Heinz History Center to rename Sports Museum after Franco Harris
On Dec. 23, 1972 — 53 years ago — Pittsburgh Steelers running back Franco Harris made National Football League history with the Immaculate Reception. The Senator John Heinz History Center is celebrating the football legend by changing the name of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum to the Franco Harris Sports...
Retired electrician finds beauty in profession with art inspired by Tesla, Edison, ‘Star Trek’
Although he didn’t get started until his early 30s, Bruce Senchesen has made more than 100 sculptures using circuit boards, plastics, wires and various electronics. Sometimes the parts are new, but mostly Senchesen uses old pieces from thrift shops or the hardware store. “I look for oddball components,” the Monroeville...
The Mattress Factory museum names Anthony Elms as artistic director
Installation-focused North Side contemporary art museum The Mattress Factory will be turning 50 in 2027, and it’s keeping up with the times with a new artistic director who will join the museum in February. Detroit native Anthony Elms will take the reins of all artistic programs early next year. With...
Prolific artist Nevin Robinson became household name by depicting familiar scenes
Editor’s note: The following story was submitted for the Shaler Area Student Section, a collaboration between TribLive and The Oracle, the student newspaper of Shaler Area High School. Bed-ridden with rheumatic fever and surrounded by the busyness of the city, a young Nevin Robinson became captivated by the beauty Pittsburgh...
‘Sports360,’ 1st major exhibition at the Kamin Science Center, set to open
An exhibition that immerses visitors in the science of athletic performance is about to debut. Details of the “Sports360” exhibit were announced Thursday at a pep rally at the Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Science Center on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. The exhibit officially opens Saturday with a family-friendly tailgate....
Dates announced for 2026 Three Rivers Arts Festival at Arts Landing location
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has announced the dates for the 2026 Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, which will also represent the grand opening of the new Arts Landing location in the Cultural District of Downtown Pittsburgh. The festival will run from June 5-7 and June 11-14 — a total...
Carnegie Museum of Natural History director Gretchen Baker to depart
Gretchen Baker, the Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Oakland, will be leaving effective Dec. 31. The Carnegie Museums announced Monday that Baker would be moving to a position as president and CEO of the Chicago Botanic Garden. She joined the...
French countryside inspired latest mural installation in downtown Latrobe
An echo of the French countryside soon will greet visitors to downtown Latrobe, with the debut of a new mural on the historic Danceland building. The enlarged image of “Le Lutin pres du Loing,” a 1940 work by French painter Pierre Eugène Montézin, is set to be unveiled about 6:50...
Crystal Fabergé egg crafted for Russian royalty shatters record and sells for $30.2 million
LONDON — A rare crystal and diamond Fabergé egg crafted for Russia’s ruling family before it was toppled by revolution shattered records Tuesday as it sold at auction for $30.2 million (22.9 million pounds). The Winter Egg, which was compared to the iconic Mona Lisa, was just one of seven...
Frick Environmental Center exhibit evokes iconic Vanka murals for a new era
The murals of Croatian immigrant artist Maksimilijan “Maxo” Vanka have loomed over Millvale’s St. Nicholas Church for more than 80 years, heavily integrating the immigrant experience in the United States. Now, a new generation of creators is picking up that conversation. On Thursday, the Frick Environmental Center in Frick Park...
Heinz History Center asks local artists to envision ‘My America’
As 2026 draws closer, more and more signs of the celebration of America’s 250th birthday are popping up throughout Western Pennsylvania. In Westmoreland County, two replicas of Pennsylvania’s iconic Liberty Bell were unveiled in Greensburg and Murrysville, decorated by local artists to mark the country’s semiquincentennial. In Allegheny County, the...
Paris’ Louvre museum to increase ticket price for visitors from outside European Union
PARIS — Paris’ Louvre museum has approved a ticket hike from 22 to 32 euros ($25 to 37) for non-European visitors from January to help finance an overhaul of the building whose degradation has been exposed by the Oct. 19 crown jewels heist. The measure was announced by French President...
Fox Chapel Garden Club artists donate skills to boost horticulture projects across Allegheny County
Cece Miller has a passion for needlepoint. A 40-year hobby, it nurtures her creativity through an endless choice of stitches and threads. “I find it relaxing and I love the finished product,” she said. And at least one of those products goes a long way to help others. Miller is...
Pittsburgh airport T. rex absent from new terminal as officials weigh its future
Wondering where Pittsburgh International Airport’s iconic Tyrannosaurus rex ended up in the new terminal? It hasn’t reappeared. Its next chapter is still undecided, though it’s on the airport’s radar. In a collaborative Instagram post Monday with the airport, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History says they are discussing the exact...
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a rare Superman comic book! And it fetched $9.12MVideo
A copy of the first Superman issue, unearthed by three brothers cleaning out their late mother’s attic, netted $9.12 million this month at a Texas auction house which says it is the most expensive comic book ever sold. The brothers discovered the comic book in a cardboard box beneath layers...
National Aviary’s ‘Jingle Bell Flock’ show brings high-flying holiday cheer
The National Aviary on the North Side is getting into the festive spirit, starting the day after Thanksgiving with its new “Jingle Bell Flock” immersive show. At a media preview on Wednesday, birds swooped throughout the Aviary’s Helen M. Schmidt FliteZone Theater while bird-themed versions of classic Christmas songs played....
Sewickley artist opens IM Studio in Leetsdale
At her new Leetsdale studio, IM Studio, Sewickley artist Isabella “Bella” Maroon has turned her lifelong passion for clay into a space for creativity and connection. Through hands-on classes and workshops, she invites others to experience what clay has always given her — a way to reflect, to grow, and...
$54.7M sale of Frida Kahlo self-portrait shatters auction record for female artists
A 1940 self-portrait by famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sold Thursday for $54.7 million at a New York art auction and became the top sale price for a work by any female artist. The painting of Kahlo asleep in a bed — titled “El sueño (La cama)” or in English,...
Pittsburgh’s Arts Landing outdoor space is on schedule and on budget
Standing by what will soon be an 8-foot addition to Downtown Pittsburgh’s skyline, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust President & CEO Kendra Whitlock Ingram paused Monday to show reporters the view set to define Arts Landing: a clear stretch of the Allegheny River and a striking angle of the city’s iconic Three...
Louvre Museum closes offices and a gallery over structural fragility concerns
PARIS — The Louvre Museum in Paris said Monday it is temporarily closing some employees’ offices and one public gallery because of structural fragility. The announcement came as the world’s most visited museum, housed in a former medieval palace, is preparing for ambitious renovations announced earlier this year. The Louvre...
‘Step into the painting’: Italian producers bring immersive, winter-themed exhibit to Westmoreland museum
If visitors lose themselves in the Westmoreland Museum of American Art’s latest exhibit, Italian video producers Max De Ponti and Andrea Corti will know they have done their job. De Ponti and Corti launched a video production company, OLO Creative Farm, in Como, Italy, 20 years ago. It was their...
Local artists ‘raccoonize’ creative uses for Rainbow Raccoon Park in Millvale
Artists, performers, DJs and dancers from across Pittsburgh gathered Oct. 18 to welcome Millvale’s tallest resident with a big party. The 12.5-foot-tall, 5,000-pound steel raccoon was installed the week before in Rainbow Raccoon Park, a former junkyard off Route 28. After the long-awaited arrival of the statue, it was up...
Egypt opens colossal new antiquities museum after 2-decade wait
CAIRO — Prime ministers, presidents and royalty descended on Cairo on Saturday to attend the spectacle-laden inauguration of a sprawling new museum built near the Pyramids to house one of the world’s richest collections of antiquities. The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum, or GEM, marks the end of a...
2 more charged in connection with Louvre jewel heist
PARIS — A woman and a man were placed under formal investigation over the $102 million Louvre Museum jewel heist, the Paris prosecutor said on Saturday, bringing the total number charged in the case to four. The man, 37, known to police for previous thefts, was charged with organised theft...
A solid gold toilet is up for auction with a $10 million starting price
LONDON — For sale: The world’s most valuable toilet, a lavatory literally worth its weight in gold. Sotheby’s announced Friday that it will auction off the solid gold cistern, a sculpture by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan entitled “America.” The auction house calls it an “incisive commentary on the collision of...
