Most Recent Project - Gist Dogs Unveiled
Sculptor James Simon unveiled two large-scale, concrete dogs – a Dachshund and a Schnauzer – which he has created to stand in front of Forbes Auto Body on Gist Street.
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.
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 Studio. King Kong, who has been peering out over a garage door for several years now- is loved by neighbors and passing motorists who often stop to say how much they like having the big art gorilla in Uptown. Neighbors bring their kids and friends by often to see the animated gorilla.
Our first painting, "Oaxacan Dinner", was created in September/ October of 2005 featured Jean Foss an American painter now living In Oaxaca Mexico. Jean's playful, imaginative style was a great beginning in our vision of several artists creating high quality works of art on Gist Street over the next years --. Since then John Fleenor has painted the “Portrait of Antoine”, Kate Bechak has painted “Bananas” for Baby Kong, Justin Blair has painted the “Fire Hydrant” for the dogs - James Simon has sculpted the two dogs and sculptor Heather Powell has created “The Bridge” and Laura McLaughlin has created the "Bicycle Mural".
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 sculpture are 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 Stream grants 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.
