Visual and performing arts will enliven outdoor spaces and cultural venues during the inaugural Greensburg ArtsWalk on Saturday. All events are free and public
Puppet parades, food trucks, dancers, bands, art activities and a library Read-a-Thon are some of the things planned to appeal to all ages and tastes. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“If you want something a little more contemplative and relaxing, you can listen to the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra String Quartet at City Hall. For something a little more right in your face, local rock funk band Kaelbe will be at the Pennsylvania Avenue Parklet,” said Catena Bergevin, deputy director/director of advancement for The Westmoreland Museum of American Art.
“I think there’s something for everyone. And I hope people go to different locations to experience something new.”
The ArtsWalk was organized by the museum in partnership with Seton Hill University, The Westmoreland Cultural Trust and Think Greensburg.
The museum has been receiving positive response to its Art Happens public art project that launched in July. Detail from various works in The Westmoreland collection were blown up and installed on building exteriors in Greensburg. The 11th installation, and the first indoors, was made recently at the White Rabbit Cafe & Patisserie.
“We had learned that a lot of people who live in the area had never been to the museum,” Ms. Bergevin said. “So we’re bringing the museum to them.”
An ArtsWalk was the next step.
Art Happens installations are the backdrop and inspiration for several ArtsWalk activities.
The Art Happens work at City Hall is “Parade” by Joseph Sheppard. At 1 p.m. the quartet will play patriotic and easy listening favorites such as “Sweet Clementine” and “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”
The Art Happens work on the museum loading dock is the classic profile of George Washington by Rembrandt Peale.
North Huntingdon artist Erik Greenawalt, a former page designer at the Post-Gazette, also known on social media as “The Chalking Dad,” will recreate the entire portrait on Academy Hill Place, between the museum and Greensburg Salem Middle School. The street will be closed during ArtsWalk.
Mr. Greenawalt, 40, is a senior director of financial planning and analysis for Giant Eagle by day. He began chalk drawing in his driveway at home with his young daughters – Jaycie, now 15, and Jenna, now 12.
That family activity morphed into his becoming a featured attraction at several events a year, from the Pittsburgh Pierogi Festival to the Lake Worth, Fla., Street Painting Festival, which draws 100,000 visitors.
Aware that a large number of Pittsburghers attend the Lake Worth festival, and coinciding this year with the 50th anniversary of the first episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, he decided to draw the beloved PBS personality.
“I really enjoy doing it because it’s taking art to the public,” Mr. Greenawalt said. “I love interacting with people and getting outside.”
There will be extra chalk so “other people can get in on the fun” making their own drawings, he said.
Also at the museum, Phat Man Dee and Liz Berlin will perform a rock/jazz concert at 3:30 p.m. Food trucks Kona Ice of Westmoreland and Sandwitchcraft Food Truck will be there all day.
ArtsWalk attendees may visit artists in their studios at the Westmoreland Cultural Trust’s Incubator for the Arts and at The Seton Hill Arts Center, both on West Otterman Street.
“One of our missions is to interact with the community,” said Pati Beachley, chair of the department of Art & Design and associate professor of sculpture at Seton Hill University.
The building was designed so that passers-by could look through windows and see people dancing and making art, she said. Saturday is an opportunity for the public to enter the building to watch students creating art and to visit art exhibitions, including the senior art students show.
A raku pottery firing will be held in the work yard, outdoors, and Ms. Beachley will demonstrate metal casting in the center’s foundry.
“Visitors can watch hot metal being poured,” she said. “I like sharing that with people.”
For a full schedule and a map, visit http://thewestmoreland.org/event/artswalk2018. There will be an information booth by the Westmoreland County Courthouse, 2 N. Main St.
In addition, several in-town restaurants and businesses plan special menus and offers Saturday.
CORRECTION: A previous of this article contained a misspelling of the name of one of Mr. Greenawalt’s daughters. This version reflects the correct spelling of Jaycie.
M. Thomas: mthomas@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1925.
First Published: April 12, 2018, 5:18 p.m.
