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It is an honor to support the IndieGoGo campaign for Pittsburgh Art Car 2015. Jason and Nina Sauer are two incredible Pittsburghers who run the art gallery Most Wanted Fine Art in Garfield. They have just launched an IndieGoGo campaign to raise $7000 to take a group of Pittsburgh artists on a tour of the US this spring.

Here are 7 reasons why I am happy to support the Pittsburgh Art Car project…

1. USA, Meet Seven Pittsburgh Artists

A Great Project that takes some of the best of Pittsburgh to the rest of the USA. You can watch the video to learn more about the details.

2. Most Wanted Fine Art Really Saved Christmas

Jason and Nina Sauer are AWESOME, inspiring Pittsburghers who make this city a better place. Remember back in December how we helped with an emergency toy drive? All of that was started by Jason and Nina. As soon as they heard about the toy shortage, they graciously offered up Most Wanted Fine Art as a spot to collect toys. What started as a small toy drive, snowballed into a massive effort that literally took over the gallery for four days before Christmas. Prior to the #PghSavesXmas Toy Drive, I had only stopped into the gallery a few times during the monthly art walk. The day we started the toy drive, I met Nina at the gallery and I was truely inspired by her spirit and willingness to do whatever it took to make sure every kid in Pittsburgh had a toy for Christmas.

3. Mozelle Thompson, Shaft and Most Wanted Fine Art

Flyer for the Mozelle Thompson retrospective held at Most Wanted Fine Art in November 2014

Most Wanted Fine Art is a great gallery. The last art show I saw there was The Album Art of Mozelle Thompson in November 2014. This exhibit was curated by J. Malls who is an icredible Pittsburgh DJ and very knowledgeable about records. Not only was this exhibit visually interesting, but a fascinating lesson in Pittsburgh history. Mozelle Thompson was an illustrator who was born in Pittsburgh and designed over 100 album, magazine and book covers. Including the cover to the first edition of the detective novel Shaft, by Ernest Tidyman. Take a few moments to learn more about Mozelle Thompson here, here, here and here.

4. Help Put More Pittsburgh Stories on the Road

In 2013, thanks to the generosity of the readers of this blog, I was a “passenger” on the Millennial Trains Project. MTP is a 10-day, cross country train trip of young leaders, movers, shakers and innovators. One of my biggest takeaways from the experience is that Pittsburgh MUST do a better job of going out and taking the Pittsburgh story to the people. I am happy to support projects like this that make it possible to take Pittsburgh to people outside of Pittsburgh. Read more about what I brought back from my train trip here.

5. Travel Brings Inspiring Ideas Back to Pittsburgh

There are cities all across this country that are struggling with some of the same issues that Pittsburgh is trying to figure out…

How do we make better neighborhoods?
How do we make streets safer for pedestrians?
What does it take to make great street tacos?
What do protected bike lanes really look like?
Can we really have a great public market?
What makes a great local coffee shop?

From serious community issues, to not-so-serious-unless-you-are-a-foodie issues the more Pittsburghers that go out and see how other cities are tackling these problems, the more ideas for solutions we can bring to Pittsburgh.

Last week, the Atlantic published For a More Creative Brain, Travel. While this article focuses on international travel, I think that many of these same ideas can apply to travel around the US.

For a More Creative Brain, Travel

6. More than Art, General Contracting & Job Training

Last spring, inspired by my participation in the Millennial Trains Project, I attended the StartingBloc fellowship in Los Angeles, CA. One of the speakers during the 5 day program was Kabira Stokes, founder of Isidore Recycling. Isidore is a business that recycles e-wastes and hires people who were previously incarcerated. After the fellowship program, I went to take a tour of the Isidore Recycling warehouse. Located just around the corned from Isisdore, is Homeboy Industries, another Los Angeles organization that works to help provide job training and opportunities to those who were previously incarcerated. Visiting Isidore Recycling and Homeboy Industries was an eye opening experience for me into just how difficult it is to get a job if you have spent time in jail.

What does my trip to Los Angeles have to do with Most Wanted Fine Art? In addition to running an art gallery, Most Wanted Fine Art runs a contracting business that provides job training to young men who were previously incarcerated. If you are in need of a general contractor, please consider Most Wanted Fine Art Contracting.

7. Art Cars & Demolition Derby

Last, but certainly not least on this list of reasons to support the MWFA IndieGoGo campaign… who doesn’t love a project that involves a demolition derby. I think I first read about “art cars” many years ago in the Pittsburgh City Paper or Pittsburgh’s other alt-weekly at the time Pulp. I believe there was a woman in Pittsburgh who had glued objects all over her car. A few years ago, Pittsburgh Art Car popped up and I have been following online and on the street. Since 1995, Jason Sauer has been painting art on a car, takes the art car to the Great Stonesboro Fair and then creates art out of the demolished car.

Bonus: Super Cool Perks

From beer koozies & t-shirts to souvenirs from the road. The MWFA crew has put together some impressive perks to say thank you for your contribution to their trip.

Check out Pittsburgh Blogger Sue Kerr’s Huffington Post article about MWFA’s IndieGoGo campaing, Community Art and Demolition Derby.

Community Art and Demolition Derby

Follow: @PghArtCar and @MostWantedArt for updates

Pitt-Starter is our occasional series on local Kickstarter and Crowdfunding campaigns that support Pittsburgh organizations and businesses. Check out our past Pitt-Starter posts here. Have a crowdfunding campaign that you would like to share? Tell us about it on Twitter with the #Pittstarter

Update 9/24 – Just 24 hours left til the Kickstarter deadline and the artist needs to raise $12,000. Click here to go directly to the Kickstarter page for the House of Gold.

I learned about the House of Gold project over the summer and I wanted to share this Kicstarter project that only has a few more days to reach the funding goal. Artist Dee Briggs lives next door to this house on Swissvale avanue. Last year, Dee was able to purchase the house thanks to the Allegheny County Vacant Property Recovery program. This Kickstart project will help Dee deconstruct the house and re-imagine this site as a space for the community.

I think it is an important project for Wilkinsburg and Pittsburgh in general as it sparks a conversation about abandoned buildings. At one point in its history The House of Gold was a corner store – and hopefully will be replaced with a community space and coffee shop in the near future. This Kickstarter is a great way to help a motivated community member help to transform an abandoned property.

Here are a few of the reasons why I like this project and I think you should consider making a contribution to the House of Gold Kickstarter project…

A Gold House? Which is the perfect color for a building in a city that loves the color scheme of black and gold. I like the idea of using gold paint to show this abandoned house in a new light.
Telling the history of the house – take a few moments to check out the House of Gold website. The artist has put together an incredible history of the house and the people who used to live here.
Wilkinsburg – I have been driving down Penn Avenue for my entire life and most recently found myself wondering what would become of the Penn Lincoln Hotel. What once was a meeting place of people had been abandoned and in the past few weeks was torn down. How did a historic building, that was a thriving hub become a forgotten neighborhood? Check out some of these photos from AbadonedOnline.net of the Penn-Lincoln Hotel before it was demolished.
Gently demolition – take a moment to watch the Kickstarter video – it is worth the two minutes of your time, and Dee does a much better job of telling the story than I could here in a blog post. I really like the idea of gently and carefully dismantling this house. As much as I would love to save every old building in Allegheny county, some really do have to come down and the idea of carefully taking apart the building and separating out the historic pieces for reuse elsewhere, while reducing what would need to go into a landfill makes sense to me.