Pittsburgh

Bringing artists and local government together for lasting change

How can artists, local government, and civic organizations collaborate effectively? Art-Train brings them together and offers ongoing support for proven models of artist-led change. Artists use their…


Toolkit Toolkit

Yes, this is what you think it is. Since the launch of Creative Exchange in 2014, over 6,000 toolkits have been downloaded from the site, facilitating artist-led projects, business skills…


5 Questions with Creative Exchange: What we have learned from our artists

Since August 2016, Creative Exchange has been asking each of our Artists With Impact a series of five questions, which appear at the end of every profile. We did this to create a thread of continuity…


The Disconnect Between Healthcare and Health Insurance

After three years helping artists get health insurance through Springboard for the Arts’ Artists’ Access to Healthcare program, I should be overjoyed that our country’s uninsured rate is at an…


Renewable energy art helps us design a better future

The planet is getting warmer. Sea levels are rising. Climate change is being felt in disasters and shifting ecosystems around the world, in a way that’s often disturbing to individuals wondering how…


New toolkits from the Leading Organizations!

Creative Exchange is driven by a principle that more is more - the more stories we can tell, the more resources we can share, the more connections we can make, the more we can show how important art…


HE-HO: A Toolkit for Health and Housing Resources

Everyone needs a place to live, including artists. Artists may also have additional space needs for their work, adding potential barriers to seeking out effective housing and space solutions. One of…


Karla Boos

Quantum Theatre experiments with the language and location of theatre

Pittsburgh's Quantum Theatre is an experimental, site-specific theatre company currently celebrating its 25th season. Founded by Artistic Director Karla Boos in 1990, the one hard-and-fast dictum…


René Conrad and Bill Rodgers

New Hazlett Theater offers a CSA for the performing arts

You're probably heard of community-supported agriculture, and if you're a regular Creative Exchange reader you have most likely also heard of community-supported art – you can even download our…


Unleashed! Artist Party, New Hazlett Theater

Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council works through art to lead social change

At the Three Rivers Arts Festival in 2014, a volunteer choir took the stage with an original piece: “The Pittsburgh Complaint Song.” As the Complaints N'at Choir, they put the grievances of their…


2 Years of Creative Exchange!

It’s hard to believe, but Creative Exchange just turned 2! The platform was launched in 2014 in response to the question, “How do we support a movement around the power of local art and artists on a…


D.S. Kinsel

BOOM Concepts is a creative hub that reflects the faces of the community on Pittsburgh's Penn Ave.

D.S. Kinsel, co-founder of Pittsburgh's BOOM Concepts, is a painter, installation artist, event maker, and art curator. He says he is always trying to make sure that his art is relevant to and a…


Ryan Lammie

Radiant Hall creates co-working spaces for artists in need of studio space

Sculptural painter Ryan Lammie grew up in Pittsburgh and went to school at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, living there from 2007-2012. During that time he saw the Borough's rapid development, and…


Ralph Henry Reese

City of Asylum/Pittsburgh offers writers in exile sanctuary alongside expansive creative placemaking

"Asylum" – A place offering protection and safety; a shelter.   “Silence is death. If you are silent you are dead, And if you speak you are dead, So speak and die.” –…


Jen Cole

Sharing, Building, Leading

What does the passion for local art look like on a national scale? What if the sharing economy valued sharing?          What can we do to connect people to resources that support their creative…


janera solomon

The Kelly Strayhorn Theater welcomes the community into their home

The Kelly Strayhorn Theater is a performing arts and cultural center in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood. Named for two of Pittsburgh’s most celebrated talents in the last…


Celeste Gainey

A gaffer finds her light in Pittsburgh

the gaffer  lamplighter chief lighting technician the DP’s go-to guy dispenser of gaffer’s tape brute arc myths day for night & the anti-auteur theory transposer of sun/shadow nuancer of mood…


Matthew Conboy with a newborn collector at St. Clair Hospital

Start With Art gives Pittsburgh newborns a baby step toward culture

Most adults could tell you where they acquired their first piece of art: a local shop, a tiny gallery in a seaside town in Italy, the IKEA clearance bin. Not many people began their collections as…


Lenka Clayton

Lenka Clayton, An Artist in Residence in Motherhood

Since 1860, in the afterglow of the Industrial Revolution and on the eve of the Civil War, the number of working mothers has risen 800 percent. For as long as women in contemporary Western society…


Barbara Luderowski

The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh creates a world of immersive, interactive installation art

The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh is a museum dedicated to installation art. But to put it that succinctly doesn't nearly do it justice. More fittingly, the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh is a…


Laura Zabel

Welcome to Creative Exchange (again)

"I believe in the magic of storytelling, not only for teller but also the listener," says agrarian artist Nikiko Masumoto, who lives and works in California's Central Valley. "The possibility of…


Jessie Rommelt

Bunker Projects is an experimental gallery and live/work space for artists to engage the community

Artists Jessie Rommelt, Abagail Beddall, and Cecilia Ebitz all graduated from Penn State University in 2011. The three friends decided to head over to Pittsburgh afterwards, the closest city with an…