CDCP x The Future is Black x WCDC Present: Vania Evangelique

Opening reception: Saturday, July 25, 2026, 12-3 PM

On view: July 25, 2026 - October 17, 2026
Gallery hours: Every other Saturday 12-5 PM

CDCP, The Future is Black, and WCDC are thrilled to kick off the 2026-2027 season of Art All Over with a solo exhibition by artist Vania Evangelique. We’re excited to partner with The Future is Black for this upcoming season and are looking forward to the future of this program under their vision and leadership.

Light and language; what it illuminates and what it does not is the means in which I position my subjects, capturing an experience lived in a moment. I do this through the mediums of photography and writing where I purposefully seek out still moments that are found in nature, the environments in which I am placed, and the intimacy of my own home. And by doing so the mundane, transitional, and stretching processes of life are able to be fully expressed. The pursuit of still moments was born out of my upbring in Brooklyn, NY and the stark contrast of my later youth in Bethlehem, PA. I spent time analyzing and digesting the difference of feeling between grass and hot concrete on my feet, the smell of pollen versus car exhaust, the subtly of voices amongst the city to the insects singing to the evening night, and how looking into the night sky lent itself to city lights versus the vastness of the stars. This dichotomic rhythm of existing was one that required me to be attentive to environments that were transforming outwardly and inwardly. It’s in this noticing that I have become more present to the current moment where I now use place as an anchor, bringing with it an awareness of space. Both my photography and writing takes on a narrative approach that is often emotionally expository, revealing itself my deeper thoughts, feelings and observations of the world that I encounter. No matter the medium, my intention is to present an invitation to pay closer attention to the world we occupy; and create within it a space to appreciate the beauty found in the unlikely of places.

About Vania Evangelique:

Vania Evangelique (b. 1996) is a photographer and writer from Bethlehem, PA by way of Brooklyn, NY. Since receiving her BA in Photojournalism in 2018 from Point Park University, she has participated in residencies such as Brew House Arts as an artist and curatorial resident, exhibited with the Associated Artist of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, and was a studio artist with arts letters & numbers in Albany, NY. Curatorially, she enjoys fostering the voices of artists and has since served as an art installer apprentice with Casey Droege Cultural Productions, photographed arts news events with nextPittsburgh, and illuminated the Pittsburgh art scene through artist reviews with the commercial gallery Wick Monet.

About The Future is Black:

Ahmed Tacumba Turner Jr. is a Pittsburgh-based multidisciplinary arts professional, curator, and community development strategist. As Founder and Creative Director of The Future Is Black (2019–Present), he has produced 10 exhibitions and showcases across Pittsburgh's cultural institutions, distributing $15,000+ in artist stipends, facilitating $5,000+ in artwork sales, and engaging over 2,000 attendees — building a sustained platform for BIPOC artists in the region.

Tacumba's curatorial practice centers the visibility, economic sustainability, and cultural power of Black artists. In 2025, he served as Guest Curator and Moderator for Being Seen at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center — the first exhibition at that institution to feature a local guest curator — presenting 38 Pittsburgh artists. He also co-curated Fruits of Seeing (Mavuno) at Sweetwater Center for the Arts as part of their 25th anniversary programming.

Beyond the gallery, Tacumba brings a systems-level perspective to cultural work. He serves on the City of Pittsburgh's 2050 Comprehensive Plan Community Working Group, and holds advisory roles with Upstream, the Vital Village Network, and the O'Connor Campaign Arts Advisory Council. 

WCDC's Lohr Gallery
725 Wood St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15221

CDCP x WCDC Present: Jessica Peña Heberle

CDCP x WCDC Present: Jessica Peña Heberle

Artist Reception: Saturday, June 28, 12-3pm

On view: June 28-October 4, 2025
Gallery hours: Every other Saturday, 12-5pm

We’re thrilled to have Jessica Peña Heberle as our exhibiting artist for CDCP x WCDC Present: Art All Over

Jessica Peña Heberle (b. 1981) is a multidisciplinary artist from Erie, PA. She lives and works in her home studio in Wilkinsburg, PA. She spent her twenties back packing across Europe, traveling and moving around the US before calling Pittsburgh home. Her art process
includes painting, drawing, comics, zines, art books, and found objects. 

Jessica’s paintings depict figures in dialogue with the natural world—bodies of water, forests, and rock formations. These environments serve as emotional landscapes where figures drift between intimacy and detachment, engaged with their incorporeal selves, personal narratives, and the charged spaces they inhabit. Themes of anxiety, loneliness, physical trauma, and the influence of the unconscious mind thread through her work. These emotional states are not illustrated directly but emerge through gesture, posture, and atmosphere.

In the studio, Jessica embraces a process of uncertainty. Each piece begins without a fixed plan, evolving intuitively through layered experimentation. She works with various mediums, including watercolor, gouache, inks, colored pencil and graphite. Layering multiple mediums creates texture and movement within each piece and is a key component to her studio process. It is a vulnerable, creative practice where curiosity and obsessive mark making guide the form and feeling of each painting.

The show will be open to the public every other Saturday from 12-5 pm on the following dates:

June 28
July 12
July 26
August 9
August 23
September 6
September 20
October 4

WCDC's Lohr Gallery
725 Wood St.
Wilkinsburg, PA 15221

Pedantic Summer 2025 Cohort Meet and Greet

Join us on Tuesday, June 3, 2025 at the KST Alloy Studios from 6-8pm to welcome our fifth Pedantic cohort. The Pedantic Residents will be giving brief presentations on their backgrounds and their practices.

Pedantic Arts Residency (Pedantic) is a month-long cross-disciplinary program co-hosted by Headwater Media and Casey Droege Cultural Productions. We have invited three residents whose practices span visual art, curating, and writing to explore the city of Pittsburgh and its creative communities.

We’re looking forward to welcoming zhanraw (Visual Artist), Allison Lacher (Curator), and TyLie Shider (Writer).

This is a free event, and RSVP is requested to attend. Click the button below to RSVP. Registration will also be available at the door.

zhanraw (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans sound, film, poetry, performance, and installation. A Ukrainian immigrant with a career in science, data, & technology, her art integrates computer mediated methods with deeply humanistic themes. Her recent work, Unsaid 1 & 2, debuted in 2024 with a live performance by the Bergamot Quartet, Payton MacDonald (marimba), multi-channel audio, and video projection. Like many prior works, it endeavors to slow down and let blossom the interstitial and manifold aspects of experience: matters of attention, conditions of embodiment, perceptions of self, time, the other, and one’s environment. Her interdisciplinary approach reflects her fascination with how technology can bridge the personal and the societal, turning complex questions into immersive experiences that provoke both thought and feeling.

Alison Lacher (she/her) is a visual artist, curator, and arts administrator based in Springfield, Illinois. She is a two-time recipient of the Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award, recognized for both her independent and collaborative practices. She has been awarded residencies with the Ellis Beauregard Foundation, Ox-Bow, ACRE, Vermont Studio Center, The Luminary, and Signal Fire on the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

She serves as Director of the Visual Arts Gallery at the University of Illinois Springfield and Co-Director of STNDRD Exhibitions, a curatorial platform dedicated to site-responsive contemporary art. She has curated exhibitions at venues that include the Illinois State Museum, Monaco, the Chicago Artists Coalition, Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts, and NON STNDRD at the National Building Arts Center, as well as for the Terrain Biennial. Lacher has been a HATCH Projects curatorial resident with the Chicago Artists Coalition and a guest artist and curator at institutions including the NARS Foundation (Brooklyn), the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Washington University in St. Louis. 

TyLie Shider (he/him) is an American writer, a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellow, and the inaugural playwright in residence at ArtYard. A McKnight Fellow in Playwriting at the Playwrights’ Center, he is a recipient of Premiere Stages’ Liberty Live commission, two consecutive Jerome Fellowships, and an I Am Soul playwright in residence at the National Black Theatre. Recent projects include Security Watch, Certain Aspects of Conflict in the Negro Family, The Gospel Woman, Whittier and his filmmaking debut Sign O’ the Times. Screenwriting credits include: Truant. He holds a BA in Journalism from Delaware State University and an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU. A proud member of the Dramatist Guild, he is currently a Professor of Graduate Playwriting at Pace University, and a staff writer for Minnesota Playlist where he writes a regular column on Creative Discipline.

The City of Pittsburgh and American Rescue Plan Act Support for Artists Grant

Overview

The City of Pittsburgh, with funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), is launching the Support for Artists Grant Program, to be facilitated by Casey Droege Cultural Productions. These ARPA funds are meant to support the recovery of the City’s arts and culture sector from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Support for Artists program specifically supports the economic recovery of individual artists. Through this program, 75 one-time grants will be awarded at levels of $500, $1,500, and $3,000. 

Twenty-five artists will be selected for each grant amount and will receive a one-time deposit. Grants will be awarded to individual artists working in any and all disciplines who have experienced a disruption to their income stream due to the COVID-19 pandemic as of March 3, 2021 or later. Individual artists must currently be residents within the City of Pittsburgh municipal boundary (see map). Selected artists may be required to provide financial evidence in the form of tax statements or pay stubs. Throughout the course of this program, the City of Pittsburgh is required to follow all federal ARPA guidelines and all other applicable law. Artists are responsible for personal tax implications associated with an award.

Applications for the grant program will open on May 5, 2025, and will be due by 11:59 PM EST on June 16, 2025. Awarded grantees will be identified through a two-step process involving an eligibility assessment followed by a lottery system, all conducted by a review committee. Awarded grantees will be notified by September 1, 2025.

To learn more about this opportunity and to apply, click the button below.

CDCP x WCDC Present: Olga Mendenhall

On view: June 29-October 12, 2024
Gallery hours: Saturdays 12-5pm

CDCP x WCDC Present: Olga Mendenhall is now open to the public.

Internationally acclaimed creative expert and painter Olga Mendenhall brings years of artistic brilliance to the realms of art and design. Originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, Olga ventured to the USA in 2011, eventually making Pittsburgh her artistic haven. Olga resided in Wilkinsburg for over 6 years when she first moved to Pittsburgh 10 years ago.  Remarking on her time in the borough, Olga said, “[Wilkinsburg] left unforgettable memories and made me feel like home for the first time since I moved to USA from Russia.”

WCDC's Lohr Gallery
725 Wood St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15221

Photo credit: Hannah Colen

2024-2025 Season of CDCP x WCDC Present: Art All Over

We’re thrilled to announce the 2024-2025 Season of CDCP x WCDC Present: Art All Over

Starting in June, join us for a series of exhibitions highlighting local artists with ties to Wilkinsburg. Each artist will also host a free workshop that coincides with their exhibition. Make sure to follow us on Instagram to learn more details on these upcoming events.

Olga Mendenhall
June 29-October 12, 2024

Mo’ney Thomas
November 2, 2024-February 15, 2025

Charlotte Ka
March 1-May 31, 2025

Gallery hours: Saturdays 12-5pm