Three Rivers Arts Festival 2011

Since 1960 the Three Rivers Arts festival has brought variations of art to Pittsburgh, and this year, the tradition continues. The 2011 Three Rivers Arts Festival will take place at Point State Park, Hertz Gateway Center, and the Cultural District from June 3-12. President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Kevin McMahon, says that the free event benefits the local communities creatively and financially.

"The Cultural's Trust's mission is about arts but it's also about the local economy. Using the arts to help improve that economy and this festival alone provides an economic impact in excess of twenty million dollars," says Kevin.

Art in music form will come, in part, from the Pittsburgh Symphony and Orchestra. Its President and CEO, Lawrence Tamburri says they have a classical concert planned for their first appearance at the festival since 1977 on June 5th at 6:00. McMahon adds that they will be launching a Pittsburgh JazzLive International weekend which features jazz performances from around the world from June 3-5.

Other activities throughout the week include an Artists Market showcasing 280 international artists and the Juried Visual Arts Exhibition with more than 80 art pieces. More information about the event can be found at http://www.3riversartsfest.org/

First Night Meets Hockey Night

Annual First Night celebrations are set to begin at 6:00 this evening with the opening fireworks. The family friendly New Year’s Eve event in the Cultural District is run by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Saturday’s Winter Classic hockey game is expected to swell usual attendance by as many as 20,000 revilers. Cultural Trust President Kevin McMahon says they are embarrassing the hockey theme, “We have hockey penguins, we have hockey stick collages, we’re going to have in the children’s tent at First Night we’re going to have a lot of hockey oriented activities…. Instead of arguing that there is too much going on in Pittsburgh we think there is never too much going on in Pittsburgh.”

Kathryn Heidemann, Director of First Night Pittsburgh says it is a great opportunity for the city to once again show off what makes it great. “We’re thrilled to welcome… Winter Classic patrons, to the heart of the Cultural District,” says Heidemann.

First night will also feature the rising ball at midnight with another round of fireworks. In between there will be a parade at 8pm and more than 125 event at 50 different venues.

Among the headliners will be Squonk Opera at the Byham Theater, the Neo-Futurists at the O’Reilly Theater and Tower of Power on an outdoor stage.

Outdoor activities are free to the public but get access to the indoor events revilers must have a First night button that can be purchased for $8 in advance or $10 New Year’s Eve at The Box Office at Theater Square.

Some of the indoor performance will require a free General Admission Seating Voucher. A full schedule of event can be found online.

The first ‘First Night’ in Pittsburgh was held in 1984.

Mayor: First Night Will be Safe

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl says people should not be afraid to come downtown for the First Night celebrations. In an effort to set aside some public concerns that big events in downtown Pittsburgh are no longer safe, Mayor Ravenstahl says there will be beefed up patrols in the golden triangle New Year’s Eve. He says the gunfire during Light Up Night was an isolated event. “We, as a city, can’t let a few idiots get in the way of a wonderful event,” says Ravenstahl, ”We are determined from a police department prospective and a public safety prospective not to let that happen.”

Ravenstahl says there will be additional officers downtown and they will be keeping an eye out for groups of people like those that gathered on light up night and eventually caused problems. “What I can tell the people of Pittsburgh today is you will be safe, come downtown experience this wonderful event and you should not let a few bad apples ruin your experience with your family on this New Year’s holiday,” says Ravenstahl.

First night usually draws about 35 thousand revelers. The Cultural Trust says there could be another 20-30 thousand on the streets December 31st thanks an influx of visitors in town for the winter classic hockey game on the north shore the next day. Visit Pittsburgh says every hotel room downtown is booked for New Year’s Eve.

Parking Availability In Real-Time Mobile App

Parking in Downtown’s Cultural District just got a lot easier with the option to get online, make a phone call, or check an app to check parking availability.

Introduced and implemented at noon today, ParkPGH will deliver parking vacancies in all Cultural District garages in real-time. Funded by the Benter Foundation, the free smartphone application that works on iPhones, Blackberry and Android phones uses updates from each garage in the district to tell drivers the parking availability of 25 percent of the garages downtown.

"ParkPGH connects to a central database and to the gates at each location and updates every thirty seconds to provide real-time parking availability to the Cultural District," project engineer Mark Fleming says.

Fleming made sure that ParkPGH is also available to those who don’t have the smartphone app. It can be accessed through the web, through texting PARKING or calling 412-423-8980 through which users will receive an automated response.

According to Kevin McMahon, President of the Cultural Trust, and Bill Benter who funded the project, the program was made to reduce the hassle of finding a space, and hopefully draw more people for not only performances, but also impromptu visits.

"I believe [searching for a space] is an impediment to people coming in and enjoying the wonderful things we have going on in the Cultural Trust so this is an attempt to make that easier for everyone," Benter says.

According to developers, the first trial will be assessed before citywide expansion is implemented and that evaluation should be completed by March.

"Over time it's possible that this could expand to all parking, whether it would work for metered parking, who knows? With some of the great things that technology is doing, down the road it's possible," McMahon says.

Cell Phone Disco Comes To Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has unveiled its latest bit of public art and this one counts on your help, or at least your cell phone’s help. The work titled “Cell Phone Disco” uses the electromagnetic waves created by an active cell phone to change the work.
The 16-foot high instillation includes 16 antennas that pick up the electromagnetic waves and then send the information to 2,304 individually controlled red LED lights. Cultural Trust Spokesperson Veronica Corpuz says, “What was once invisible is now detectable through the visual senses.”

The work hangs in the alley behind the Benedum Center know as Tito Way (Also Known as 8th Street) and it faces the long narrow ally that runs through much of the Cultural District know as Exchange Way. Corpuz says many people use the alley as a cut through from Penn Ave to Liberty Ave.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust commissioned the Netherlands-based artist collective, Informationlab, to create Cell Phone Disco. Similar pieces have been hung in galleries but the artists says they are excited to have their effort placed in a public place where passersby will be able to see the ever-changing lightshow. Funding for the permanent instillation came from the Fine Foundation.

“The notion of ‘Lighting’ the Cultural District is in our current five-year strategic plan and also our upcoming three-year plan," says Murray Horne, curator of the Trust’s Wood Street Galleries. “Cell Phone Disco will serve as an anchor for other potential installations that will illuminate the pedestrian pathways throughout the District.”
In a written statement about the work, the artists say, “We have enveloped the display in a two-way mirror, so when there is cell phone activity in the vicinity the light cloud appears on the top of the reflected image of the alley. In this sense the installation is a fusion of the invisible digital reality represented by LEDs and the analog world as it appears in the mirror.” Corpuz says she thinks it is best viewed at dusk.

Arts Festival Brings Green Message Downtown

The Three Rivers Arts Festival began in downtown Pittsburgh today.

The festival is weaving together several themes, including environmentalism and the interaction of the arts and technology.

Pittsburgh Cultural Trust spokeswoman Lauren Bracey says it’s a great coincidence that World Environment Day will happen during the festival.

“We didn’t have to become a green festival; we already were a green festival,” says Bracey.

She says for the past few years, the Three Rivers Arts Festival has sorted recyclables from trash and compost. Bracey says last year, more than 50 tons of garbage were recycled or composted, instead of being put in the trash stream.

Bracey says Guster, one of today’s most environmentally engaged bands, will play tomorrow night. Other music acts include the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on Sunday, the Venezuelan disco group Los Amigos Invisibles on Wednesday, and songwriter Kris Kristofferson on Friday night.

About 320 different artists will showcase their work in the artists’ market over the course of the festival. Bracey says the festival board also responded to patrons’ demand for more visual arts by bringing back a juried exhibition at the Trust Arts Education Center on Liberty Avenue.

Visit the Arts Festival website for more information.

Cultural District to Host 15th 'First Night'

In many cities, a ball is dropped during the last ten seconds of New Year’s Eve to celebrate the coming of the New Year.

In Pittsburgh, the ball moves the other way.

“Representing the future of Pittsburgh looking up,” says First Night Director Kathryn Heidemann.

The “Future of Pittsburgh Ball” will rise as Scotland’s Average White Band takes the stage and fireworks fill the sky, marking the 15th Anniversary of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s First Night celebrations.

Heidemann says there will be a massive number of artists and exhibits at the celebration, with many of the Cultural District’s venues hosting artistic activities and events. That includes the new August Wilson Center and the CAPA Middle School hosting acts like the “Pied Piper of Percussion” and belly dance lessons.

First Night Pittsburgh Founder Jamee Todd says things have changed since the first celebration in 1994.

“We had to explain so much to people that it was a celebration of the arts, using the city as a stage, but that it was an indoor event, and that they had to buy a button at Giant Eagle to get into everything,” says Todd. “It was just a constant explanation.”

It's $8 for a button that admits you to downtown events from 6:00 to midnight.

Pittsburgh Playworks

Jozef Spychala is a psychiatrist and playwright who has found a way to combine his two passions - he writes plays about people with mental illness.

Listen to his story here.

3 Charged in Stolen Ticket Scheme

State agents have charged 3 Pittsburgh area residents with stealing tickets for popular shows at the Benedum Center and then reselling them via the internet. Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett says that 50 year old Vaughn Davis of the New Homestead section of Pittsburgh worked at the theater taking credit card orders over the telephone. Corbett says Davis would intercept the tickets to popular shows like "The Lion King" and his fiancee 47 year old Madge Hayes, also of New Homestead, would resell them through Craigslist and other online sites. 38 year old Patrick Conderato of Munhall then allegedly delivered the tickets and would split the money with Davis and Hayes. The investigation began last February when someone who bought tickets from Davis was refused entry to a show because the tickets had been reported missing by the original buyer.
Corbett says a raid of Hayes' and Davis' home turned up 25 unused tickets worth more than $1,700 plus handwritten notes with names, addresses and credit card numbers.
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust spokeswoman Veronica Corpuz says the Trust has reviewed its policies and practices to make sure this does not happen again. She says they feel this was a very rare incident impacting just a few of the more than 1 million tickets sold each year. Corpuz urged patrons to purchase tickets through the Trust at their website, hotline or box office rather than using a third party seller.

Benedum Ticket Scam Alleged

A trio of Pittsburghers has been accused by state authorities of running a ticket selling scam out of the Benedum Center Box Office. Vaughn Davis (54), Madge Hayes (47) and Patrick Conderato (38) are charged with theft and computer crimes. The three allegedly stole tickets and resold them on various Internet sites. They also allegedly used customer credit card numbers to purchase additional tickets that they later resold. The investigation began after a customer was denied entrance to a show because the tickets he had purchased online had been reported missing by the original buyer.

Cultural Trust Takes Control of Three Rivers Arts Festival

The Pittsburgh cultural trust says it will work closely with the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh to produce 2009 Three Rivers Arts Festival without a hitch. Trust President Kevin Mc Mahon says that will mean a lot of work in the next 7 months. He says the Trust will use the 2009 event as a time to gather input from the community as to what they would like to see in future events. Mc Mahon says the trust has gotten into the business of running other community events like First Night and the Children’s Festival and has built a certain level of competence. He says they will work to make the arts festival a self sufficient event but he knows that will require the involvement of sponsors and the foundation community. The festival was first held in 1959.