Tag Archives: three rivers arts festival

#tbd: Paint a mural during the Three Rivers Arts Festival

The Three Rivers Arts Festival opened yesterday. Lots of people are planning on coming down to see the art, but come between 11am and 2pm from today through June 14th and you can help create it. Muralist Kim Beck has begun stenciling an 850-foot mural underneath the Fort Duquesne Bridge and is ready for volunteers to help fill in the “paint by number” with black, white and gray paint.
TBDMural_StencilDetail
Looking at her Tumblr, you can see that Kim Beck (previously featured on I Heart PGH) has a fascination with the mundane and ephemeral aspects of the urban landscape, like billboards, sky writing and plastic security fencing. She carries that idea forward here with the mural that depicts common, hardy, native plants. In other words, weeds. I like the project because it works at different scales; up close I think it will read as almost abstract because of how large the plants will be, and from the other side of the river it will be cool to see weeds sprouting at the foot of the city.
TBDMural_AcrossRiver
If you miss the window to help with the mural, you should still stop by and see some of the items on display. Riverlife has partnered with the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Institute of Architects to showcase past proposals by young architects on how to better utilize “urban voids”. The proposals were submissions to the Young Architects Studio Competition over the last few years, which was created as a way for young architects to express themselves and be involved in Design Pittsburgh, an annual event held by the AIA to celebrate architecture and give awards for design. The exhibit will last all summer, and Riverlife is planning events in the outdoor exhibit for every Wednesday through the end of August. Stay tuned for more details on those events as they become available. The mural and gallery are collectively known as #tbd, so follow Riverlife on Twitter, search that hashtag or just keep reading I Heart PGH.
TBDMural_Exhibit
So come down and create some art of your own, this weekend or any day until the Arts Festival closes on June 14th. Between 11am and 2pm you can help paint a mural under the Fort Duquesne Bridge. If you’re walking, it’s most easily accessed by walking towards the Point fountain and turning right after walking under the bridge. When you hit the Allegheny River, walk upstream until you see people with brushes and rollers. See you there.
TBDMural_Visitors

8 Things to Store Around Town for Pittsburgh Events

If you’re visiting Pittsburgh for the 1st or 500th time to attend a big event, you might travel with supplies and equipment. Luckily, you can use Spacefinity.com – an online marketplace to connect with friendly neighborhood residents to store your stuff around town. Here’s a list of some of the big annual events and the stuff you can put in storage:

  1. Art – Over 10,000 visual and performing artists have presented work at the Three Rivers Arts Festival since the event started in 1960. With all of the creating, planning, and organizing, who has time to worry about tables, chairs, and finding a place to put everything? Discover a nearby garage to store your art supplies before the festival.
  2. Bikes – BikePGH organizes an annual event called BikeFest which leads up to Pedal Pittsburgh, Western PA’s Largest Bicycle Ride with around 3,000 participants. Also, the Great Allegheny Passage, a 150-mile bike trail that connects Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Md., (then joining C&O Canal Towpath to Washington D.C.), was completed earlier this summer. Find a space to store your bike and pick it up when you’re in town for a ride.
  3. Boats – Every year, over 500,000 spectators visit the Three Rivers Regatta – a boating and water sports festival held at the Point over the 4th of July. Find a space to store your boat before, after, or during the festival in a warehouse, garage, or open lot.
  4. Cars – The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix attracts more than 250,000 people to Schenley Park each year for the nation’s largest vintage sports car racing event. All proceeds from the event go to the Autism Society of Pittsburgh and Allegheny Valley School. Store your classic car in a nearby garage and get ready to race on the city streets for a good cause.
  5. Costumes – The world’s largest furry convention, Anthrocon, draws a crowd of over 5,000 people to Downtown Pittsburgh every year. Join the costume-clad community as your favorite anthropomorphic animal character or check out the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival and journey back to the age of knights and maidens. Before you travel back to being a present day human, find a place to store your costumes.
  6. Golf Clubs – Did you know that the Oakmont Country Club has hosted more combined USGA and PGA championships than any other course in the U.S., including eight United States Opens, five U.S. Amateurs, three PGA Championships, and two U.S. Women’s Opens? Visit Pittsburgh for the upcoming 2016 U.S. Open Championship in Oakmont and keep your golf clubs in nearby storage for when you’re ready to play a round.
  7. Tailgating Equipment – Tailgating is a time-honored tradition before big a Steelers, Pirates, or Penguins game, but you’ll need to bring tailgating gear: grills, coolers, food, drinks, chairs, tables… and if you’re driving or flying in from out of town, it’s inconvenient to bring those items with you. Instead, store them in a garage near a grocery store and pick everything up on the way to the game.
  8. Giant Rubber Ducky – The Rubber Duck Project will launch the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts with a 40-foot-tall rubber duck in the Allegheny River from September 27 – October 20, 2013. According to this Post-Gazette article, “because of its size, the duck is constructed from scratch in the city that it’s visiting.” So if you’re a giant rubber duck artist who needs a warehouse, Spacefinity lists some spaces available for such an occassion.

The Spacefinity team launched the online marketplace for space in August 2013. Currently, we have 65 Spacelords listing garages, warehouses, basements, spare rooms, outside lots, and even an airplane hangar in Pittsburgh. Find space or list space today at Spacefinity.com! Questions? Contact Jackie Vesci at jackie@spacefinity.com.

Concerts in Review: Edward Sharpe at the Arts Fest plus Local Natives at Stage AE

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros at PGH Arts Fest Friday, June 7

Pittsburgh was treated to some West Coast music flavor the past few days as multiple Los Angeles-based bands made their way through the ‘Burgh. Starting with last Friday night’s 2013 Arts Fest Music featured act Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

The ten-member troupe made their way onto the Dollar Bank Stage at the Point to a roaring crowd. While past Arts Fest shows have been relaxed and inviting for audience members to sit and relax on the lawn, leading up to the Edward Sharpe show the area quickly filled and became a standing-room-only affair.

But that didn’t stop the fun, positive atmosphere as lead singer Alex Ebert belted through the opening song “40 Day Dream.” Before long the whole crowd was clapping and singing along as Ebert and fellow singer Jade Castrinos encouraged everyone to dance and scream (“if they wanted to”) through the stomp-tastic “If You Wanna.” The warm evening and open venue complemented the band’s sound, as every song was clear, audible, and well-performed.

At one point Ebert leapt into the crowd, disappearing in the sea of people while his voice still echoed on stage. The band kept the crowd involved the entire show, even pulling one lucky audience member on stage to sing a song and participate in a stage dive. The set-list seemed spontaneous, as Ebert would ask the crowd for suggestions or look to the rest of the band for next song ideas. The enthusiastic crowd was also treated to a sneak peek at the band’s upcoming third, self-titled album with the song “Better Days,” the video for which was published yesterday. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros closed out the show with the hit single “Home” as well as “Om Nashi Me” in front of light patterns that resembled stars in the night sky. Audience members were given the opportunity to tell their own stories in the interlude of “Home,” as Ebert and Castrino passed their microphones around.

After finishing up, Ebert reluctantly told the crowd that there “will be no coming back out,” due to a time limit (which it seemed they had already exceeded anyways).

“Talk to your City,” Ebert proclaimed, “Pay more taxes!”

No thank you, Mr. Ebert, I’d much rather pay nothing to enjoy a fantastic evening of music.

Full set list:

  1. Jade Castrinos of Edward Sharpe and the Magnet...

    Jade Castrinos of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    40 Day Dream

  2. That’s What’s Up
  3. Man on Fire
  4. Janglin’
  5. Fiya Wata
  6. I Don’t Wanna Pray (with multiple verses added)
  7. Truth
  8. Up From Below
  9. If You Wanna
  10. Jade
  11. Mayla
  12. Better Days (New Song)
  13. Home
  14. Om Nashi Me

Local Natives at Stage AE Monday, June 10 

Stage AE Pittsburgh's North Shore

Stage AE Pittsburgh’s North Shore

Fellow L.A. natives Ex Cops opened for Local Natives, and actually held their own. Like most openers, the band got the crowd into them through the assurance that the main act was coming up after them, asking the crowd if they were excited. The evening started like an awkward middle school dance as the crowd was not entirely sure what to make of this five-piece rock band. But as the evening went on, heads indeed were bobbing while knees jumped up and down to the swinging, catchy grooves of this unique band who did a proper job of priming the crowd without upstaging the main act.

The Local Natives, also from Los Angeles, rocked to an ecstatic crowd at Stage AE on the North Shore. The four-person group is just beginning their Summer/Fall tour and Pittsburgh is just the seventh stop. With the buzz from their sold-out Spring tour (and Coachella performance) for their sophomore album Hummingbird hanging in the air, the Local Natives really delivered to the enthusiastic Stage AE crowd.

The Local Natives have been getting attention since 2010’s Gorilla Manor (ironically at one time they were the opening act for Edward Sharpe), and for good reason. The combination of strong vocals and vocal harmonization as well as diversity in sounds (from slower, passionate songs, to fast-paced stompers) give the Local Natives a really unique sound, one that has been dubbed “a prominent, assured voice of contemporary Los Angeles rock…a transformational arrival” by the Los Angeles Times as well as “indie rock’s next great hope” by Entertainment Weekly.

The group wasted little time between songs, powering through the set list as each song brought even louder cheers from the jumpy, dancing crowd. Stage AE suited the Local Natives well as it was large enough to let out their big sound, but small enough to allow some intimacy with the crowd. The band made things fun, swapping instruments and vocal duties and at times even playing multiple instruments at once. Lead singer Kelcey Ayer (who played keyboards, a drum, and picked up a guitar at times) expressed appreciation for the passionate crowd, admitting the last time they were in Pittsburgh was roughly 5 years ago to a crowd of about twenty or so people at an art gallery. Needless to say they’ve come a long way in a short amount of time and the enthusiastic support from the crowd could have suggested that the band members were “local natives” (ouch, too much?) of the Pittsburgh area.

Local Natives performing at Stage AE in Pittsburgh

Local Natives performing at Stage AE in Pittsburgh

The Local Natives finished up their main set as the cheers of the crowd rang out in harmony with the final guitar strum while the packed audience cried for more. They came out for an encore, appreciative of the strong support.

Tentative set list for Local Natives (it’s one they’ve used recently, but I’m not sure if it exactly matches Monday night’s show-feel free to comment with any corrections).

Main:

  1. Black Spot
  2. Breakers
  3. Wide Eyes
  4. You & Me
  5. Ceilings

    Local Natives performing at Stage AE North Shore

    Local Natives performing at Stage AE North Shore

  6. Heavy Feet
  7. World News
  8. Columbia
  9. Warning Sign
  10. Who Knows, Who Cares
  11. Bowery

Encore:

  1. Three Months
  2. Airplanes
  3. Sun Hands

Local Natives recently performed on Letterman, and guitarist/keyboardist/singer Ryan Hahn just did a full interview with Pittsburgh’s 91.3fm WYEP.

Between Friday night’s Arts Fest-ivities (see what I did there?) and Monday night’s show, it was the largest collection of square-framed glasses, mustaches, rolled pant legs, and tossle hats in June I’d seen in one place (my own Ray-Bans and unkept facial hair included). And to be honest, all jokes aside, it was welcomed– a friendly, positive, fun-loving crowd which can only bring other great acts through Pittsburgh.

Arts Festival Pick- Art Olympics: The Iron Chef of Art

Art Olympics, Saturday, June 21, 6:30 pm, Market Square

This event looks like it is going to be a great time. Artists will be competing against the clock and with limited materials to create sculpture. I think it will be interestesting to see how the different teams tackle the creative process. The final products will be judged by a panel of experts.

I also think this event is worth checking out because it is a creation of Tom Sarver of the Tom Museum who is someone I would really like to meet. The Tom Museum hosted the show about mix tapes and I was sorry I wasn’t able to attend. I just leared from the Tom’s blog that the Tom Museum closed on May 31st. Tom Sarver’s blog has some great clips of projects around Pittbsurgh and beyond. Check out this one on cardboard gears.

You can see the schedule of events here. There is even a halftime show too. The audience is encouraged to get up close and talk with the teams. Check out the website for the event here. Beer from Penn Brewery and Music from Opek. Read John Morris’s write up of the event on The Digging Pitt blog here.

Here is a clip of the Art Olympics from last fall at the New Hazlette Theater. (Video courtesy of Larry Ripple)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW00uCb6X-o[/youtube]

A zany blend of reality television, racing and art, the Art Olympics are coming to Market Square. The creation of puppeteer, painter and sculptor Tom Sarver, the Art Olympics pits teams of artists against each other to create a sculpture using surprise materials and curious constraints. A panel of judges – a la Iron Chef – then judges the creations and announces a winner. Three teams, each team representing a different Pittsburgh neighborhood, will have two hours to build a winning sculpture from materials that are unveiled at the competition. The result is an interactive audience experience that’s part performance, part construction, part rodeo and all party. From sports fans to reality tv buffs, gallery-goers to process-driven post-docs, the Art Olympics make art accessible to everyone – and it’s a darn good time