Pittsburgh Art Schools

People visiting the city of Pittsburgh for the first time share one resounding question: This is Pittsburgh?? Though thoughts of the city of three rivers usually engender gloomy images of shut down steel mills and grimy, depressed streets and buildings, more and more people are finding that Pittsburg is a beautiful, vibrant, electrifying city (yes, Pittsburgh!). Though the city’s steel mill industry dissolved during the 70s and 80s and half the population was lost, a new metropolis has emerged, replete with 33 colleges and universities, over 200 museums and galleries, and 8 Fortune 500 companies. No American city has undergone a more spectacular renaissance than Pittsburgh and, for that reason, students are flocking to this reinvented college city. According to Pittsburgh native, Ron Davis, “With the revitalization effort that had occurred in the city, it is a nice blend of tradition and modernism; also, the eclectic cultures which have settled within and around the city make it a great place to study architecture, art, and customs.” Evidence of this metamorphosis is most clear in the downtown section of the city where the Cultural District is home to a great many theatres, the Pittsburgh Opera house, and the annual Three Rivers Arts Festival. Additionally, the Cultural District also hosts the quarterly Gallery Crawl, where patrons can enjoy live music, a variety of restaurants, and a diverse offering of galleries, such as Space, Wood Street Galleries, and the Society for Contemporary Craft. However, a venture over to the North Side will also provide ample entertainment as this neighborhood offers the Andy Warhol museum and the Mattress Factory, a space dedicated exclusively to installation art. In fact, if you are a great fan of installation art, a visit to ArtGardens in Frank Curto park is also in order as this large outdoor gallery features plant life as the primary medium. More than any other neighborhood, however, art students will most enjoy Oakland, which is home to many of the schools, the social scenes, and the nation’s first museum of modern art, the Carnegie Museum of Fine Art. Built in 1895, the museum captures Andrew Carnegie’s vision of a museum containing “Old Masters of tomorrow.” Moreover, the Frick Fine Arts Gallery, the Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, and the University Art Gallery can all be found in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh.  Whether you are planning to study in the revitalized city of Pittsburgh, or you just can’t believe it is truly a new and exciting city, a visit to Pennsylvania’s second largest metropolis is worth whatever it takes to get there.