The Pittsburgh arts scene thrives on a unique spirit of community collaboration, a fabric into which Carnegie Mellon University’s creative community is tightly woven.
Rather than creating in isolation on the Oakland campus, CMU’s alumni, faculty and students actively engage with the city’s public spaces, grassroots initiatives and community partnerships, ensuring their work both shapes and is shaped by the city’s vibrant arts scene.
Perspectives and projects from the College of Fine Arts(opens in new window) current and past faculty, students and alumni, including the likes of Andy Warhol(opens in new window), Billy Porter(opens in new window) and Burton Morris(opens in new window), are a part of the artistic fabric of Pittsburgh.
Public art exhibitions bring creative energy to city’s shared spaces
Visual art created by CMU alumni and faculty dot locations across Pittsburgh and are a part of important public spaces, allowing these pieces of public art to amplify the Steel City’s collective sense of place and identity.
When the city held the nation’s attention during this year’s NFL draft, artists like Morris showcased those perspectives in conjunction with the highly anticipated event(opens in new window).
The NFL commissioned Morris to produce a 3D art installation(opens in new window) of 32 individual NFL football helmet wall sculptures to highlight the league’s larger commitment to art-driven storytelling.
Similarly, just prior to the draft(opens in new window), Shikeith(opens in new window), a Carnegie Mellon visiting master of fine arts core faculty member in the School of Art unveiled “Hold,” a 10-foot-tall steel vessel with glowing blue neon glass, among the first public artworks(opens in new window) in a new four-acre public park called Arts Landing in Downtown Pittsburgh.
Shikeith’s sculpture examines the relationship and spatial history between Black people and water, inspired by how a slave ship’s hold can represent not only captivity but also imagination and spirit.
“Thinking about the land and all it endured over time, I would say the sculpture itself is a way of making that invisible history present again, not as a monument to the past, but as something that is alive, something that is breathing, something that will keep changing with the city around it,” he said.
CMU facilitates a community where more opportunities exist to fund, support and exhibit artists’ work, Shikeith said.
In addition to the Pittsburgh-centric public art(opens in new window) featured on CMU’s campus, several faculty members’ works are currently on display across the city. Arts Landing also provides a home for a ground mural of abstract shapes and a kinetic interactive sculpture of a cloud with movable weather elements, both created by CMU faculty.
“Geometry of Play(opens in new window)” by Sharmistha Ray(opens in new window), Estella Loomis McCandless assistant professor of art, brightens the pickleball courts while nearby “Local Time and Weather(opens in new window)” by John Peña(opens in new window), adjunct professor of art, encourages visitors to place provided magnetic shapes onto the sculpture’s surface.
At the intersection of Fort Duquesne Blvd and 6th Street, a quilted steel and wool felt river monster(opens in new window) created by Isla Hansen(opens in new window), assistant professor of art, lurks happily in a grassy median in Downtown Pittsburgh.
Northwest of the city at Pittsburgh International Airport, several pieces by CMU faculty in the newly opened terminal(opens in new window) greet travelers: A sculpture by Alisha B. Wormsley(opens in new window), assistant professor of art, is composed of items from the airport’s lost and found. An expansion of the terrazzo floor mural “The Sky Beneath Our Feet” by Clayton Merrell(opens in new window), Dorothy L. Stubnitz Professor of Art, swirls blue and white as people walk over it. Murals by Ray of abstract digital collages bring bright abstract shapes to the Concourse A restrooms. An installation by Peña called “What Does Luggage Think About?” adds whimsy to the carousels in the baggage claim hall.
“Art can introduce those moments of reprieve or departure, pun intended, from the everyday realities of traveling,” Ray said. “I think it completely transforms a traveler’s experience.”
Community outreach through research enlivens intergenerational memory
In addition to using art to interpret the region’s current moment, creative research interprets the region’s past. The Pittsburgh Queer History Project, an oral history and media initiative examining Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ community, aims to turn memories into collective education and awareness.
The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry(opens in new window) encourages innovative projects by CMU faculty, staff and students through Frank-Ratchye Further Fund(opens in new window) grants and microgrants.
“The STUDIO enriches not just the local but the international scope of what Pittsburgh is able to do,” said Harrison Apple(opens in new window), associate director. “If you want to make a large impact, you need to do that from where you are.”
Apple, who discussed the project at this year’s Pride Celebration at CMU(opens in new window), began the project using a STUDIO for Creative Inquiry grant as a CMU undergraduate student in 2012.
Highlighting the intergenerational media archive focusing on LGBTQ after-hours nightlife from 1960 to 1990, the project has hosted programs collaborating in the last two years with the Andy Warhol Museum, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the Cultural Trust and the Carnegie Museum of Art.
School of Art students contribute bowls to Pittsburgh effort to fight hunger
Another STUDIO for Creative Inquiry grant, spearheaded by Yoko Sekino-Bové(opens in new window), assistant teaching professor of art in the School of Art(opens in new window), allowed her students to fight hunger in the community aided by their artistic creations.
She led students in ceramics-making sessions(opens in new window) to contribute for the first time to Pittsburgh’s 29th Empty Bowls event, where the handmade vessels are filled with soup and given to guests in a fundraising effort benefitting local nonprofit Just Harvest and the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. The event raised nearly $125,000 toward fighting food insecurity in Allegheny County.
“I hope students recognize that they are not just studying in Pittsburgh, but that they are truly part of the city,” Sekino-Bové said. “Through contributing their creativity and time, they can see how artists and designers can play an active role in addressing community needs. It’s a powerful reminder that even small acts, one bowl at a time, can contribute to real change.”
Region’s young artists’ work recognized with on-campus exhibit at CMU
To encourage artistic talent in the region’s young artists, CMU has hosted the Pittsburgh Regional Scholastic Art Awards(opens in new window) in the College of Fine Arts building since 2023, coordinated by Seneca Valley High School art teacher Megan Bonistalli.
Bonistalli works with Elizabeth Keller(opens in new window), associate head of school, and Sheika Lugtu(opens in new window), director of undergraduate admissions and enrollment, in CMU’s School of Art to coordinate the annual showcase featuring middle- and high-school students from across Allegheny, Beaver and Butler counties. Earlier this year, more than 1,100 entries were submitted to the exhibition.
Partnerships allow students to have professional, design connections with community
Similarly, other CMU collaborations are ongoing and intentional, through partnerships with local organizations to not only enrich students’ and faculty members’ creative practices, but also the ways the community can connect with the university.
CMU’s School of Music entered into a four-year partnership (opens in new window)with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra earlier this year that grants students with access to world-class musicians and conductors.
Twenty members of the symphony also serve as faculty members in CMU’s College of Fine Arts, who share professional experience from the Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts in Downtown Pittsburgh with students on Carnegie Mellon’s Oakland campus.
The agreement provides PSO Go Pass subscriptions for all music majors and builds on a legacy of collaboration, which includes the university’s annual “Night at the Symphony” event.
In another partnership this past fall, created through a School of Design(opens in new window) class, co-taught by Kristin Hughes(opens in new window), professor of design, with colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh’s Schools of Medicine and Nursing, students created “Groundswell(opens in new window).” The space at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Oakland, not far from CMU’s campus, is dedicated for reflection and restoration.
Hughes initiated the 15-week project after her own personal battle with cancer(opens in new window), beginning in 2022. “Designing with CARE: Co-Creating Solutions for Complex Care Coordination in Oncology” emphasized how design can improve care and advance health equity.
Students transformed a space that once housed telephone booths into an area with a restorative pod. The space encourages mindfulness activities featuring a community art wall and guided reflection resources, thanks to funding from CMU’s College of Fine Arts, the UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital Medical Staff Fund and the Paul D. Schurgot Foundation.
“We work side-by-side with students from concept to implementation, adapting ideas to the real-world context of healthcare systems,” Hughes said. “This kind of transformative relationship-building is essential for translating complex classroom ideas into real-world impact.”
“Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The institution was originally established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical School. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology and began granting four-year degrees.”
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