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Street art + community activism: SWOON & Mayor Fetterman

February 3, 5:30 p.m. (free)

A free public lecture co-sponsored Carnegie Mellon's Activities Board on Fri., Feb 3rd will explore the intersection of public and street art, activism and community redevelopment. The lecture, which will be followed open discussion, features presentations by street artist Swoon (aka Caledonia Dance Curry) and Braddock Mayor John Fetterman.

Known for her trademark life-size wheatpaste prints and paper cutouts of figures, Swoon studied painting at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute and began creating street art in the late 1990s.

Many of Swoon's realistically rendered figures--seen riding bikes, talking on stoops, shopping--are instantly recognizable by New Yorkers. She's been covering the Big Apple's streets with her signature cutouts since 1999, showcasing a complex creative practice that underscores the beauty in decayed imagery and uses urban streetscapes as an element in her work. Along with her collective TOYSHOP, Curry has created time-based public artworks such as billboard alterations, poster campaigns, street parties, and sculptural installations.

Recently, Swoon created peepholes throughout subtle spots in NYC, where, once discovered, "the viewer can glimpse a hidden dream world through the unassuming aperture." Born in 1978 in New London, CT, Curry was raised in Daytona Beach, FL.

Also speaking is Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, who runs a program that helps dislocated youth from Braddock and surrounding communities earn their GED, secure employment and receive intensive intervention and case management services. In 2003, Fetterman purchased an abandoned warehouse on Braddock's Library St. for $2,000 and converted it into a residential loft.

Via his role as Mayor, Fetterman has made it his focus to improve quality of life for Braddock's young people, attract outside energy, ideas and interest from artistic, urbanist and creative communities, and subvert the $2.5B Mon-Fayette Expressway, which is designed to run through the middle of Braddock.

The lecture will also touch upon Fetterman and Swoon's efforts with Braddock-based collective Transformazium, which works to revitalize Braddock's urban spaces, and in particular transform an abandoned 1880s-era church into a community arts center, in ways that can have sustainable social and economic benefits.

Off the Wall x 2: Rabih Mroue

February 2 & 3, 8 p.m.

Andy Warhol Museum

Ever pushing the boundaries of performative art with its signature Off the Wall series, The Andy Warhol Museum is bringing award-winning Lebanese artist Rabih Mroué to its intimate theater for bold back-to-back shows.

Making his Pittsburgh debut, the Beirut native --who received the prestigious 2010 Spalding Gray award from The Warhol, Walker Arts Center, PS122, and On the Boards--will perform two distinct works on Feb. 2nd and 3rd that cull from the artist's arsenal of interdisciplinary source material, semi-documentary theater, improvisational style, and oft-overlooked and subject matter.

First, Mroué will present Looking for a Missing Employee, a thought-provoking work that blends video, storytelling, articles, and documents, as a way to scrutinize the print media’s role in "rumors, scandals, public accusations, and national political conflicts." Based upon real events, the piece chronicles a troubling police case and its political and economic underpinnings.

On Friday, Mroué will present his latest work in progress, The Pixelated Revolution. Co-commissioned by The Warhol, the timely performance-lecture examines the use of mobile phones during the Syrian revolution.

Co-founder of the Beirut Art Center association, the 45-year-old Mroué is considered to be a pivotal force within a new generation of artistic voices in Lebanon. In works that blur boundaries between theater and visual art, and that incorporate installation, photography, text, sculpture, and video, Mroué is credited with helping to nurture avant-garde performance in his homeland, via venues such as the Russian Cultural Center, makeshift halls and private homes.

Purchase tickets now.

The Art of Seating: 200 Years of Chair Design

Opening reception: February 3 , 6:30 - 8 p.m.

Westmoreland Museum of American Art

We use them everyday--at work, on buses and trains, in restaurants and parks, at the family dinner table. Much more than just places to sit, chairs can also denote positions of power, provide comfort, communicate posture and mood, and reveals clues about their occupants.

Now, a new exhibition at Greensburg's Westmoreland Museum of American Art (WMA) reveals the compelling stories that chairs convey about national history, American design and innovative artistry and craftsmanship.

On view through April 8, The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design features 43 chairs, including familiar furniture alongside rarely seen chairs by iconic designers such as John Henry Belter, George Hunzinger, the Herter Brothers, the Stickley Brothers, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Isamu Noguchi, and Frank Gehry.

An exhibition standout is The Jacobsen American Chair Collection, an impressive and comprehensive private collection of iconic and historic chairs that spans the mid-1800s to the contemporary studio movement. The exhibition also features contemporary and historic designs by some of the biggest chair manufacturers such as Knoll, Herman Miller and Steelcase, and examples of chairs typically only seen in private homes.

One of the most illustrious pieces in the show is the House of Representatives Chamber Arm Chair from 1857. Designed by Thomas U. Walter, Architect of the Capitol from 1851 to 1865, the chair was created for use in the halls of Congress and was showcased in portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. A later design by David Wolcott Kendall (aka “The Dean of American Furniture Design") was presented to William McKinley during his term in the White House, becoming what is known as the “McKinley arm chair."

In conjunction with The Art of Seating, the WMA is also presenting Brian Ferrell: Transitions of Form, featuring the one-of-a-kind furniture and custom tableware by Jeannette, PA native, Brian Ferrell. Assistant professor of art at Seton Hill University, where he teaches ceramics, metalsmithing and drawing, Ferrell has participated in exhibitions around the US, and was honored with a solo exhibition at Fallingwater in 2008 and a review in American Craft Magazine in 2010.

Take your seat during the free public opening on Fri., Feb. 3rd from 6:30-8 p.m. Reservations are recommended: 724.837.1500 ext. 29.

Uncommon dance: world premiere by PBT

Feb. 3 - 12, 8 p.m., 2 p.m., 7:30 p.m.

August Wilson Center for African American Culture

Ready to experience ballet--and the August Wilson Center--like never before? Two Pittsburgh cultural powerhouses are teaming up to launch a collaborative new approach to dance programming which promises to provide audiences with a rare intimate look at ballet, and breathe new life into the Downtown-based Center.

As part of a three-year partnership with the Center, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (PBT) is presenting Uncommon, from Feb. 3-12, featuring three contemporary dances by internationally acclaimed choreographers and classical accompaniment by PBT's Ensemble Orchestra. Showcasing the dynamic intensity and athleticism of PBT dancers, the innovative show aims to challenge predetermined notions about the relationship between classical composition and ballet.

The mixed repertoire production marks the first time PBT brings part of its season to the Center, and the first time the company is presenting work by the celebrated NYC-based choreographer and director, Mark Morris.

Be among the first audiences to see the world premiere of Chromatic, a contemporary new ballet choreographed by Dwight Rhoden, and set to music by famed classical composer, Johann S. Bach. Uncommon will also feature Maelstrom, by iconic dancer/choreographer Mark Morris, and Brahm's Quintet, by Dennis Nahat, who was formerly artistic director of Ballet San Jose. All three works are making their Pittsburgh debut.

With eight dancers, Brahms' Quintet features music for violin, viola and cello, while Maelstrom features 14 dancers, and accompaniment on violin, cello and piano. The movements of Chromatic's 15 dancers is set to music performed on violin, viola, cello, piano, and harpsichord.

Attendees will have a rare chance to experience ballet firsthand within the Center’s intimate 486-seat theatre: "Patrons will be up-close with the dancers and musicians, because the space is so intimate.

Arts kaleidoscope: Speaking of ... February!

February 4, 8 p.m.

New Hazlett Theater

A vibrant new live arts series is rewriting the book on the literary event.

Gone are the days of sitting stiffly in your seat, awkward silences and dark shhhhed environs. Enter the kinetic and kaleidoscopic vision of Speaking of …, a literary-based series for the 21st-century that embodies a fusion of multiple art forms and disciplines, encourages collisions of sound, spoken word and spontaneity and thinks way outside the book.

Fresh off the heels of receiving a Heinz Small Arts Initiative grant and helping to promote the release of Pittsburgh Noir, Speaking of … kicks off 2012 with a bold new repertoire that blends everything from hip-hop and poetry, to contemporary ballet and cello-based rock. It all goes down at the New Hazlett Theater, on Sat. Feb. 4th at 8 p.m.

Speaking of … February will feature an all-star lineup of local luminaries, including readings by Brittingham Poerty Prize winner and CMU professor Jim Daniels and poet Tameka Cage-Conley. Also featured will be hip-hop artist Vie Boheme, string and drum trio, Cello Fury and poet and performer Nikki Allen, whose latest book, Homunculus, will be published this spring.

On the dance front, the multimedia show will feature an exclusive preview of Bodiography Contemporary Ballet's 10th anniversary production, and will showcase new choreography by Texture.

Want a sneak peek? Check out the Speaking of … video. Purchase tickets now. Tickets are also be available at the door for $15.

Street art + community activism: SWOON & Mayor Fetterman

Off the Wall x 2: Rabih Mroue

The Art of Seating: 200 Years of Chair Design

Uncommon dance: world premiere by PBT

Arts kaleidoscope: Speaking of ... February!

Society for Contemporary Craft

Venues: