James Simon Sculptures
James Simon Sculptures
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.
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 sculptureare 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 Streamgrants 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.
