60+ Artists in 2011 Pittsburgh Biennial

In 1994 the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts decided it need to show off the strength of the local arts community and it launched the Pittsburgh Biennial. Two years ago it expanded to include works at Pittsburgh Filmmakers and this year it has jumped to three new venues. “I think the artistic community has been very strong for many years,” says Pittsburgh Center for the Arts Director Laura Domencic, “I think there has become more and more recognition of how supportive and important this community and the artists are in the region and nationally as well.”

The names of all of the artists chosen for the biennial have recently been released.

The Andy Warhol Museum, The Carnegie Museum of Art and the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University will also host works as part of the biennial this year. “Each Curator really developed their own kind of distinct show within their space but also in a very strong sense of what is going on in the other venues,” says Domencic.

The works at the Carnegie will explore the idea of work and labor while the works at the Center for the Arts will mostly be installation works focused on using the space in which they are created. All of the artists at the Warhol are women and collaborative projects take the lead at the Miller Gallery. Each curator chose one artists for the show at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

Domencic says the types of work vary as well, “From painters to performance art to filmmakers… it’s a wide variety of artists. The common thread is that all the artists have ties to Pittsburgh.

The exhibitions open in two flights. The shows at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and at Pittsburgh Filmmakers run from June 10th through October 23rd, while the show at the Carnegie Museum of art opens June 17th and runs through September 18th. The second flight comes in September when the shows open at the Miller Gallery and the Andy Warhol Museum.

Dino Discovery

The discovery of an until now unknown dinosaur can trace its roots back to Harrisburg’s State Museum.

Scientists at the state-owned center were working their way through a block of mudstone in 2004 when they found a skull that seemed a bit different. The researchers thought they were looking at fossils of a Coelophysis – a small carnivore. Senior curator Robert Sullivan and fossil preparer Kevin Dermody quickly realized this was a different dinosaur. “The skull is different, because it’s shorter,” he explained. “The teeth are procumbent in that they stick out towards the front of the skull. The teeth seem to be longer. And there’s some other subtleties of the skull that differentiate it from Coelophysis.”

Sullivan alerted scientists at the Carnegie Museum, which owns the mudstone block. Researchers there and at the Smithsonian spent years investigating the skull, and have now determined it is, in fact, a new dinosaur called Daemonosaurus. Their findings were published last month in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

How’s it feel to help discover a dinosaur? “I do find new dinosaurs on occasion,” said Sullivan, laughing. “This is odd in that we did not expect to find it in the block. And this just goes to show that we don’t know everything there is to know about the prehistoric life 220 million year ago. … Nobody has found anything quite like this on one of those other blocks. So it’s obviously a rare find, and, of course, it’s the first and only one of its kind. So from that standpoint it’s – we were quite lucky to play a minor role in its discovery.”

The initial find was made in the museum’s Dino Lab, an interactive exhibit showing visitors how fossils are prepared after discovery in the field. Here’s how the museum’s website explains the exhibit: “After fossils (including dinosaur skeletons) are found in the field, many steps, not normally seen by the public, are taken to prepare the fossils for exhibition. Visitors can witness this process of uncovering the fossilized bones from the rock that surrounds them.”

And sometimes, they can witness groundbreaking scientific discoveries.

Johnstown Flood Museum Potential Makeover

The Johnstown Flood Museum is up for a renovation, but first administrators are looking for help from the local community and tourists. A public meeting is scheduled for March 4th at the museum, on Washington and Walnut Streets to discuss changes. The museum was originally built as a library after the 1889 flood with funding from Andrew Carnegie, but became the Flood Museum in 1973.

Richard Burkert, President of the Johnstown Area Heritage Association, says that there is so much that can be done to update the museum. "There's a lot of things that we couldn't do back twenty years ago that we might want to consider this time around, one of which is 3-D."

Burkert says that renovations are not only aimed at exhibits but also the museum's structure. He says the building system need to be replaced and there is discussion over whether the museum should be eco-friendly.

The museum has had more then 750,000 visitors since opening its doors. Anyone interested in attending the meeting is urged, but not obligated, to contact Gwen Hartnett by phone at 814-539-1889 ext. 301 or email at ghartnett@jaha.org.

Heinz History Center Commemorates The Pittsburgh Courier

An in-depth look at The Pittsburgh Courier's past 100 years will take the form of a new exhibit called America's Best Weekly: A Century of the Pittsburgh Courier. Housed in the Senator John Heinz History Center, the exhibit will feature rare photos, artifacts, and videos that will highlight the Courier's impact on journalism and social issues.


The Pittsburgh Courier was founded in 1910 as a small start-up publication and quickly grew to become a prominent weekly news source for African Americans by the 1930s. By the 1950s, the Courier produced 21 national editions printed at its offices in the Hill District.

Samuel Black, Curator of African American Collections at the History Center, says the people of Western Pennsylvania should come out to learn more about the Courier. "It's a great local story. It is one of the most successful of the local stories where you have a newspaper founded in this city, basically from nothing, to become the most widely read African American newspaper in the mid-20th century."


The exhibit, which opens on February 11th, will include items such as the oldest known existing copy of the Courier, and a recreation of the 1950s newsroom. Black says the Courier's coverage of African American issues and civil rights made it a national sensation and one that the region should be proud of.

Soldiers and Sailors To Open Century Old Time Capsule

Century old artifacts will be revealed tomorrow as the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum removes and opens its cornerstone. The time capsule opening will kick off a year-long celebration of the museums 100 year anniversary which will include a Cannon Blast Celebration on Friday October 9th.

Vice President of the Hall and Museum John McCabe says those opening the time capsule have an idea of what’s going to be included, but hopes to be surprised.

“What we expect to find we kind of know because there were newspaper articles that were printed that we have from 1908 that list the types of items that are in there,” McCabe says, “Obviously we’re hoping that maybe there are some things that aren’t reported.”

McCabe expects to find rosters of the armed services of the time, newspapers, currency from the period, and photographs of the President at the time, Teddy Roosevelt. The capsule is roughly 20 by 12 inches and stands about 12 inches high.

“It’s not very big,” McCabe says. “It’s somewhere around an oversized shoebox size.”

The capsule will be refilled and replaced with modern artifacts to be opened sometime in the future. A committee has been assembled to decide what artifacts from this area will be placed into the cornerstone before it is replaced.

The items found in the cornerstone will be on display at the museum starting Friday night for the Cannon Blast Celebration and will remain there throughout the year.

African-American Museum Conference Held in Pittsburgh

For three days this week representatives from more than 200 African-American museums are in Pittsburgh for a conference. They are attending sessions on curating and archiving. There were also more specialized sessions on re-interpreting African-American food history and preserving Florida’s African-American civil war heritage.

A museum is defined as an institution that is open to the public, has a collection and does exhibitions. President of the Association of African-American museums Vernon Courtney said although there is a need for such museums, he hopes African-American history and art will work their way into all museums.

"Our history is unique in this country and we hope that at some point in time we work ourselves out of a job when mainstream museums treat African-American history and culture as it does the rest of the history of the nation," he said.

This is the 32nd year the conference has been held. Pittsburgh was selected as the conference host because of the recent opening of the August Wilson Center for African-American Culture.

Funding Cut While Table Games Bill Remains Uncertain

In order to account for the lack of revenue from legalized table games at Pennsylvania casino, Governor Ed Rendell has slashed state funding for some medical centers, museums and educational institutions by fifty percent. The governor cut funding for the Children's Institute in Pittsburgh, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Philadelphia's Fox Chase Institute for Cancer Research, among other operations.
The funding reduction is bad news for the Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic, which was counting on 26-thousand dollars in state aid Heather Wilson is the director of major gifts for Lancaster General Health Foundation, which runs the clinic.
She says the organization needs every dollar it can get, since it often treats patients who can't afford their bills.

"For each child that is on Medicaid or a Department of Health payment we take a significant loss for each of those children. And the money from the state helps us to ensure that we remain the safety net to ensure comprehensive craniofacial team services."

State funding accounts for ten percent of the clinic's annual budget.
State-related universities were exempt from the cuts, since a funding reduction would have barred them from receiving federal stimulus dollars.

St. Nicholas a National Immigration Museum?

Even before St. Nicholas Church on Route 28 closed in 2004, efforts were underway to preserve this first Croatian parish in the U.S. Today the Northside Leadership Conference and the Preserve Croatian Heritage Foundation announced some possibilities for the property.

PCHF President Bill Vergot says his group spent $40,000—almost all the money they'd raised to save St. Nicholas—for studies on converting the property into a national immigration museum for all immigrants to Pittsburgh--not just Croatians.

There are also plans for a trail that would connect with the riverfront trail system.

The architectural studies by Astorino estimate a cost of $10 million to build the museum and 5- to 600,000 dollars a year to maintain. Mark Fatla, Executive Director of the Northside Leadership Conference says the cost is modest compared to the $20 million Aviary expansion and the $30 million August Wilson Center. Funding strategies would avoid the traditional museum model that requires annual grants by seeking an endowment from fraternal organizations and individuals for operating costs, with government and foundation money for capital costs. A marketing study by Integra Realty Resources says about 25,000 visitors could be expected each year.

A sale of the property being negotiated by the parish and a billboard company would not necessarily doom the project, according to Fatla. PennDOT plans for Route 28 spare the church property, according to Mark Fatla, and would not impact the project, which is probably at least five years away.