Art in Parks
Eight local, national, and international artists and artist teams implemented public artworks in the City's five regional parks as part of the Art in Parks program. Additionally, five locally-based storytellers were commissioned to document and expand the narrative created by the public art installations.
This program was made possible by the RADical ImPAct Grant.
A Monument To Pittsburgh Youth
Ali Ruffner
Emerald View Park
Year: 2024
Ruffner's long-term engagement with students at Brashear High School led to their final design for this multi-component artwork in Emerald View Park. A Monument to Pittsburgh Youth uses castings of the students' own hands and ceramic tiles with street-art inspired signatures of the participants to create a sculptural installation framed by the park trails. An elevation of the voices of this community's youth, the monument was envisioned as a place for activity, socialization, and rest.
Location
7222 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Grit, Flow, Grow
OOA Designs
Anchor Green Garden in Emerald View Park
Year: 2024
Inspired by the poem "Bread and Roses", OOA's three-part sculpture is a composition of scrap metal and elegant line work that creates a metaphor for the resiliency of women and a symbol of the transformation and growth of post-industrial environments.
Location
7222 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
The Art at Emerald View Park
Sandra Bacchi, Storyteller
Bacchi's short documentary, The Art at Emerald View Park, investigates different perspectives on the installation of the two new commissioned art pieces created by OOA Design and Ali Rufrano-Ruffner and Gwen Sadler. The narrative connects the park’s history, its community, and the artists as if there were an invisible thread that weaves its way throughout the story.
In Fields of Friends
Matthew Geller
Frick Park near Blue Slide Playground and Riverview Trail
Year: 2024
Geller's design for a folly in the landscape takes its visual cues from the elegant castle-like entrances of the park's original estate and the whimsical qualities of a merry-go-round. This participatory artwork creates a landmark, a gathering place, and a transition space between the active perimeter of the park and the sweeping natural views beyond.
Location
7222 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
What The Frick!
Sophia Fang, Storyteller
Fang painted a series of watercolor and gouache paintings exploring the park and the sculpture created by Matthew Geller. The series explores Frick Park as a magical, storied ground for shared community-building and gathering.
Flora
Marlana Adele Vassar
Highland Park's grand entry garden
Year: 2024
Vassar explains the process for developing Flora: "For the design, I incorporated art nouveau style and elements of nature that are found throughout my previous works and in the park, and blended these with modern ideas for a balance of classical and contemporary style. The placement in the garden will be accessible to residents so that they can see the artwork up close. The accessibility point is also addressed in the work’s size, as a child-size sculpture will be less intimidating to visitors, easier to place, and simpler to maintain over the years. I thought that it was very important to provide symbols of progress and possibility with this work, so the figure is a person coexisting with nature rather than trying to tame it. The figure design also addresses the diversity point, since there are currently no people of color or female children represented in the park’s sculptures."
Location
7222 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Together
The Urban Conga
Highland Park between the swimming pool and the lake
Year: 2024
Together was developed through feedback and conversations with the Highland Park community and surrounding areas. The artwork is designed to serve as a playable communal platform, a place for people to listen, learn, and connect with one another around the past, present, and future of the park. It's location, adjacent to the Highland Park pool and Lake Carnegie, was highlighted by the community as an area in the park that is often used by different demographics of people participating in a variety of activities that don’t necessarily engage with one another. The piece is designed to serve as a connector not only between the physical spaces but between the people utilizing these spaces. This area of the park has a long history of social connection and divide with it being one of the first integrated pools in Pittsburgh and one of the most diversely used parks in the city. The artwork becomes a multifunctional landmark that utilizes different open-ended play methodologies to break down social barriers and begin to connect people with each other and the park itself. It becomes not just a visual piece but a functional additive component for the park, providing a way of discovery and exploration as well as a destination.
Location
7222 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
The Highland Park Zine
Alyssa Velazquez, Storyteller
Inspired by The Urban Conga’s socially interactive designs and open-ended play methodology, The Highland Park Zine is a bricolage of photocopies, flyers, newspaper clippings, surveys, postcards, and maps. Page by page choose your own adventure, learning more about the artists working in Highland Park and lingering on the words and images from Highland Park, East Liberty, and Morningside community members past and present.
Pictures of the Future
Sans façon (Tristan Surtees & Charles Blanc) and Steve Gurysh
Riverview Park, trail near Riverview Avenue and Mairdale Avenue
Year: 2024
Pictures of the Future is multi-faceted public artwork consisting of a series of interwoven elements that reframes Riverview Park's existing elements, landscape, and history. Realized through the help of arborists, wood carvers, an astronomer, observational drawing teachers, a blacksmith, a paper-maker, a filmmaker, park rangers, Tree Pittsburgh, City of Pittsburgh Forestry and Public works crews and several municipal and non-profit organizations, Pictures of the Future is a public artwork comprised of several elements that serve to resource, amplify and recalibrate the relationships between Riverview Park’s dedicated caretakers, visitors, and the unique context of a historic astronomical observatory situated within the dense, 250-acre urban forest of Riverview Park
Location
7222 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Riverview Park: A Park of Legacy, An Ecosystem Out of Balance
Mark Kramer, Storyteller
Kramer's personal essay explores the ecosystem of Riverview Park, where white-tailed deer, snake worms, and invasive plant species have decimated native plant growth and caused significant erosion, infrastructure degradation, and other problems. With Riverview’s species populations so unbalanced, Mark's work challenges us to address these concerns head-on.
Drip, Seep, Run
Ginger Brooks Takahashi
Schenley Park near Bartlett Playground
Year: 2024
In Drip, Seep, Run, Takahashi explores the historical presence and memory of the natural water systems of Schenley Park. This sculptural work is integrated into the woodland trails and highlights water sources that may otherwise go unnoticed. The piece is sited next to the Hollow Run Trail and can also be seen from the Lower Panther Hollow Trail.
Location
7222 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Birds of Schenley Park
Suphitsara Buttra
Schenley Oval Sportsplex in Schenley Park
Year: 2024
Suphitsara's project is inspired by the wildlife of Schenley Park. "When we think of parks, we automatically think of activities and relaxation. Wildlife seems to come second, if not last. Since Schenley Park is right in the middle of the city, amongst more than usual traffic and pollution, I feel the need to use this opportunity to remind city visitors of the wildlife in their backyard. During the process of researching and gathering information from the community, bird watching was brought up in the conversation, which led to discussing global warming. I took interest in researching how climate change affects the bird species in national parks. On average, one-quarter of bird species found in a given national park could be completely different by 2050 if carbon emissions continue at their current pace. About 23% of species will come to extinction by 2050, averaged across 274 parks. Suitable climate may cease to occur in the future; some species like the American Robin (which can be seen in Schenley Park) may either adapt to the new climate or follow suitable climate elsewhere, thus becoming locally extinct from the park."
Location
7222 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Schenley Park Essays
Sakena Washington, Storyteller
Washington produced two narrative essays that weave the artists' process with her personal experiences and memories of parks and campgrounds throughout the region. The themes in her two essays range from mindfulness to climate action and how nature serves to remind us how each of those play an important role in our wellness.