Public Art Program

Art for the community, by the community

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Bringing the Community's Voice to Bakery Square

Bakery Square's Public Art Program is a community-driven initiative to connect with our neighbors, inspire local youth, and proudly display incredible art installations to be viewed by guests from near and far. Each year, Bakery Square commissions an artist to create a piece inspired by the community and allows local students from area public and charter schools to work with the resident artist to bring the community's voice to Bakery Square's epicenter. The program, which debuted in the summer of 2021, resulted in nearly 100 global applications. Artwork is displayed for one year's time and the program is supported by UPMC Health Plan. 

Sandy Kessler Kaminski

Sandy Kessler Kaminski, a local mixed-media artist, created her circuitscape titled URBAN in residence with 4th and 5th grade students where they discussed what their neighborhoods look like and how they move through them. The art demonstrates the relentless push and pull of man and the natural world. Observing the response of people and animals to changing environments, art becomes the mirror revealing the world around us and becomes a guide to living in harmony.

URBAN will be on display until June 2024.

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Curtis Reaves

Our third installment was led by native Pittsburgher, Curtis Reaves,  who produced an abstract work that utilizes photography, recycled materials and technology. Titled i see YOU, Reaves and the students chose to work with self portraits, utilizing photography and digital art to add shapes, textures and other tools that portray each student's individuality and for some, their hope for social change.

i see YOU was relocated in June of 2023.

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Lori Hepner

Local artist, Lori Hepner, created her piece, Larimer Caryatids, inspired by the light-painting residencies at nearby schools where the students created real-time silhouette portraits of each other while also using hand-held LEDs to make drawings at the same time.

Hepner used these portraits in the creation of the murals and was inspired to create contemporary/urban Caryatids, referring to the architecture of ancient Greece and the goddesses used as architectural columns in many Greek temples that still stand today. In the evenings, a video projection of the students drawing with light is viewable to the right of the murals.

Larimer Caryatids was relocated in June of 2022.

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Janel Young

Local artist, Janel Young was Bakery Square's first commissioned artist in June of 2021 who created a vibrant piece entitled, Heros on the Horizon, revealing students’ interpretation of how they envision community togetherness amid race, cultural and public health tensions. The imagery shown in the artwork depicts the text “one community” on the left panel, and an anonymous superhero figure on the right. Young’s artwork included an interactive component that asks passersby to give their take on what superpowers they, too, have that can change the world? 
 

Heros on the Horizon now has a permanent home in Bakery Square in the South Garage.

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An Inside Look...

Hear from the movers and shakers that set Bakery Square's Public Art Program into motion including Bakery Square's first artist in residency, Janel Young.

The Space

The artwork resides on two panels on the exterior facade of Bakery Square's City Kitchen restaurant building facing inward on Bakery Square Boulevard. The designated art locations are the two vertical inlay panels, measuring 10' 4" x 16' 9", flanking the windows on the right and left side. A variety of art forms can be affixed onto this surface and each art panel has dedicated lighting above.

Bakery Square Boulevard is a heavily traveled area making the art viewable to many passersby each and every day!

The Portal Art Gallery

Did you know we have an art gallery at Bakery Square too? Located in the thoroughfare through Bakery Office One from Bakery Square Boulevard to East Liberty Boulevard, The Portal Art Gallery is a space dedicated to showcasing captivating, local artwork. The exhibits are changed throughout the year and all of the art in the galleries is for sale!

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