Readers, I love free stuff. As anyone who knows me knows, I will go to great lengths to get “perks” and discounts on things. But forget about a discount, Carnegie Mellon announced that their entire School of Art MFA has made the program free—including for students currently in the program. Via their instagram: “The School of Art will now provide full tuition funding for all MFA students, regardless of background or citizenship status! The new funding begins immediately for current students and will continue for future MFA cohorts. Applications for fall 2024 enrollment are due January 16.” This is pretty radical and I’m curious to see how it’s going to pan out, along with the addition of the new ICA Pittsburgh space.
In museum news, the Carnegie Museum of Art announced its new curators for the 59th International—Ryan Inouye, Danielle A. Jackson, and Liz Park:
- Ryan Inouye was recently appointed Curator, International Art at Carnegie Museum of Art after serving as associate curator of Is it morning for you yet?, the 58th Carnegie International (2022).
- Danielle A. Jackson is the Curator of Artists Space, a New York-based institution and seminal venue of emerging art and ideas, and was formerly a curatorial assistant in the Department of Media and Performance at the Museum of Modern Art.
- Liz Park is the Richard Armstrong Curator of Contemporary Art at Carnegie Museum of Art and served as the associate curator of the 57th Carnegie International (2018).
So we’ve got two established curators within the museum and then one from New York, which is cool. No announcement of the theme for the 59th International yet. In more art world news, Pittsburgh’s Most Wanted Fine Arts (Jason Sauer) and BOOM Concepts were both at Art Basel Miami, as Brian Conway from Pittsburgh Independent reported. This was BOOM’s first commercial art show. Btw, if you haven’t, check out the work that Brian does at the Independent. He and I have very similar thoughts on the Pittsburgh media landscape 👀
New exhibition opportunity at the Cultural Trust, deadline open until 1/16 for the Juried Exhibition at SPACE Gallery for the 2024 Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival. Theme is “Furry Friends: An Artistic Celebration of Animal-Human Friendships.” More on their site, but: “This year’s theme welcomes submissions that explore the profound and complex connections between humans and animals, be they companions, pets, wildlife, or creatures of myth or imagination. This exhibition will celebrate the diverse ways in which animals enrich our lives, challenge our perspectives, and inspire our creativity as they have done throughout history.” Jurors are Anastasia James, Kimberly Diana Jacobs, Aaron Levi Garvey, and Liz Park.
In events, this Thursday, there’s an opening reception and book signing at Bottom Feeder Books, 6-8pm, Ed Panar and Melissa Catanese. If you miss that, Panar and Catanese will also be at Silver Eye Center for Photography on the 16th. This weekend is actually pretty packed with stuff. We’ve also got Un/Precious, a group show with Tara Murphy, Brent Pheto, and Grant Catton which opens at Ketchup City Creative on Friday the 15th, 6PM-9PM at 612 Main Street. Also on the 15, Shred Shed in Allentown has a three band show—732 E Warrington Ave, 6PM, $10 entry, food by Onion Maiden (RIP). That show also features graffiti writer Max Gonzales in one of the bands.
Back at Bottom Feeder, Joshua Rievel and Keith Cave are doing a popup sale there on the 16, as well as Michael Lotenero’s sold out Chupacabra show at ZYNKA Gallery. That show is open until the 21, though, so you still have time to see the show even if you miss the band.
MadKat Studios, one of my favorite spaces in the city, has an open studio from 2PM-7PM on Dec 16 in Elizabeth (215 Market Street). If you’ve never been there, now is the time. M.K. Noonan and Madeleine Boucher, who run the program, are fantastic artists and wonderful people. I love the town of Elizabeth and MadKat is an amazing space advocating for accessibility in the arts. They also had one of my favorite shows I’ve seen in the past few years last November, Danielle Mužina’s Quickening (I wrote about it for Belt here. I love Danielle’s work—I could write a book about it. I’m obsessed).
Local artist Vania Evangelique, whose work is in the cover image of this and currently featured in Brew House’s Buttery Spread, was recently laid off and is selling prints for really affordable prices. This is an opportunity to help someone in the community and also to affordably collect great art. Check out her Instagram here — all the work in the post is $5 – $30 and a lot has already sold, so get it while it’s hot. One of my passions that I’m sure you’ve heard me talk about is affordable art collection and this is a real-life example of how you can do that.
By the way, if you missed Buttery Spread, Brew House is having an exclusive tea event with very few tickets left this Saturday 1PM-3PM.
Overheard on the art scene 11/22 to 12/11: “I’m not going to mansplain The L Word to you.”
See you for the next artnews brief. Send tips, ideas, or hyper-local art gossip to petrichorpgh@gmail.com.
PETRICHOR 
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