The "Art On Gist Street Project" creates a
unique art street with paintings and sculpture. The paintings are
being created on panels attached to homes and businesses along Gist
Street in the Uptown neighborhood of Pittsburgh and are elaborately
framed to simulate a larger than life street gallery.
Gist Street is a short street located in Uptown, a neighborhood
of distinct contrasts: residential households, business
establishments, educational institutions, social service
organizations, prostitutes, and drug dealers all line this critical
corridor that links Downtown to Oakland -- the Southside to the
Hill District. Part of the uniqueness of Uptown is that unlike many
neighborhoods in Pittsburgh it boasts a truly diverse population.
In the short two blocks of the proposed project live a racially
diverse collection of long-time residents (some spanning several
generations), businesses, students, and artists. With a few new
businesses moving in and cultural events happening, uptown and
particularly Gist Street is beginning to experience the very first
signs of revitalization.
The paintings and sculptureare adding color, style, and
narrative to this decayed urban environment by changing the
reputation of Gist Street from a place where prostititutes do
business, to an "art street" where people slow down to see what's
new.
We hope to continually transform the visual atmosphere of this
depressed, at-risk neighborhood with a diverse range of accessible
high quality public art.
These projects were partially supported with Project
Streamgrants by Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PA Partners),
the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on
the Arts, a state agency.
The state government funding comes through an annual
appropriation by Pennsylvania's General Assembly and from the
National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. PA Partners is
administered in Allegheny County by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts
Council.
Baby Kong
Art on Gist Street started with Baby Kong: a sculpture of the head and hands of King Kong made by James Simon at his 305 Gist Street Stud... Continue reading →
Oaxacan Dinner
Our first painting, "Oaxacan Dinner", was created in September/ October of 2005 featured Jean Foss an American painter now living In Oaxa... Continue reading →
Portrait of Antoine
The 2006/2007 painting has been created by local Uptown Artist John Fleenor -Inspired by Renaissance portraiture such as Raphael.
John h... Continue reading →
