A free public reception will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at the Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media for 2019 Artist of the Year and Emerging Artist of the Year awardees Dee Briggs and Saige Baxter.

An awards ceremony will be held at 7:15 p.m. They will give artist’s talks from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 10.

Ms. Briggs is a nationally exhibited artist most known for her large-scale abstract sculptures such as the Cor-Ten weathering steel works exhibited Downtown during the 2018 Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival.

In 2014, as an art project, she painted gold a deteriorating house on the corner of Park and Swissvale avenues in Wilkinsburg, adjacent to her home and studio in a renovated firehouse. “The House of Gold” was afterward to be given a “gentle demolition,” preserving its structural elements for reuse.

She had purchased the house through the Allegheny County vacant property recovery program and Ms. Briggs’ intent was to call attention to the need to see the inherent value before a house, or a person, is gone.

Ms. Briggs studied architecture at the City College of New York and earned a master’s degree in architecture from Yale University in 2002.

Her AOY show will include aspects of the most recent projects that reflect her commitment to Wilkinsburg, her public artwork and smaller gallery-sized sculptures from the last three years.

Ms. Baxter is a sculptor whose medium is metal that she welds and fabricates into outdoor public artworks. She received a bachelor’s degree in studio arts with a minor in art history from Seton Hill University, Greensburg, in 2016. Her initial focus was painting and she discovered welding only near the end of her education.

She has been a welding mentor for the Pittsburgh-based Mobile Sculpture Workshop and a creative arts advisor for Propel Schools in Hazelwood.

Her EAOY show will include new interactive sculptural work. This is her first solo gallery exhibition. She is the daughter of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette vice president and general manager Lisa Hurm.

The Artist of the Year designation was established in 1949 to recognize a Pittsburgh artist with an accomplished oeuvre who has also contributed to the greater arts community. In 2001, the center launched the emerging award to encourage developing talent.

Also opening Friday is a new project, “Points of Entry,” conceived by Vicky A. Clark as a series of small exhibitions pairing the work of local artists Dana Ingham and Sarah Jacobs. An artist talk with Ms. Clark and the artists will be given from 1 to 3 p.m. Oct. 19.

All exhibitions continue through Nov. 3 at 6300 Fifth Ave., Shadyside. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon-4 p.m. Sunday. Parking in the lots is free after 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and on Sundays. Information: 412-361-0873 or ​center.pfpca.org .

M. Thomas: mthomas@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1925.

First Published: September 18, 2019, 12:00 p.m.