2008 Three Rivers Arts Festival Takes It to the Streets – Again!
12 May 2008 by Lauren in News
PITTSBURGH – With 300 artists, more than 50 live music performances, 15
visual arts installations and 4 original dance and theatre productions,
summer begins in downtown Pittsburgh with the 49th annual Three Rivers
Arts Festival. The 2008 Festival will again enliven the historic
plazas, city streets and open spaces of downtown Pittsburgh with
original art and live performances due to continuing renovations at
Point State Park.
“For 49 years, the Three Rivers Arts
Festival has served as the unofficial start of summer for the City of
Pittsburgh,” said Richard Sieber, executive vice president of the Three
Rivers Arts Festival advisory board. “Through the collaboration of
government agencies, foundations and civic organizations, we have
reinvented the Festival over the past two years as a model for how the
arts can engage the community and enliven the downtown core of the
city.”
As the longest and largest arts event in the city, the
Festival is a major driver of economic activity in downtown Pittsburgh.
Approximately 500,000 people attend the Festival’s 17 days of
performance, visual art and music, and the Duquesne Light Artists
Market generates about $2.4 million in direct sales for participating
artists. Overall, VisitPittsburgh estimates that the 2007 Festival
generated a $23 million economic impact for downtown businesses.
Artistically,
the Three Rivers Arts Festival both produces and exposes some of the
most cutting-edge, quality and innovative work happening in the
Pittsburgh art scene and beyond. “The 2008 Festival features more new
and site-specific creations than ever before,” said Executive Director
Elizabeth Reiss. “The works we’ve selected and commissioned for the
Festival represent the themes of do-it-yourself, repurposing discarded
materials for creative uses, and community identity that are prevalent
in the global contemporary art world today.”
Among over 100 individual events and performances, highlights of the 2008 Festival include:
• Contained:
A new exhibition developed in partnership with Associated Artists of
Pittsburgh that engaged 10 artists and artist teams to transform used
shipping containers into immersive art experiences. At Contained,
Pittsburgh “dance ninjas” Attack Theatre have created a new
site-specific interactive dance work that swings and dangles performers
from the 8-foot-high containers.
• Take Me Out: The
flagship collaboration of the third annual 4th River Project, barebones
productions’ presentation of the Tony-Award-winning play takes
audiences into the locker room of a professional baseball team. Now in
its third year, 4th River Projects support ground-breaking local arts
organizations as they reach for new heights of production excellence
and risk-taking.
• Dream Machine, an interactive
sculpture by Schenley High School graduate Nathan Green, invites
participants to interact with whimsical playground equipment in Market
Square.
• The annual Duquesne Light Artists Market, where 300
artists and fine craftspeople from around the world sell their
creations and share their experiences.
• The UPMC Health Plan
Family Festival, featuring environmentally-conscious hands-on art
experiences and the new Community Stage, where children from around the
region will perform dance, music and theatre.
• 17 nights of
performance on the Festival Main Stage, located at the Stanwix
Triangle, opening with jam-band legends moe. and closing with
alt-country guitarist Alejandro Escovedo, plus weeknight happy hour
concerts on the Market Square Stage.
The Three Rivers Arts
Festival depends on support from the community and investment from area
businesses. Area foundations have made significant investments in the
2008 Festival. Over 100 are foundations and corporations contributed to
the 2008 Festival, enabling the presentation of more originial
performances and installations than ever before.
“Duquesne Light
is proud to continue its long-standing support of the Three Rivers Arts
Festival,” says Joseph Vallarian, Duquesne Light spokesperson. “As a
company, we actively support events that are economic drivers for the
Pittsburgh region, and the Festival certainly qualifies, as it is one
of the premier events in the area.”
Media partners have stepped
up Pittsburgh City Paper, 91.3 WYEP, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Comcast
and Pittsburgh Magazine to spread the word about the 2008 Festival.
Collaborations with organizations like the Pittsburgh Downtown
Partnership and PUMP will fill Market Square with energy and excitement.
Calendar Listing
49th
annual Three Rivers Arts Festival. June 6-22, 2008. Downtown
Pittsburgh. Hours: Duquesne Light Artists Market and indoor exhibits:
12 – 8 pm daily. Performances and food courts: 12 – 9:30 pm daily. UPMC
Health Plan Family Festival: 12 – 7 pm daily. Most programs free and
open to the public.
About the Three Rivers Arts Festival
The
mission of the Three Rivers Arts Festival is to connect the community
to the arts. The 49th annual Three Rivers Arts Festival runs from June
6-22, 2008. For more information, call the Festival at 412.281.8723 or
visit our website www.artsfestival.net.
Download this press release
Download the full Festival schedule Last updated May 23, 2008
Download the full Festival media kit (70 MB). Last updated May 12, 2008