Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival Programming Announced

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces the full complement of programming scheduled to be presented at the 55th annual Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, a production of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. The 10-day celebration of the arts in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is unlike any other in the nation. The world-class, multi-disciplinary festival is free to attend and is open to the public. Attracting over 400,000 visitors annually, the Festival begins on the first Friday in June and takes place at the confluence of Pittsburgh's famed three rivers in Point State Park, throughout picturesque Gateway Center, and in the city's world-renowned Cultural District.

"Just over $165 million dollars in household income is generated by the arts and culture throughout the Allegheny and neighboring counties," shared J. Kevin McMahon, President & CEO of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. "This is just one of many economic indicators that evidence the power of art has to transform our communities. The Trust's free festivals will welcome a half million people between May and December of this year alone. Art truly does make a difference in the holistic development of our city and is vital to its sustainability."

Joseph B. Smith, Senior Vice President Marketing for Dollar Bank added, "Our desire to provide the people of this region with a free day of music began twenty years ago when we had our first Dollar Bank Jamboree. Today, this vision continues providing free music and programming for 10 days on the Dollar Bank Stage and throughout the Cultural District and Gateway Center. It is our hope that our sponsorship provides the means to keep programming broad, spanning across sectors and disciplines, thereby reflecting and encouraging diversity within our city and region."

This year's major theme, the intersection of the festival's core values, is aesthetic creativity and environmental sustainability. From Diversion, supported by the Colcom Foundation, and the interactive tents in the Giant Eagle Creativity Zone, to the portal bridge and art galleries, these installations and exhibitions are aimed to evoke a sense of wonder, responsibility and renewed awareness of how our actions and choices affect our world and the people around us.

The Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival is made possible by the generous support of Peoples Natural Gas, Giant Eagle, ChoosePAWind, Bessie F. Anathan Charitable Trust of the Pittsburgh Foundation, Buhl Foundation, Calgon Carbon Corporation, Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, Colcom Foundation, The Fine Foundation, The Grable Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, Henry Hillman Foundation, Lannan Foundation, Laurel Foundation, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

PERFORMING ARTS

Pittsburgh Premieres

Squonk | Pnuematica

Squonk's new outdoor work, "Pneumatica," is made of air, powered by air, and about air. The performances will awaken social connections into joyful wind-powered emergent air spectacles. It will push physics and civic interdependency into tangibility, with wind powered turbines, tentacles, and a whirl of inflatables. Squonk has created seven new works over 18 years with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, which have toured to Europe, Asia, Broadway, and off-Broadway. This successful history includes the premiere of the truck-mounted Squonk Roadshow 2012 that has gone on to 14 cities in 10 states for 100 shows. The group just returned from a busy winter playing Manhattan, where The New York Times called them a "multi-media troupe of infinite jest" from Pittsburgh with "images of strange and startling beauty..."

Bricolage | OJO presented by Pittsburgh Foundation
OJO is a world-premiere immersive theater experience produced by Pittsburgh's own Bricolage, whose mission is to immerse artists and audiences in adventurous theatrical experiences that foster connections and alter perceptions. The experience requires registering for a free voucher at TrustArts.org/OJO in advance of your attendance and while capacity remains, first-come first-served.

Complaints n'at Choir

Christiane D, a multimedia-artist with a long standing reputation in the Pittsburgh arts scene, is charged with leading the creation of Pittsburgh's Inaugural Complaint Choir, as part of the international project, Complaint Choirs of the World. For a limited time only, the complaints of our fair residents will be gathered and constructed into a song for the choir, for all to sing.

Dance

Dance performances will take place in the Peirce Studio, located at 805 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. Each performance will have two show times, one at 2pm and one at 5pm. Performance times vary between 45 minutes and 60 minutes.

Boomerang | June 7

Boomerang is a fearlessly physical, poetically nuanced dance and performance project comprised of Kora Radella, Matty Davis, and Adrian Galvin. Recognizing the body as an evolving repository for both physical and psychological life, Boomerang sifts through and siphons from its rich, eclectic histories. The foundation of both Davis and Galvin as movers, arise from aggressive rollerblading, soccer, snowboarding, tennis, hockey, ultimate Frisbee, and long-distance running. They have been referred to as the "punk Mozarts of dance."

Shana Simmons Dance and The Eclectic Laboratory Chamber Orchestra | June 8

We Sing the Body Eclectic is a new work by collaborators Shana Simmons Dance and The Eclectic Laboratory Chamber Orchestra -their fourth collaboration in the past two years. Featuring four dancers and fourteen musicians, the piece takes the form of a long transition from sparseness to density, calm to agitation. Using orchestral and electronic instruments, words, and movement, the audience will question its own perception of time.

Alba Flamenca | June 14

Alba Flamenca is an example of a mix of cultures that have come together to celebrate and perform Flamenco. The performers are devoted to the art that is Flamenco and have intention to stay as traditional as possible, in addition to keeping true to artistic beliefs and telling personal stories using their bodies and minds.

Reed Dance | June 15

Take a journey with Reed Dance as the ensemble celebrates the music of the great Stevie Wonder. Reed Dance will collaborate with local and national dance, music, spoken word artists and students to present Suite Stevie. These young artists will showcase the genius and timeless music of the man himself.

PUBLIC ART HIGHLIGHTS

Before I Die | Artist: Candy Chang
"One of the most creative community projects ever."-The Atlantic

Artist, designer, and urban planner Candy Chang creates art that prompts people to think about their secrets, wishes and hopes and then share them. Before I Die is a global art project that invites people to reflect on their lives and share their personal aspirations in public space.

No Limits | Artist: Alexandre Arrechea
Cuban-born artist Alexandre Arrechea's No Limits, a series of ten sculptures creatively representing iconic New York City buildings and architecture, was installed on New York City's Park Avenue in the spring of 2013, presented by Magnan Metz Gallery in conjunction with NYC Parks and the Fund for Park Avenue Sculpture Committee. Four of the ten sculptures, nearly 20 feet in height each, are now located throughout Gateway Center as a public art feature of the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival.

People's Clothing Archive and Library Initiative No 1: o:ne:ka' | Artist: Edith Abeyta
Supported by Colcom Foundation
What if we recognized clothing as a renewable resource? People's Clothing Archive and Library Initiative No 1: o:ne:ka' is a large-scale sculpture fabricated from donated t-shirts attached to a wooden framework that formst he word, o:ne:ka'- the Seneca word for water. The sculpture takes into consideration the physical and historical properties of the site as well as the themes of the Festival.

VISUAL ART HIGHLIGHTS

Juried Visual Art Exhibition (JVAE)

The annual Juried Visual Art Exhibition, held at 805-807 Liberty Avenue in the Trust Arts Education Center (James E. Rohr Building) features Pittsburgh's best new visual art. Showcasing a selection of new work by some of the most talented members of Pittsburgh's vibrant creative community, the exhibition is one of the most-anticipated visual arts attractions at the Festival. This year's show features 59 works by 53 artists. Exhibition attendees can join the panel of jurors in awarding the best work in the JVAE. After experiencing the show, attendees can vote on-site on mobile devices or with the JVAE staff at the 4th floor entrance lobby. Selected works may be offered for sale at artists' discretion. Rewards include Best in Show, Juror's Choice and the People's Choice Award. This year's distinguished jurors include John Carson, Regina and Marlin Miller Professor and Head of the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University; Rachel Delphia, The Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at Carnegie Museum of Art; and Nicholas Chambers, The Milton Fine Curator of Art at the warhol.

The China Express | Artist: Carlan Tapp

Presented by Lannan Foundation
Photojournalist Carlan Tapp showcases The China Express, a black and white photography exhibition that documents the people and places affected by coal shipping. The exhibition includes 40 digital images Tapp took while traveling the 1,200 mile train route, including everything from the open-pit coal mines in Wyoming to Pacific Northwest towns and Indian reservations. In some areas, coal mining has depleted wells and caused streams and natural waterways to dry up. The China Express is informative and is presented unobtrusively in the form of brief captions that serve as titles for each image.

Portraits of Air | Artist: Susan Goethel Campbell

Detroit-based artist Susan Goethel Campbell crowd-sourced this installation of more than 100 air filters distributed throughout the Pittsburgh region. Incorporating photography and mixed media, she creates a visual document of the invisible element of air.

Other visual art exhibitions will be on display at galleries and open spaces throughout the Cultural District, including Wood Street Galleries, 707Penn Gallery, 709 Penn Gallery, Tito Way, Backstage Bar at Theater Square and the Trust Arts Education Center.

GIANT EAGLE CREATIVITY ZONE

Artist demonstrations and hands-on activities are available annually at the Festival. Educational shows for all ages are available, ranging from culturally-diverse music performances to story-telling to collaborative painting projects. This year's Giant Eagle Creativity Zone is being enhanced by several special projects, including Diversion, an installation and activity exploring misplacement of compostables into residential waste streams by Rose Clancy and presented by Colcom Foundation; Chutz-Pow! Superheroes of the Holocaust presented by the Holocaust Center and Toonseum and Reuse-a-Palooza! a hands-on, open-ended art activities using reclaimed materials presented by Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse.

The Miniature Marina by the Laurel Foundation will return to the Artist Market providing the popular children's model sailboat activity. Other organizations participating in the expanded Giant Eagle Creativity Zone include Union Project, The Sprout Fund, Calligraphy Guild of Pittsburgh, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, Gateway to the Arts, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, ZooBeats, Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Society of Artists, Turners Anonymous, MGR Youth Empowerment, Sweetwater Center for the Arts, iNCLUDE: Pittsburgh, and WQED.

The Creativity Stage in the Giant Eagle Creativity Zone will host WYEP's Reimagination Showcase, Yemaya Pittsburgh, Hope Academy Teen Theater Company, WQED's Musical Kids, Alastair Moock, Pittsburgh Puppet Works, iQ Kids Radio's Sand and Surf Dance Party and Pittsburgh Musical Theater Extreme Teen Broadway featuring selections from popular musicals such as SEUSSICAL THE MUSICAL and ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Pittsburgh Filmmakers will host eight (8) art-focused films in the Harris Theater including Cutie and the Boxer, a series of Pride Week short films, Open City of Amereida and Indie Game: the Movie-a Sundance award-winner looking at indie video game developers.

For up to date information and a full schedule (including locations, dates and times) for the festival, visit www.TrustArts.org/TRAF.

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