Art & Museums category, Page 15

Like Indiana Jones, you may not be especially fond of snakes. But as Qihan Liu demonstrated, they can have a musical purpose. He was among the musicians giving demonstrations of traditional Chinese instruments during Sunday’s 26th Greater Pittsburgh Lunar New Year Show and Fair at the Carnegie Museum of Art...

With his tattered clothing, long fingernails and bewildered look, Rip Van Winkle awakes from his 20-year slumber in an imaginative painting that hangs at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg. For children who might not know the tale, it can be entertaining to let them interpret the artwork,...

As pedestrians and cyclists on the Westmoreland Heritage Trail pass near the Cozy Inn Cutoff, they head underneath William Penn Highway, where the underpass is covered with all manner of graffiti. If Export native Christina Donahoe has her way, however, later this year, it will be covered with the largest...

Clothing style from the 1700s is on display in a portrait by artist John Singleton Copley that indicates its subject likely was a lawyer. “Portrait of John Gardiner,” which hangs at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, includes exquisite detail of the garments the subject was wearing —...

It looks cold, the men walking on a snowy street, their hands stuffed in jacket pockets heading into work. “Night Shift” is more than that though. The 1936 painting by Ernest Fiene that depicts men walking to a steel plant in Aliquippa came at a formative time for U.S. labor...

A painting at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art shows the dark side of a railroad strike in 1877. The oil painting, titled “Union Station Riot,” depicts the station in Pittsburgh’s Strip District on fire during the Great Railroad Strike. Its artist, Martin B. Leisser, was there reporting for Harper’s...

Steve Patricia had a dream when he was young: to someday work for National Geographic. Patricia looked at the nonprofit as an organization that created “art for science’s sake.” As someone who grew up interested in science, history and art, he was drawn to that type of work. “I’ve always...

Glass paperweights are often found among the kitschy collections in flea markets and thrift stores, but they’re also having a moment in the contemporary art world. “They’ve actually become quite the thing again,” said Kristin Miller, site coordinator at the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley. “In the...

For the third consecutive year, Latrobe resident Clare Kaczmarek captured first place in the Places category of the 2022 Go Laurel Highlands Photo Contest, with a sunrise photo taken in May at Baughman Rock Overlook, above the Youghiogheny River Gorge south of Ohiopyle. Kaczmarek said she had to get up...

Soon after the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Ligonier Valley launched its sculpture garden, a local philanthropist offered to add to the collection. “Donald Green, a gentleman who was very philanthropic to the Ligonier Valley, reached out to SAMA to see if we would be interested in having another...

Pennsylvania was a haven in the decades preceding the Civil War for people seeking to escape enslavement in the South. But that wasn’t the case in Pennsylvania’s earlier years, when enslaved people and those who claimed ownership of them were part of the local population, including in Westmoreland County. The...

BERLIN — A self-portrait painted during World War II by German expressionist artist Max Beckmann sold Thursday in Berlin for 20 million euros ($20.7 million), a price that appears to be a record for an art auction in Germany. The buyer of Beckmann’s “Self-Portrait Yellow-Pink” at the Grisebach auction house...

For its 2023 slate of programs, the Carnegie Museum of Art will take inspiration from its long-running Carnegie International — now in its 58th iteration. “The program builds on the incredible momentum of the Carnegie International, which is part of the collecting legacy on which the museum was founded,” said...

MADRID — Against a backdrop of Russian bombardments, border closures and a nail-biting 3,500-kilometer (2,150-mile) truck journey across Europe, Spain’s Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum has teamed up with the National Art Museum of Ukraine to secretly bring dozens of 20th century Ukrainian avant-garde artworks to Madrid for a unique exhibition and...

Among pivotal French and Indian War dates is Nov. 12, 1758, when a raiding party of French troops from Fort Duquesne and their Native American allies went to filch livestock from the Post at Loyalhanna, later rechristened Fort Ligonier. The raiders were chased off by about 500 Virginians under Col....

In between Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, there’s another opportunity to score some holiday gift deals. Museum Store Sunday is an annual event in which art, nature, culture, science and history institutions around the globe offer deals and discounts on their merchandise, including many items developed exclusively for those...

On the wall opposite the entrance to the Fort Ligonier art gallery is the painting of a white-wigged soldier on horseback, apparently in the thick of battle. “Most visitors naturally assume it’s George Washington,” said Julie Donovan, the fort’s director of marketing and public relations. But it’s not. Rather, it’s...

For the 27th Annual Regional Juried Exhibition of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, juror Paula Burleigh said she chose “artworks that asked me to find unexpected delight in the ordinary.” Her choices included works in various media by 53 regional artists, revealed during a Nov. 12 opening reception...

During the covid-19 pandemic shutdowns, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust President and CEO Kevin McMahon frequently reassured colleagues that things would be OK. “Even in the darkest days of the pandemic, I said, ‘We’re resilient; we’re gonna make it through this,’ ” he said. “Of course, there were moments when I got...

The fascination Earthlings have long held for the neighboring red planet of Mars is playing out in a big way with a new permanent, immersive exhibition at the Carnegie Science Center on Pittsburgh’s North Side. “Mars: The Next Giant Leap,” a $4.5 million project, opens Friday, and Science Center officials...

An exhibition juxtaposing long-unused industrial materials with new artworks opens Thursday in the welcome center of the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden. “Patterns of Meaning,” by Pittsburgh artist Cory Bonnet, will be on display through Feb. 26 at the facility in Settlers Cabin Park in Oakdale. Bonnet’s exhibition derived inspiration from a...

ATHENS, Greece — It’s a first symbolic step in a homecoming that will long outlast the 10-year Odyssey of ancient myth. For decades, an important part of Greece’s cultural heritage sparkled only for the very few in a U.S. billionaire’s private collection, until a groundbreaking deal for its gradual return...

Heather Humbert reproduced a sycamore leaf, J. D. Peterson carved an image of a hummingbird and Karen Shade embellished the first initial of her granddaughter’s name. The women were among Sunday visitors to Greensburg’s Westmoreland Museum of American Art who saw their creations captured as one-pound squares of textured cast...