Art in Parks

Grantees

Allegheny County Parks and City of Pittsburgh Parks

 

Grant Amount

$1,500,000

 

Project

Allegheny County Parks and the City of Pittsburgh Parks join forces to highlight the symbiotic relationship between art and parks. Their project, Art in Parks, encourages the public to reimagine the way they interact with and enjoy public art in park spaces.

Allegheny County has enhanced Hartwood Acres Park through the creation of a sculpture garden near the Hartwood Acres Mansion grounds.

The City of Pittsburgh has created signature large-scale, interactive public works of art in each of the five RAD parks within the city.

 

Progress

County Parks

The Allegheny County Parks Foundation worked with the County on the restoration and relocation of 12 existing sculptures and the commission of one brand new sculpture for the Hartwood Acres Sculpture Garden.

On June 1, 2021, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald along with leaders and officials from the County, the Parks Foundation, and RAD held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Sculpture Garden at Hartwood Acres. Dee Briggs was announced as the local artist commissioned to create a new piece for the garden which was installed in 2022. Work on the grounds was completed in the spring and will feature ADA-accessible walkways that wind through the park’s lawns to link the sculptures, along with LED lighting and native landscaping.

An additional feature of the Sculpture Garden at Hartwood Acres is Suffragist Grove – a stand of trees dedicated on August 18, 2020, the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Hartwood Acres was selected as the site because Mary Flinn Lawrence, who owned the mansion with her husband before it was acquired by Allegheny County, had a long history of advocating for women’s voting rights. Click here to learn more about Suffragist Grove.

Allegheny County leaders cut the ribbon on the Sculpture Garden on July 10, 2022. The speakers acknowledged the key role that the RADical ImPAct grant played in getting the project completed.

"What we wanted to do with the RADical ImPAct grants was to make something bigger and better and a destination for visitors and for people in our county," RAD board chair Dusty Elias Kirk said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. "We have lots of concerts here; the symphony played here; and now we have this spectacular garden."

City Parks

The City of Pittsburgh contracted eight artists and teams selected to create high-impact permanent public art installations in the five RAD parks throughout the city. The eight artists were chosen from a field of 74 applicants from all over the world; five have Pittsburgh connections. The selected artists collaborated with the City on site selection, design, and installation. Read more about the artists here.

Community engagement, as a critical component of design development, was received both virtually and in the parks. Final concepts were reviewed and approved by the Art Commission. Sequencing and implementation of each project were staggered. Many of the projects have been installed, with the remaining projects to be completed throughout 2023.

The City and RAD celebrated this successful expansion with a ceremony in Frick Park on 412 Day - April 12, 2023. You can read comments from Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and RAD Board vice-chair Dusty Elias Kirk here.

 

Press

WESA - April 14, 2023

WTAE - April 12, 2023

WESA - July 11, 2022

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - July 10, 2022

TribLIVE - July 10, 2022

Pittsburgh City Paper - Jan. 11, 2022

Pittsburgh City Paper - July 8, 2021

NEXTpittsburgh - June 2, 2021

TribLIVE - June 2, 2021

NEXTpittsburgh - March 11, 2021

Pittsburgh Magazine - March 8, 2021

TribLIVE - February 27, 2021

WESA - February 26, 2021

Pittsburgh City Paper - February 24, 2021

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - November 6, 2020