#artsburgh

“We believe the arts should be for everybody.” I sat down with Jen Saffron, Director of Communications, to talk with her about GPAC’s recently launched Artsburgh. It’s been live for 3.5 months and while it has encountered some harsh criticism in my opinion it’s too soon for such affirmations. So far Artsburgh has exceeded its performance metrics and it continues to grow, one evaluation point for success.

A broader issue is the concern of whether this interest will transform into action. A one-stop art and culture calendar is a new concept for Pittsburgh and it will take time to get used to. Keep in mind the intended audience for this amenity is a broad crowd, not those already plugged into Pittsburgh’s creative culture. So time is needed to reach this audience, especially since our city is known as a sports town.

Art is hard to engage with for a lot of people so how do we invite others to join us? Based on an NEA study 71% of Americans participated in the arts by using electronic media. So we need a friendly resource to encourage this group of users to also consume in person.  

Hopefully the playful nature of Artsburgh’s logo will entice potential engagers to participate. I’m sure you will have your own interpretation but the logo reminds me of the energetic street light painting by Italian Futurist Giacomo Balla; Jen suggested a disco ball, party lights and movement.

Now think of Artsburgh’s position in relation to our current administration and community leaders. Over the past several years there has been a big push to increase and diversify our population. And the first question this set of people will ask is, “What do I do here in Pittsburgh?” Speaking from personal experience the first thing I did when I was considering a move to Pittsburgh five years ago was research its social, cultural and diverse offerings. I have a lot of research experience so it wasn’t an overwhelming task but it would have been a lot easier, and less time consuming, to have had an Artsburgh-like resource to use.

City of Aslyum's A (micro) history of world economics, danced by Pascal Rambert

Artsburgh isn’t a giant laundry list style calendar. We already have those and I find them to be agitating and a time sap. A welcome and upcoming site improvement is the syncing of several Pittsburgh area calendars into one. We need to be more organized if we want to showcase the size and quality of our creative community.

A couple of things that I admire about Artsburgh: the ability to filter (free, date night, kid friendly), but especially the accessibility filter which includes options like brail, large type, assistive listening devices, and wheelchair seating – all of which stem from focus groups; also, it’s free to use and contribute to which is a tremendous help for organizations that don’t have a marketing budget.

While the layout might not be stimulating to all GPAC pays for this free resource, so be grateful or interact with their Facebook page and let them know what you think.

The overall goal is to move people from awareness to action to supporter. Artsburgh won’t be an overnight success but it will be a constant reminder that we’re not going anywhere, what we do matters and we’re part of our community’s vibrancy.