Great places – Part 11
Venture to the Burgh and make this a Great Place weekend at the Three Rivers Arts Festival.
With 300 artists, more than 50 live music performances, 15 visual arts installations and 4 original dance and theatre productions, summer begins in downtown Pittsburgh with the 49th annual Three Rivers Arts Festival. The 2008 Festival will again enliven the historic plazas, city streets and open spaces of downtown Pittsburgh with original art and live performances due to continuing renovations at Point State Park.
“For 49 years, the Three Rivers Arts Festival has served as the unofficial start of summer for the City of Pittsburgh,” said Richard Sieber, executive vice president of the Three Rivers Arts Festival advisory board. “Through the collaboration of government agencies, foundations and civic organizations, we have reinvented the Festival over the past two years as a model for how the arts can engage the community and enliven the downtown core of the city.”
As the longest and largest arts event in the city, the Festival is a major driver of economic activity in downtown Pittsburgh. Approximately 500,000 people attend the Festival’s 17 days of performance, visual art and music, and the Duquesne Light Artists Market generates about $2.4 million in direct sales for participating artists. Overall, VisitPittsburgh estimates that the 2007 Festival generated a $23 million economic impact for downtown businesses.
Artistically, the Three Rivers Arts Festival both produces and exposes some of the most cutting-edge, quality and innovative work happening in the Pittsburgh art scene and beyond. “The 2008 Festival features more new and site-specific creations than ever before,” said Executive Director Elizabeth Reiss. “The works we’ve selected and commissioned for the Festival represent the themes of do-it-yourself, repurposing discarded materials for creative uses, and community identity that are prevalent in the global contemporary art world today.”
Among over 100 individual events and performances, highlights of the 2008 Festival include:
* Contained: A new exhibition developed in partnership with Associated Artists of Pittsburgh that engaged 10 artists and artist teams to transform used shipping containers into immersive art experiences. At Contained, Pittsburgh “dance ninjas” Attack Theatre have created a new site-specific interactive dance work that swings and dangles performers from the 8-foot-high containers.
* Take Me Out: The flagship collaboration of the third annual 4th River Project, barebones productions’ presentation of the Tony-Award-winning play takes audiences into the locker room of a professional baseball team. Now in its third year, 4th River Projects support ground-breaking local arts organizations as they reach for new heights of production excellence and risk-taking.
* Dream Machine, an interactive sculpture by Schenley High School graduate Nathan Green, invites participants to interact with whimsical playground equipment in Market Square.
* The annual Duquesne Light Artists Market, where 300 artists and fine craftspeople from around the world sell their creations and share their experiences.
* The UPMC Health Plan Family Festival, featuring environmentally-conscious hands-on art experiences and the new Community Stage, where children from around the region will perform dance, music and theatre.
* 17 nights of performance on the Festival Main Stage, located at the Stanwix Triangle, opening with jam-band legends moe. and closing with alt-country guitarist Alejandro Escovedo, plus weeknight happy hour concerts on the Market Square Stage.
The Three Rivers Arts Festival depends on support from the community and investment from area businesses. Area foundations have made significant investments in the 2008 Festival. Over 100 are foundations and corporations contributed to the 2008 Festival, enabling the presentation of more originial performances and installations than ever before.
“Duquesne Light is proud to continue its long-standing support of the Three Rivers Arts Festival,” says Joseph Vallarian, Duquesne Light spokesperson. “As a company, we actively support events that are economic drivers for the Pittsburgh region, and the Festival certainly qualifies, as it is one of the premier events in the area.”
Media partners have stepped up Pittsburgh City Paper, 91.3 WYEP, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Comcast and Pittsburgh Magazine to spread the word about the 2008 Festival. Collaborations with organizations like the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and PUMP will fill Market Square with energy and excitement.
Calendar Listing
49th annual Three Rivers Arts Festival. June 6-22, 2008. Downtown Pittsburgh. Hours: Duquesne Light Artists Market and indoor exhibits: 12 – 8 pm daily. Performances and food courts: 12 – 9:30 pm daily. UPMC Health Plan Family Festival: 12 – 7 pm daily. Most programs free and open to the public.
About the Three Rivers Arts Festival
The mission of the Three Rivers Arts Festival is to connect the community to the arts. The 49th annual Three Rivers Arts Festival runs from June 6-22, 2008. For more information, call the Festival at 412.281.8723 or visit our website www.artsfestival.net.