New York, Los Angeles, Columbus?
How art can grow from Midwestern roots.
Unbreakable: Glass in the Rust Belt
What’s left of domestic glass manufacturing in the U.S. remains concentrated in the Rust Belt–eight of the industry’s top ten employers are in Pennsylvania, New York, and the Midwest. But studio glassblowing is adding relevance to a material long forgotten by many communities shaped by it. Today, the Rust Belt is home to three of the United States’ top five hubs for glass studios.
Art that’s Rooted in the Rust Belt
Thriving creative communities can be found throughout the Rust Belt in other small- to mid-size industrial cities like Racine. Places like Sheboygan, Rockford, Peoria, Flint, South Bend, Dayton, Toledo, Canton—the list goes on.
Novelist Idra Novey on the Places That Made Her
"I came from somewhere that has a lot of character and really fascinating people who have carved out really beautiful lives, and they don't fall easily into the caricatures that we see of rural Pennsylvanian people in the news."
Dreaming at the Mattress Factory
Given that the Mattress Factory once made literal mattresses, the place where dreams most often form in our minds, it feels fitting that it’s now a site for collective dreaming.
The Cracked Wonder of Cementland
If the City Museum was a tribute to industrial repurposing, Cementland was meant to be its pinnacle.
Bow Before the Butter Cow
While visiting the cow in person, the level of engagement between fellow viewers and the cow was high... people stayed for much longer than the average person stares at a Rothko painting in a museum.
Painting the Past on the Ohio River
You can put your finger on a map and trace it down the Ohio River. From Steubenville to Paducah, it’s nearly a thousand miles, an artery pumping through the heart of America.
Remember Me Different
Mrs. M would not be given the courtesy of a new lease, as the building had changed management. Cachet G! was closing. Cold and calculated gentrification.
Starstruck: An American Tale
A cut through the layers of America past and present in the historic steel town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
My American Windows
"I didn’t know it then, but I needed those windows...that wall of blue between my heart and the world."
Creating Space for Virgil Cantini in Pittsburgh
Cantini, who was a vital part of Pittsburgh's public art scene in the twentieth century, believed art should be free and available to everyone.