Urban Arts at Carrie Furnaces

There's always something neat happening at the Carrie Blast Furnaces. Rivers of Steel offers both impressive opportunities to dive into local history, and amazing art exhibits and workshops, and the Carrie Furnaces National Historic Site has been an ideal venue for both. I went there with my son to try out their Urban Arts Workshop, and it was a blast! (Heh heh...)

The Urban Arts Workshop is all about graffiti. First we had a tour of the site itself, which was shorter than their regular historical tour and with a definite focus on the site specific art, and then we had a chance to try creating some aerosol art ourselves on canvases. We've made art in all kinds of ways, but never with spray paint, and it was definitely fun! Artist Shane Pilsner was there to give us all kinds of expert tips. 

I realize that graffiti is mostly created in order to impress other graffiti artists, and generally the actual content can be reduced to a name. It's a chance to show off your skills, your bravado, and your travels. But when you make something that people outside that world can appreciate, they often will. Coming across an arresting image or a splash of color on an otherwise nondescript surface is a joy. The Carrie Furnaces site was home to a lot of "unsanctioned art" during the years it was abandoned.  Now portions of the site have been officially designated as worthy of historic preservation, but those that have not are places they can invite artists to enliven. Right now they have "Alloy Pittsburgh", a show of site-specific art running through the end of September. The show will close following their Festival of Combustion on September 29.