Video courtesy of WQED Pittsburgh
Pedantic Arts Residency was recently featured on Pittsburgh’s local PBS Channel, WQED. As co-directors of this residency program, we’re thrilled to have Pedantic be spotlighted as a “unique and encouraging space for exploration and creativity.”
Make sure to join us on Friday, February 2 from 6-8pm to say goodbye to the Winter 2024 Cohort of the Pedantic Arts Residency. Click the button below to learn more.
Join us on January 11th to meet the 3 finalists in the public call for artists, learn about their past creative projects, and give inspiration to the finalists as they begin their design proposals for a chance to create the final commissioned artwork.
TASC and Steel City Squash want to hear from members of the community about what art they want to see in the neighborhood. Please join us to deliver your input on this project and help guide the artists towards a vision that celebrates the spirit of Larimer.
Register for this FREE community workshop and share your input on an exciting art project in your neighborhood. To sign up, click the button below.
Steel City Squash - Public Art Community Workshop
January 11, 2024 from 5:30p-7:30p
Kingsley Association
6435 Frankstown Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Join us on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 to welcome our fourth 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.
Image of Visual Art Resident Laura（嘟嘟), courtesy of the artist
Headshot of Curatorial Resident Ulya Soley, courtesy of the artist
Headshot of Writing Resident Alysia Nicole Harris, taken by Melly Wirtes
This winter’s three residents include Laura（嘟嘟）(they/them), an Irvine, CA and New York, NY-based multidisciplinary artist and queer feminist and co-founder of Chinese Artists and Organizers whose art and community organizing reimagine the body, memory, and kinship particularly as it connects with food; Ulya Soley (she/her), a curator based in Istanbul, Turkey and working at Pera Museum whose recent projects explore future scenarios through a queer, feminist lens and delve into the history of queer nightlife and rave culture; and Alysia Nicole Harris (she/her), a performance poet and arts writer based in Corsicana, TX who is interested in the relationship between figuration and abstraction, painting and textiles, and explores themes of spirituality, physicality, beauty and pain.
This is a free event, and RSVP is requested to attend. To RSVP, please fill out the form here.
What: Pedantic Meet and Greet
When: Wednesday, January 10, 6:00-7:30pm
Where: KST Alloy Studios, 5530 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Black women exist within an unrelenting ecosystem built to convince us that we are insufficient. To persevere, counternarratives that remind us of our humanity are crucial. As a painter and poet, my work exists as a safe harbor for Black women and girls, centering themes such as mental health, systemic oppression, joy, liberatory visions, and power.
I practice mainly in acrylic media but also engage in digital painting, tufting, and laser cutting. What excites me most is ideating new ways to showcase aspects of Black feminine identity outside of the limiting bounds and tropes we often see ourselves defined within; I can depict nudity in ways that are not inherently sexual, beauty in ways not restricted by Eurocentric standards and a deep and emotional personhood that can not be bypassed or erased.
I am most influenced in practice and philosophy by the works of Claudia Rankine, Audre Lorde, Kehinde Wiley, Romare Bearden, Octavia Butler, and Kerry James Marshall. The questions I want to be answered in my work are: what is challenged when Black women are centered unapologetically; and what effect do the societies we live in have on Black women’s capacity for joy, love, peace, and processing trauma?
WCDC's Lohr Gallery
725 Wood St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15221
Designed by Pittsburgh-based graphic design firm Bear Left Bear, the website is a one-stop-shop for all information having to do with the residency program. Visitors can find information about Pedantic and its history, get to know about past and present residents, and learn about upcoming events. Prospective applicants can also apply for future iterations of the residency through the website, and locals can get in touch with Pedantic staff about getting involved.
Check out the new website by clicking the button below.
Pedantic is an arts residency that brings together an artist, a curator, and a writer under one roof for a collaborative arts experience. It is a unique invitation to open greater and more cross-disciplinary dialogue within the arts by re-embracing the significant impact that education, study, and structured contemplation can have on artistic output. It is focused on fostering artistic connections rather than production.
CDCP is seeking applicants with practices in either visual art, curating, or arts and culture writing. Individuals working across multiple practices are welcome, though we request you identify one field you are most keen to engage with while participating. Applicants must be non-Pittsburgh residents* and must be available to live in Pittsburgh at the Pedantic apartment for the duration of the program dates.
To learn more and apply, click the button below.