Pile it on. We Vote! watercolor/collage by Carol Skinger
I am a member of the Pittsburgh Society of Artists along with nearly 300 other members. I am inviting you to an art opening where I am pleased to say one of my pieces will be shown. Pittsburgh Society of Artists will open their exhibit titled “Tone it Up!” With a reception at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts this Friday, May 11, 2012 5:30pm – 9:00pm. Exhibit runs till July 22, 2012.
My piece titled “Pile it on. We Vote!” consists of collaged watercolor and prints, including birch tree wallpaper decals. I hope you will come to the opening or see the exhibit before it closes.
Where? Pittsburgh Center for the Arts 6300 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232. Map. They are carrying single greeting cards of my image for the duration of the show. Alternative Mother’s Day card?? Also here in sets of 4.
This is only one of four exhibits opening the same night at the same place, so it will be an exciting night. Plenty of stimulating art to see and many people, both artists and audience to cross paths with. Thank you PF/PCA!!!
Pittsburgh is so fortunate to have Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (PF/PCA). Everyone can take art classes there, see a Calliope concert, go to constantly changing art shows both local and national, and support local artists by buying their work at the shop. If you are a member of one of the 8 art guilds associated with PF/PCA as I am, your group competes to be included in exhibits like this with the other art guilds. Happily the Pittsburgh Society of Artists submission for our show titled “Tone it Up!” made the cut. Even then with nearly 300 members we have to submit our work for the competative process of being juried into the exhibit. In addition, all guild exhibits at PF/PCA are also open to other guild members to try to jury into. When you get into a show you are so happy.
To gain some insight into why these four winning proposals for exhibits fit with the overall philosophy of Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (PF/PCA) I have taken a quote from their website:
“We believe that cultivating a fertile environment for artistic exploration and expression is essential to the community’s growth. It is crucial that art (making it and showing it) is accessible, especially in time of conflict and fear. The creation of art is inextricably linked to free thought; and should never be limited by fear or the pragmatic demands of the open market. Art inspires community, at every level, to advance cultural dialogue. PF/PCA provides opportunities for this sort of dialogue by focusing on both content, and space, creating environments that encourage an open exchange of images and ideas.”
And that I believe, is why we are lucky in Pittsburgh to have Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.
Looking at the whole complex: Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in the Marshall building & Scaife building, Mellon Park and the Phipps Garden Center at Mellon Park, we would not have such bold statements and lovely grounds and buildings in which to make them, to show art, buy art, take art classes, go to a Bach Beethoven and Brunch concert, hear a Calliope Concert, take in the annual PCA Y’Art Sale, or take a great walk – without the passing of Pittsburgh’s guilded age.
I wonder what the ghosts of R. B. Mellon his wife Jeannie King Mellon, Alan Scaife and his wife Sarah Mellon Scaife, and Charles D. Marshall would think of all the art going on- on the grounds and in the buildings of the whole setting which includes Pittsburgh Center for the Arts?
In some cases we have the grounds only, after the building was demolished as in the case of Richard Beatty Mellon’s 65 room mansion, though we do still have the walled garden from the grounds of the house. Next to the mansion was a garage and a carriage house. The carriage house was donated to the city and is now the Phipps Garden Center at Mellon Park. The footprint of the mansion is what you are walking on when you take a walk in Mellon Park.
Richard Beatty Mellon House completed 1909, demolished 1941
In 1929, Mellon chose landscape architects Vitale and Geiffert to develop the Walled Garden. The property originally had been laid out in 1912 by Pittsburgh architects Alden and Harlow with subsequent work by the Olmsted Brothers firm of Brookline, Massachusetts. But we don’t know that actual building any more. It’s gone.
The building everyone associates with Pittsburgh Center for the Arts is the Marshall Building built in 1912, now painted yellow. Charles D. Marshall, president and co-owner of the McClintic-Marshall Construction Company, built his mansion in 1912. A formal, 17th century Carolean-inspired building. In 1943, Charles Marshall donated his house Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, originally named The Arts and Crafts Center of Pittsburgh. The first organizational meeting November 27, 1944.
Marshall Building
A Tudor revival mansion on the Mellon Estate still exists. Constructed in 1904, it was given as a wedding gift in 1927 to R.B.’s daughter, Sarah, who married Alan Magee Scaife, a fifth generation industrialist and Mellon National Bank Director. In February 1946, the Scaifes donated their home and property to the city. This mansion is now the Scaife Building and houses art classes for the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.
Scaife Building- if you want to study the draggable and clickable map of the site in 1923 you can see where the R.B. Mellon house was relative to the Marshall and Scaife buildings which still exist. Map
So thanks to Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts for making so many great spaces available to Pittsburgh for making and showing and selling art! Description of the four shows opening at the same time. Come to the opening and see them all!
Tone it Up! Pittsburgh Society of Artists
2012: End of Time Pittsburgh Print Group
Recreation/Renewal/Rebirth Society of Sculptors
Lenses and Filters, through the Needle’s Eye Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh
In addition, in film/video Selected Shorts from Pittsburgh Filmmakers members.
Wonderful new facilities continue to be built and used at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.
