The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (PCT) is a
nonprofit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
arts organization formed in 1984 to promote economic and cultural development in
Downtown Pittsburgh
Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River who ...
.
The "Trust" has focused its work on a 14-square block section called the Cultural District, which comprises numerous entertainment and cultural venues, restaurants, and residential buildings. All together, the organization claims to oversee more than one million square feet of real estate, including commercial and residential buildings, making it one of the largest landowners downtown. In recent years the organization has had a contentious relationship with the city of Pittsburgh concerning the tax status for many of its properties, resulting in a case being heard by the state Supreme Court in 2011.
As of February 2018, the PCT's president and CEO is
J. Kevin McMahon. According to its 2016 "Report to the Community", PCT's
net assets
Net worth is the value of all the non-financial and financial assets owned by an individual or institution minus the value of all its outstanding liabilities. Since financial assets minus outstanding liabilities equal net financial assets, net ...
were valued at $120 million.
History
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust was founded in 1984 by
H. J. Heinz II
Henry John Heinz II (July 10, 1908 – February 23, 1987) was an American business executive and CEO of the H. J. Heinz Company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. His grandfather Henry J. Heinz founded the company in the nineteenth centu ...
with the principal aim of restoring downtown Pittsburgh as a vibrant cultural destination. Heinz and others, including
William Rea and his son,
U.S. Senator
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and powe ...
John Heinz
Henry John Heinz III (October 23, 1938 – April 4, 1991) was an American businessman and Republican politician from Pennsylvania. Heinz represented the Pittsburgh suburbs in the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 and ...
, began with Pittsburgh's first renovated former
movie palace
A movie palace (or picture palace in the United Kingdom) is any of the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 192 ...
,
Heinz Hall
Heinz Hall is a performing arts center and concert hall located at 600 Penn Avenue in the Cultural District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Home to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) and the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, the 2,676 sea ...
, (which was built as the former Loew's Penn Theater).
The PCT's first major project was the restoration of the former
Stanley Theater. The Stanley Theater was originally designed by the firm of
Hoffman & Henon and opened on February 27, 1928. Under the PCT's management, this theater underwent a $43 million restoration and reopened in 1987 as the 2,800-seat
Benedum Center for the Performing Arts. That year, the PCT and its partners presented an annual Broadway series in the Cultural District.
The
Byham Theater
The Byham Theater is a landmark building at 101 Sixth Street in the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally built in 1903 as The Gayety Theater, the former vaudeville house was renovated and reopened as ...
was another theater venue restoration project. Built in 1903 as the Gayety Theater, it included a stage and
Vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
house, and featured stars such as
Ethel Barrymore,
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence (4 July 1898 – 6 September 1952) was an English actress, singer, dancer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End of London and on Broadway in New York.
Early life
Lawrence was born Gertr ...
, and
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes MacArthur ( Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have w ...
. It was renamed The Fulton in the 1930s when it became a full-time movie theater. In 1990, the PCT bought and refurbished the theater. The
Byham family of Pittsburgh made a major naming gift for a 1995 renovation, and it has been the Byham Theater since.
In 1992, PCT opened
Wood Street Galleries
Wood Street Galleries, a visual arts project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, is a gallery located in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spann ...
, its first visual arts project. PCT purchased and refurbished a former XXX movie theater in 1995, and re-opened the 194-seat theater as the Harris Theater, which screens independent, foreign, and classic films.
In 1999, the PCT's 650-seat O'Reilly Theater opened as the permanent home of the Pittsburgh Public Theater. The same year, the Agnes R. Katz Plaza was unveiled. The theater features a bronze fountain designed by sculptor
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...
and the work of landscape architect Dan Kiley. Also during 1999, artists Robert Wilson and Richard Gluckman were selected by the PCT to create a series of public art projects in the Cultural District.
In 2000, PCT established Shared Services, a consortium including the
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (PBT) is an American professional ballet company based in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA).
History 1969 - Founding
The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre was founded in 1969 by a Yugoslavian choreog ...
,
Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera
Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (Pittsburgh CLO) is a nonprofit professional theater company based in the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Despite its name, the organization presents musical theatre classics rather t ...
,
Pittsburgh Public Theater
Pittsburgh Public Theater, or The Public for short, is a professional theater company located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After the retirement of longtime Producing Artistic Director Ted Pappas, The Public began the 2018–2019 season with a new ...
,
Pittsburgh Opera
Pittsburgh Opera is an American opera company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh Opera gives performances in several venues, primarily at the Benedum Center, with other performances at the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts Sch ...
,
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The ''Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra'' (''PSO'') is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra's home is Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District.
History
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is an America ...
, and
August Wilson Center for African American Culture
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a U.S. nonprofit arts organization based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that presents performing and visual arts programs that celebrate the contributions of African Americans not only in Weste ...
.
Jack Heinz chose PCT's first President and CEO,
Carol Brown. She managed the organization from 1986 until 2000. In 2001,
J. Kevin McMahon was named President and CEO.
In 2002, Pittsburgh Dance Council became a programming division of PCT. PCT opened Theater Square in 2003, a complex including the 265-seat Cabaret at Theater Square, a parking garage, centralized box office, restaurant, and bar, and the Carolyn M. Byham WQED 89.3 FM remote broadcast studio. That same year, First Night Pittsburgh became a program of the PCT.
PCT presented the Quebec Festival and the inaugural Pittsburgh Festival of Firsts in 2004. It also turned an adult bookstore at 812 Liberty Avenue into SPACE, a gallery showcasing regional artists’ work, and purchased 937 Liberty Avenue to be utilized by local arts organizations as an office space and as a flexible performing and visual arts venue. 2004 was also the first year the PCT organized a quarterly Gallery Crawl in the Cultural District, a free arts open house.
In 2005, the PCT purchased the property that would become home to the James E. Rohr Building, the Trust Arts Education Center. The PCT presented the Australia Festival in 2007. The Pittsburgh International Children's Theater and Festival became a programming division of the PCT in 2008. During that same year, the PCT presented the 2nd Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts. In 2009,
Three Rivers Arts Festival
Three Rivers Arts Festival is an outdoor music and arts festival held each June in the Downtown district of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The festival features live music and performance art, as well as visual art and vendors who sell their wares. The ...
became a programming division of the PCT. As of 2010, the PCT's total revenue was publicly listed as $46 million.
On April 18, 2012, the Executive Committee accepted Kenneth Milani’s resignation from the position of Chairman of the PCT's Board of Trustees. Veronica Corpuz, spokesperson for PCT at that time, informed the media that the Executive Committee had appointed attorneys Carolyn Duronio and Chuck Queenan as Milani's interim replacement until a new chairman was found. The current chairman is Richard J. Harshman.
Programming
Visual arts
![Wood Street Galleries - IMG 7572](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Wood_Street_Galleries_-_IMG_7572.JPG)
Exhibitions held in the PCT's
Wood Street Galleries
Wood Street Galleries, a visual arts project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, is a gallery located in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spann ...
feature new media artists from around the world. SPACE and 707 Penn promote local artists.
Recent
Wood Street Galleries
Wood Street Galleries, a visual arts project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, is a gallery located in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spann ...
exhibitions featured work by artists Bill Vorn and
Louis-Philippe Demers (2014); Alexandre Burton and
Edwin van der Heide
Edwin van der Heide (born 1970) is a Dutch sound artist and composer known for his immersive installations and performances, currently living in Rotterdam.
Biography
Van der Heide was born in Hilversum, Netherlands, and studied Music Technolog ...
(2014);
Erwin Redl (2014);
Kurt Hentschläger (2013); Chang-Jin Lee (2013); and
Ryoji Ikeda
Ryoji Ikeda (池田 亮司 ''Ikeda Ryōji'', born 1966) is a Japanese visual and sound artist who currently lives and works in Paris, France. Ikeda's music is concerned primarily with sound in a variety of "raw" states, such as sine tones and noi ...
(2013).
Public art
![Agnes R](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Agnes_R._Katz_Plaza_-_IMG_7628.JPG)
The PCT has seven
public art
Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...
projects on display year-round in Pittsburgh's
Cultural District. They include the following:
*
Allegheny Riverfront Park
Allegheny Riverfront Park is a municipal park that runs along the south bank of the Allegheny River in Downtown Pittsburgh.
It is a parcel of the Three Rivers Park, the city's grand urban waterfront park project along its rivers that will pr ...
located at the Allegheny riverfront,
Rachel Carson Bridge __NOTOC__
Rachel Carson Bridge, also known as the Ninth Street Bridge, spans the Allegheny River in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States. The total length is including the main span and two side spans, or including the appr ...
to
Fort Duquesne Bridge
The Fort Duquesne Bridge is a steel bowstring arch bridge that spans the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was colloquially referred to as "The Bridge to Nowhere".
History
The bridge was constructed from 1958-1963 by PennDOT, and ...
. The park was commissioned in the early 1990s when the PCT's District Plan included the creation of a riverfront park to border the northern boundary of the
Cultural District, Pittsburgh
The Cultural District is a fourteen-square block area in Downtown Pittsburgh, USA bordered by the Allegheny River on the north, Tenth Street on the east, Stanwix Street on the west, and Liberty Avenue on the south.
The Cultural District features ...
. The PCT's then Public Arts Advisory Committee commissioned a first-time collaboration between artist
Ann Hamilton and landscape architect
Michael Van Valkenburgh
Michael Robert Van Valkenburgh (born September 5, 1951) is an American landscape architect and educator. He has worked on a wide variety of projects in the United States, Canada, Korea, and France, including public parks, college campuses, sculp ...
to create the park.
* Agnes R. Katz Plaza located at 7th Avenue & Penn Avenue. Kata Plaza, commissioned in 1998, features
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...
sculptures, including three granite benches shaped like eyeballs and the centerpiece 25-foot-tall bronze fountain. Landscape architect
Dan Kiley
Daniel Urban Kiley (2 September 1912 – 21 February 2004) was an American landscape architect, who worked in the style of modern architecture. Kiley designed over one-thousand landscape projects including Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis ...
and architect
Michael Graves
Michael Graves (July 9, 1934 – March 12, 2015) was an American architect, designer, and educator, as well as principal of Michael Graves and Associates and Michael Graves Design Group. He was a member of The New York Five and the Memphis Gr ...
also worked on the project.
* Cell Phone Disco located at Tito Way & Exchange Way. The artist collective, Informationlab (Auke Touwslager, Ursula Lavrenčič) were commissioned in 2010 to create this outdoor Art & Science interactive installation.
* Haas Mural located on the Fort Duquesne Boulevard façade of the
Byham Theater
The Byham Theater is a landmark building at 101 Sixth Street in the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally built in 1903 as The Gayety Theater, the former vaudeville house was renovated and reopened as ...
, 101 6th Street. The 36-by-56-foot
mural
A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage.
Word mural in art
The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...
was commissioned in 1993 and painted by
Richard Haas
Richard John Haas (born August 29, 1936) is an American muralist who is best known for architectural murals and his use of the ''trompe-l'œil'' style. Haas has a 1959 B.S. from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and a 1964 M.F.A. from the U ...
in the ''
trompe-l'œil
''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...
'' style.
* Magnolias for Pittsburgh located at 7th Avenue & Penn Avenue. The Public Art Network of Americans for the Arts selected
Tony Tasset's "Magnolias for Pittsburgh" to be in the 2007 "Year in Review". The installation features two bronze
magnolia
''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...
trees, five live magnolia trees, and a landscape design.
* Momento Mori located at Tito Way & Exchange Way.
* Sign of Light located at Penn Avenue Place, Stanwix Street & Fort Duquesne Boulevard, facing the
Allegheny River
The Allegheny River ( ) is a long headwater stream of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York. The Allegheny River runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border northwesterly into ...
. This 20-by-40-foot electronic sign is composed of
LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...
s that project a white triangle floating on a blue-gray background. "Sign of Light" is visible from the
North Side (Pittsburgh)
North Side (sometimes written as Northside) refers to the region of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, located to the north of the Allegheny River and the Ohio River.
The term "North Side" does not refer to a specific neighborhood, but rather to a d ...
and
PNC Park
PNC Park is a baseball stadium on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the fifth home of the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB). It was opened during the 2001 MLB season, after the controlled implosion of the Pira ...
.
In 2013, the PCT invited Dutch artist
Florentijn Hofman
Florentijn Hofman (born 16 April 1977) is a Dutch artist who creates playful urban installations like the Rubber Duck (sculpture), ''Rubber Duck'' and the ''HippopoThames'', a 2014 installation on the River Thames in London.
Life and career
...
to bring his
''Rubber Duck'' sculpture to Pittsburgh. It sold rubber duck-sized versions of ''Rubber Duck'' for $10, with proceeds going to the trust.
Notes
*
References
External links
Official website* Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Record
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Records, 1926–2000, CTC.2000.02, Curtis Theatre Collection, Special Collections Department, University of Pittsburgh)
{{Authority control
Organizations based in Pittsburgh
Culture of Pittsburgh
Art in Pittsburgh