Image by carolclarinet via Flickr

While writing this I just keep thinking of the summer camp song Old Lady Leary with the following lyrics …
Late last night when we were all in bed,
Old Lady Leary left a lantern in the shed.
Well, the cow kicked it over, winked his eye and said:
“There’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight!”
If you are a regular reader of IheartPGH you will know that we are big fans of the Sprout Fund – this Saturday, August 29 is Hothouse – the Sprout Funds annual fundraiser that promises to be a hot good time.

Why support the Sprout Fund? The Sprout Fund has a couple of programing areas that are doing some great stuff for the city of Pittsburgh

Image by krosswords via Flickr

• Seed Award – gives out grants to all sorts of people and projects here in Pittsburgh (I am a member of the seed award committee – people in Pittsburgh have awesome ideas )
• Public Art Program – putting up great murals around town
• Spark – the newest program at the Sprout fund focusing on programming for the kiddies in town

Why Hothouse? So not only is this a big fun party – each year they pick a venue to show a unique Pittsburgh space. Last year the party was held in the upper floors of the Union Trust Building. This year the party is at the new Bakery Square.

Image by Fire Monkey Fish via Flickr

Making the Connections Book Launch Party

• Friday, April 17 4-7pm @ The Shadow Lounge
• Check out the new book that chronicles some of the community projects that were part of the Pittsburgh 250 celebration

Tech Fair aka Spring Carnival at Carnegie Mellon University

• Friday, 8pm Free Concert with New Pornographers
• Game booths, buggy races, carnival food and more fun

Lawrenceville Blossom Tour

• Saturday, April 18
• Merchants along Butler Street will be passing out seeds
• Market places set up for local fresh food an vendors

Attack Theatre Dirty Ball

• Saturday, April 18, 8-Midnight
• Rumored to be the best party for the year – this is the 4th annual fundraiser for Attach Theatre

Free Cone Day

• Tuesday, April 21
• Ben & Jerry’s, Forbes Ave. Squirel Hill

Making the Connections Book Launch Party
Friday, April 17, 2009, 4-7 pm
Shadow Loung, 5972 Baum Blvd, East Liberty
RSVP on Facebook here.

One of the final events of the Pittsburgh 250 celebration was the community connections wrap up session back in December.  The afternoon turned out to be a lot more fun that I had anticipated.  As part of the Pittbsurgh 250 birthday celebration – the folks at the Sprout Fund helped to distribute over $1,000,000 in grants to communities around western PA to celebrate pride and progress in their community.

I was honored to serve on the grant making panel and hearing about the projects at the end of the year long birthday celebration exceeded all of my expections.  People came from all over the region to talk about the projects that took place in their communities to celebrate the 250th birthday and they had great stories to share and the sprout fund had a great story teller to document the stories too.   These stories were way more than just tales of an extended birthday party.  The community connections grants engaged people in more ways than just parties.  Sitting there in December I learned about all kinds of projects that happened from these grants – from mobile agriculture labs, Jazz communities, car car ministries and some very entertaining tales of fishing trips.

So the folks at the Sprout Fund wrangled up their story teller to  document these stories in a book which debuts tomorrow – Friday April 17, 2009 at a reception at the Shadow Lounge.

I stopped by the Sprout Fund office earlier this week for a sneak peek of the book which is titled Making the Connections – it is great – they have done an outstanding job of compiling and capturing the region in a convenient book format.

Stop by the Shadow Lounge to celebrate and pick up a copy or order one from the Sprout Fund’s website here.

The first Friday of every month is celebrated with a big neighborhood wide open house along Penn Ave in the neighborhood of Friendship. Gallerys have snacks and drink, special exhibits are set up and lots of people are walking around.

Tomorrow the Sprout Fund will be opening their doors as part of First Friday’s on Penn Ave for a big Harvest Gathering.

Stop by and learn more about the Sprout Fund and check out some of the cool projects that they help to support here in Pittsburgh.

Friday, November 7, 2008, 5:30-9:30pm
5433 Penn Ave

Music by The Turpentiners and DJ J Malls.
FREE
RSVP on Facebook

Image by wallyg via FlickrA few years ago I attended an informational meeting about the Sprout Fund’s public art program to learn more about murals in cities. What I took away from that brief meeting was a new appreciation of the idea of public art – I had never thought much about the idea of bringing art to people in their neighborhoods. Museums are great and Pittsburgh has some great museums but you have to go there to see the art. The Sprout Fund’s program was based on the public art program in Philadelphia which now has over 2200 murals around the city.

Pittsburgh has always had some interesting public art – some of which has been lost and found over the years and the Sprout Fund has supported the addition of new murals each year.  Click here to read about some of the new public art along the Great Allegheny Passageway.

If you are interested in learning more about Public Art – check out this work shop on Saturday, October 25, 2008 called Public Art 101. This day long workshop is being held at Point Park University Downtown and the presenters are involved in Public Art in Albuquerque, NM, Boston, MA and Pittsburgh.

Hot House is the Sprout Fund’s annual fundraiser where they show case some of the many projects that they have supported throughout the year.  This is one of my favorite events of the year.  I attened the first Hot House back in 2003 when I had first returned to Pittsbrugh.  This was the first event where I met lots of people who were excited about Pittsburgh and we doing some really cool things.

In 2003 I know I learned about things like the New Yinzer, Dragon Boat Racing, and 3 Rivers on 2 Wheels.  The Sprout fund has provided seed funding awards for a number of projects, events and organizations that have made an impact large and small on Pittsburgh.

A few months ago I joined the Sprout Fund Seed Award Advisory Committee.  I am honored to be a part of this committee and I continue to learn more about the Sprount Fund and some of the great projects that they have helped to fund over the past few years.

Aside from the fact that I think the Sprout Fund is an organization that is worthy of your donation, Hot House is a great party.  Each year the Sprout Fund picks an interesting location for the event – this year Hot House will be held at the Union Trust Building – I have heard great things about the architecture inside.

Hot House 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008 9pm – Midnight
Tickets: $40 in Advance, $50 at the Door, $25 for Students.  There is also a VIP preparty for $150/person. Click here to buy your tickets online.