The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (PCT) is an American, nonprofit, arts organization that was formed in 1984 to promote economic and cultural development in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[2] The "Trust" has focused its work on a fourteen-square block section known as the Cultural District,[3] which encompasses numerous entertainment and cultural venues, restaurants, and residential buildings.
This organization reportedly oversees more than one million square feet of real estate, including commercial and residential buildings, making it one of the largest landowners downtown.[4][5]
In recent years, it has had a contentious relationship with the city of Pittsburgh concerning the tax status for many of its properties, resulting in a case being heard by the state Supreme Court in 2011.[6]
As of February 2023, the PCT's president and CEO is Kendra Whitlock Ingram. According to its 2022 "Report to the Community", PCT's net assets were valued at $219 million.[1]
History
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust was founded in 1984 by H. J. Heinz II with the principal aim of restoring downtown Pittsburgh as a vibrant cultural destination.[7] Heinz and others, including William Rea and his son, U.S. SenatorJohn Heinz, began with Pittsburgh's first renovated former movie palace, Heinz Hall, (which was built as the former Loew's Penn Theater).
The Benedum Center (formerly The Stanley Theatre)
The PCT's first major project was the restoration of the former Stanley Theater. The Stanley Theater was originally designed by the firm of Hoffman & Henon and opened on February 27, 1928. Under the PCT's management, this theater underwent a $43 million restoration[8] and reopened in 1987 as the 2,800-seat Benedum Center for the Performing Arts. That year, the PCT and its partners presented an annual Broadway series in the Cultural District.
The Byham Theater was another theater venue restoration project. Built in 1903 as the Gayety Theater, it included a stage and Vaudeville house, and featured stars such as Ethel Barrymore, Gertrude Lawrence, and Helen Hayes.[9] It was renamed The Fulton during the 1930s when it became a full-time movie theater. In 1990, the PCT bought and refurbished the theater. The Byham family of Pittsburgh made a major naming gift for a 1995 renovation; it has been known as the Byham Theater since that time.
In 1992, PCT opened Wood Street Galleries, its first visual arts project. PCT purchased and refurbished a former XXX movie theater in 1995, and re-opened the 194-seat theater as the Harris Theater, which screens independent, foreign, and classic films.
In 1999, the PCT's 650-seat O'Reilly Theater opened as the permanent home of the Pittsburgh Public Theater. That same year, the 23,000-square-foot (2,100m2) Agnes R. Katz Plaza was unveiled. The theater features a 25-foot (7.6m) bronze fountain designed by sculptor Louise Bourgeois and the work of landscape architect Dan Kiley. Artists Robert Wilson and Richard Gluckman were also selected by the PCT to create a series of public art projects in the Cultural District.
Jack Heinz chose PCT's first President and CEO, Carol Brown. She managed the organization from 1986 until 2000. In 2001, J. Kevin McMahon was named President and CEO.
The Byham Theatre (formerly the Gayety Theatre)
In 2002, the Pittsburgh Dance Council became a programming division of PCT. PCT opened Theater Square in 2003, a 330,000-square-foot (31,000m2) complex including the 265-seat Cabaret at Theater Square, a parking garage, centralized box office, restaurant, and bar, and the Carolyn M. Byham WQED 89.3 FM remote broadcast studio. That same year, First Night Pittsburgh became a program of the PCT.
PCT presented the Quebec Festival and the inaugural Pittsburgh Festival of Firsts in 2004. It also turned an adult bookstore at 812 Liberty Avenue into SPACE, a gallery showcasing regional artists’ work, and purchased 937 Liberty Avenue to be utilized by local arts organizations as an office space and as a flexible performing and visual arts venue.[10] 2004 was also the first year the PCT organized a quarterly Gallery Crawl in the Cultural District, a free arts open house.
In 2005, the PCT purchased the property that would become home to the James E. Rohr Building, the Trust Arts Education Center. The PCT presented the Australia Festival in 2007. The Pittsburgh International Children's Theater and Festival became a programming division of the PCT in 2008. During that same year, the PCT presented the 2nd Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts. In 2009, Three Rivers Arts Festival became a programming division of the PCT. As of 2010, the PCT's total revenue was publicly listed as $46 million.[2]
On April 18, 2012, the Executive Committee accepted Kenneth Milani’s resignation from the position of Chairman of the PCT's Board of Trustees. Veronica Corpuz, spokesperson for PCT at that time, informed the media that the Executive Committee had appointed attorneys Carolyn Duronio and Chuck Queenan as Milani's interim replacement until a new chairman was found. The current chairman is Richard J. Harshman.
Agnes R. Katz Plaza located at 7th Avenue & Penn Avenue. Kata Plaza, commissioned in 1998, features Louise Bourgeois sculptures, including three granite benches shaped like eyeballs and the centerpiece 25-foot-tall bronze fountain. Landscape architect Dan Kiley and architect Michael Graves also worked on the project.[15]
Cell Phone Disco located at Tito Way & Exchange Way. The artist collective, Informationlab (Auke Touwslager, Ursula Lavrenčič) were commissioned in 2010 to create this outdoor Art & Science interactive installation.[16]
Haas Mural located on the Fort Duquesne Boulevard façade of the Byham Theater, 101 6th Street. The 36-by-56-foot mural was commissioned in 1993 and painted by Richard Haas in the trompe-l'œil style.[17]
Magnolias for Pittsburgh located at 7th Avenue & Penn Avenue. The Public Art Network of Americans for the Arts selected Tony Tasset's "Magnolias for Pittsburgh" to be in the 2007 "Year in Review". The installation features two bronze magnolia trees, five live magnolia trees, and a landscape design.[18]
Momento Mori located at Tito Way & Exchange Way.[19]
Sign of Light located at Penn Avenue Place, Stanwix Street & Fort Duquesne Boulevard, facing the Allegheny River. This 20-by-40-foot electronic sign is composed of LEDs that project a white triangle floating on a blue-gray background. "Sign of Light" is visible from the North Side (Pittsburgh) and PNC Park.[20]
In 2013, the PCT invited Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman to bring his Rubber Duck sculpture to Pittsburgh. It sold rubber duck-sized versions of Rubber Duck for $10, with proceeds going to the trust.[21][22]
Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the second-most populous city in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia and the 68th-most populous city in the U.S., with a population of 302,971 as of the 2020 census. The city anchors the Pittsburgh metropolitan area of Western Pennsylvania. Its population of 2.457 million is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, the 7th-largest in the Mid-Atlantic region and the 26th-largest in the U.S. Pittsburgh is the principal city of the greater Pittsburgh–Weirton–Steubenville combined statistical area which includes parts of Ohio and West Virginia.
Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River whose joining forms the Ohio River. The triangle is bounded by the two rivers.
Allegheny City was a municipality that existed in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania from 1788 until it was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1907. It was located north across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh, with its southwest border formed by the Ohio River, and is known today as the North Side. The city's waterfront district, along the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, became Pittsburgh's North Shore neighborhood.
Garfield is a neighborhood in the East End of the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Garfield is bordered on the South by Bloomfield and Friendship, on the West by the Allegheny Cemetery, on the North by Stanton Heights, and on the East by East Liberty. Like many parts of Pittsburgh, Garfield is a fairly steep neighborhood, with north-south residential streets running at about a 20% incline from Penn Avenue at the bottom to Mossfield Street at the top. Garfield is divided into “the valley” and “the hilltop.”
Central Northside is a neighborhood in the North Side of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It has a zip code of 15212, and has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by the council member for District 6. Originally known as "The Buena Vista Tract", it is densely filled with restored row houses, community gardens and tree lined streets and alleyways.
Troy Hill is a neighborhood on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's North Side. It has a zip code of 15212, and has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by the council member for District 1.
The culture of Pittsburgh stems from the city's long history as a center for cultural philanthropy, as well as its rich ethnic traditions. In the 19th and 20th centuries, wealthy businessmen such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry J. Heinz, Henry Clay Frick, and nonprofit organizations such as the Carnegie Foundation donated millions of dollars to create educational and cultural institutions.
Ann Hamilton is an American visual artist who emerged in the early 1980s known for her large-scale multimedia installations. After receiving her BFA in textile design from the University of Kansas in 1979, she lived in Banff, Alberta, and Montreal, Quebec, Canada before deciding to pursue an MFA in sculpture at Yale in 1983. From 1985 to 1991, she taught on the faculty of the University of California at Santa Barbara. Since 2001, Hamilton has served on the faculty of the Department of Art at the Ohio State University. She was appointed a Distinguished University Professor in 2011.
The Cultural District is a fourteen-square-block area in Downtown Pittsburgh bordered by the Allegheny River on the north, Tenth Street on the east, Stanwix Street on the west, and Liberty Avenue on the south.
Allegheny Riverfront Park is a municipal park that runs along the south bank of the Allegheny River in Downtown Pittsburgh.
Carol Brown was President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, a $50 million private, nonprofit agency in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1986 to 2000.
The Byham Theater is a landmark building at 101 Sixth Street in the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally built in 1903 as The Gayety Theater, the former vaudeville house was renovated and reopened as The Byham Theater in 1990.
Frederick John Osterling was an American architect, practicing in Pittsburgh from 1888.
Heinz Hall is a performing arts center and concert hall located at 600 Penn Avenue in the Cultural District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Home to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) and the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, the 2,676 seat hall presents about 200 performances each year. Originally built in 1927 as Loew's Penn Theatre, the former movie palace was renovated and reopened as Heinz Hall in 1971.
Wood Street station is a station on Pittsburgh Regional Transit's light rail network, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It serves the city's Downtown district and is located at the intersection of Wood Street and Liberty Avenue. Passengers embarking at the Wood Street station may travel free to any of the other stations in the Downtown area– First Avenue, Steel Plaza, Gateway, North Shore and Allegheny. Wood Street Galleries, an art gallery, is located directly above the station entrance. The station itself plays no role in fare collection, which is done on board the train.
Penn Avenue is a major arterial street in Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg, in Pennsylvania. Its western terminus lies at Gateway Center in downtown Pittsburgh. For its westernmost ten blocks it serves as the core of the Cultural District with such attractions as Heinz Hall, the Benedum Center and the Byham Theater as well as the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and the Heinz History Center bordering it. Exiting downtown it is the major route through the city's Strip District, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield, Garfield and East Liberty neighborhoods. Its eastern portion exits the city at Wilkinsburg where it continues to exist as Penn Avenue with a numbering system that begins anew using small numbers as it approaches Interstate 376 the "Parkway East". Penn Avenue is about 8.7 miles (14.0 km) long.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US.
Carolyn Byham is an American philanthropist and community activist residing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Records (Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Records, 1926–2000, CTC.2000.02, Curtis Theatre Collection, Special Collections Department, University of Pittsburgh)
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