuvres, the European glitterati and the Who’s Who of the current …

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Events

Phipps Celebrates Super. Natural. Exhibit with Opening Night Party

by PQ Staff

Behind the scenes technicalities of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens’ latest exhibit, Super. Natural. involved 500 pieces of hand-blown glass that had been meticulously packed into 122 boxes for a cross-country trip from Seattle to Pittsburgh on a 52-foot-long tractor trailer. Once here, it took a core of volunteers and staff three weeks to install …

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Arts

Warhol Brings Báez’s Powerful “Bloodlines” to Pittsburgh

by Vicky A Clark

The Andy Warhol Museum’s first two exhibitions of the year are a great pairing. Jessica Beck’s excellent My Perfect Body brought together work from Warhol’s entire career that focused on body issues, from the nose picking and acne of his youth to the scars from being shot in 1968 to images of bodybuilders and Christ. …

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Events

Renowned Poet and Artist Comes to the Maridon

by PQ Staff

On Saturday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. the Maridon Museum will hold a gala opening of its exhibit and art sale “A Cosmic Contemporary Collaboration.” The exhibit, which runs April 8 through June 3, will feature paintings and a performance by internationally recognized poet Huang Xiang, one of China’s greatest 20th century, post-cultural revolution …

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Arts

The new Westmoreland

by Graham Shearing

Early in October, looking out over the view of Greensburg from the newly reconfigured Westmoreland Museum of American Art, someone remarked that a building’s foundations had been discovered recently in the old parking garage, which is being turned into a garden. In England, such work recently turned up the body of King Richard III, slain …

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Arts

The New Sound

by Douglas Heuck

Steve Hackman, 35, is an emerging phenomenon in the world of music, fusing classical and popular pieces. Hackman is creating and conducting his hybrid concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Jan. 27 and March 9. A native of suburban Chicago, he has an undergraduate degree in piano performance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and …

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Arts

The Arts Engine

by Christine O'Toole

On a cold spring night in April, arts traffic streamed along Penn Avenue in several frenetic directions. Downtown, patrons for the PSO’s performance of Bach’s beloved Brandenburg Concertos poured out of restaurants toward Heinz Hall, dodging ticket-holders for the sold-out “Book of Mormon” at the Benedum Center. Four miles miles east, the cheap end of …

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Opinion

Cure Alzheimer’s Fund & Our State Leaders

by PQ Staff

Long involved in charitable giving, East End residents Jacqui and Jeff Morby wanted to do more. They wanted to affect the lives of others for the better. So five years ago, they created the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund. It’s estimated that Alzheimer’s care currently costs about $120 billion a year, or some 15 percent of the …

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Arts

Collected Treasures

by Marylynn Uricchio

When Ailsa Mellon Bruce died in 1969, she left behind a collection of fine and decorative arts that was as extraordinary as it was extensive. The daughter of U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon and sister of the equally noted collector Paul Mellon, she had spent much of her life and considerable fortune amassing …

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