After decades of deterioration, what was once a slum, and the dividing line between Friendship and Garfield, has evolved over the last dozen years or so into the Penn Avenue Arts District, an epicenter for arts and culture.
The area has rapidly attracted eccentric entrepreneurs and start-up arts organizations. One by one, retired buildings have been purchased and renovated, transformed into galleries, art classrooms and stages. The newly arrived dollar store adds another dimension to the district, offering bargain items for the more daring souls venturing into the area, bringing with them a down-payment and a dream. Thanks in large part to this slice of Penn Avenue, Garfield and Friendship have all the potential to thrive- and not just on First Friday art-walks.
That was then
Back in 1998, an anonymous foundation approached the Friendship Development Associates after noticing their revitalization efforts in the neighborhood. “They wanted to challenge us to see if we could turn that mile of Penn Ave around with the influence of the arts, with an initial grant of
$150, 000,” says developer and Pop City publisher Eve Picker, who was president of the organization at the time. IIt was the start of the Penn Arts Initiative when, after much thought, the group decided to use the funds in three ways:
1) Micro-grants for artists to provide mini art courses, many for kids, along Penn Avenue;
2) Matching grants for the URA's facade program, for artists or others who purchased buildings and located arts-related activities in them;
3) Technical assistance for any developer or artist wanting to locate in the district.
“Penn Avenue was almost like the Berlin Wall between Garfield, Bloomfield and Friendship when I moved there 20 years ago," says Picker. To speed progress, the group eventually hired Jeffrey Dorsey to market buildings to artists. Then it was time to rechristen it. "When we thought about a name for the district, we wanted to call it the 'Zipper District', referring to sewing the two neighborhoods together. Unfortunately," she cracks, "that was the Clinton era."
Now the area, better known as the Penn Avenue Arts District, is the seam between the three neighborhoods--Bloomfield, Garfield and Friendship--and offers much to visitors.
Gallery Row
ModernFormations Gallery and Garfield Artworks are two of the most respected art-houses in the city – and they have a lot in common. Located only a block from each other, they are both small, intimate, and malleable; within days, their curators can set up an art installation, a stage play or a rock concert. Each can comfortably hold 40 to 50 people, and they’re both cozy, hospitable, and smoke-free. They’re easy to find, but only if you’re looking for them. Operated by young, energetic directors, both galleries were designed with variety in mind – hip-hop, spoken word, touring indie bands, New Age ragas, sculpture, stand-up comedy, and almost anything else imaginable.
The acclaimed Pittsburgh Glass Center , cited in American Style magazine this month for putting the city on the map for glass, elaborates upon this do-it-yourself theme. It features workshop- focused classes and spectacular facilities: Eight fully-functional glory-holes, a 900-sq.-ft. flame-working studio, a 770-sq.-ft. cold-working studio, natural gas and propane hand-torches and a spacious, well-attended gallery for completed works. The instructors are all masters of their craft, and students of all levels are welcome for classes you won’t get anywhere else in town.
Edge Studio, an architecture firm that scoops up multiple AIA Pittsburgh Design Awards every year, features gallery space in its quarters on Penn across from the Quiet Storm. And the area is also home to the Sprout Fund, the grant-dispensing vehicle for dozens of smaller organizations and projects, not only in Friendship and Garfield, but across the city.
Live Theater
When Michael Moats staked his claim on 4809 Penn Avenue in the late 1990's, the building was a run-down Laundromat. After back-breaking renovations, Moats created the Penn Avenue Theatre, a 50-seat black-box with a generous dressing room and welcoming lobby. When Mark Clayton Southers bought the space a few years later, re-christening it the Penn Theater, he sealed the tradition of stage productions in the neighborhood.
Now the area is home to Attack Theatre, a daring dance-company that moved in next door. Sadly, the Penn Theater moved on to become Pittsburgh Playwrights, Downtown, but Attack lives on, creating innovative multi-media performances for a broad audience (in the words of one critic in France, “delicious moments of intimacy”). The studio is no-frills but voluminous, a comfortable atmosphere for dance lovers and newbies alike, with the steel girders and broad windows that would excite any loft fanatic.
Just down the street is the headquarters of Dance Alloy, a school and showcase performance center that also caters to both the novice and afficionado. Dance Alloy has a mobile presence, performing in nearby Oakland and East Liberty, and it complements Attack Theatre with provocative vision.
Future stage performers are nurtured every school day at the Rogers Middle School for the Creative and Performing Arts, also located in Garfield.
Victuals and Beverages
Unlike Bloomfield next door, the Penn Avenue business district isn’t a dining mecca, packed with restaurants, clubs, bars and cafés. The eateries are few and widely dispersed – but among choosy diners, they’re some of the most beloved in the city. Hipsters and students will swear by Peoples, a one-room corner restaurant with a small sign over the door and ever-drawn blinds; fans insist that dinner at People’s offer the best Indian cuisine in Pittsburgh.
But nothing compares to the Quiet Storm, the coffee shop/restaurant/concert venue on the easternmost edge of the district. The café is relaxed, fashionable and upbeat; and thanks to its progressive owners and clientele, it has smoothly integrated into the neighborhood. The Quiet Storm has hosted every kind of musician, spoken word artist, CD release party and benefit, and the menu is designed to suit any diet (where else could you find a “spicy peanut wrap,” or a fusion of quesadilla and pierogie officially dubbed the “pierogidilla”)? Finally, even people who never take the trip to Garfield will travel across the city for the Quiet Storm’s unparalleled Sunday brunch (and who wouldn’t try a tofu-packed breakfast burrito, with a dollop of homemade salsa?).
Revision, Revision, Revision
Not every idea has worked in the Penn Avenue Arts District: In 2003, the Ultraviolet Loop promised to infuse the neighborhood with fresh new visitors, depositing them in the district for major events. The Loop worked for a short time, but the free bus service eventually dwindled and perished. More daunting still, the City put a $15 million, neighborhood-wide renovation project on hold – which means the rust-eaten sewer lines and weathered street curbs are staying for awhile longer.
Yet other ideas took off. The most successful unifying project has been Unblurred, a First Friday promenade created by the Penn Arts Initiative, similar to the one in Philadelphia’s Center City, with free gallery openings and concerts open to the public. The open-door policy has been a powerful gesture of trust and commitment in a neighborhood that has once feared by outsiders. Attendance tends to fluctuate with the weather and Garfield’s events often compete with sports events, fireworks and Cultural District festivities.
But the neighborhood is building back every year, and many anticipate a rapid transformation in the next decade – spurred by dirt-cheap real estate and growing cache. With so much enthusiasm pushing the development process along, we can imagine Friendship and Garfield returning to their former glory – and then some.
Robert Isenberg is a freelance writer whose book,
The Pittsburgh Monologues Project, was just published. His last story for Pop City was on Shadyside.
Photos:
The Quiet Storm
The Sprout Fund
Modern Formations Gallery exhibit
Attack Theatre performing for Three Rivers Arts Festival
Modern Formations Gallery
EDGE studio
All photographs copyright © Jonathan Greene