On Thursday, a group of Pittsburgh’s North Side neighborhood museums and cultural institutions will celebrate the launch of the Northside Cultural Corridor with free admission and activities.

The corridor is a placemaking initiative that focuses on the approximate 1-mile passage from the Mattress Factory to The Andy Warhol Museum.

According to the Project for Public Spaces, placemaking is a hands-on approach in which community residents and institutions work together to improve shared spaces through better urban design, creative patterns of use and “attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and support its ongoing evolution.”

Corridor Free Day will feature free admission and family friendly activities at partnering institutions, including Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, the Mattress Factory, The Andy Warhol Museum, City of Asylum and Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.

Another partner, the National Aviary, will be closed Thursday to continue its focus on finding Kody, the Steller’s sea eagle that escaped Sept. 25 from its enclosure.

“The Aviary will be in touch with those who have reserved tickets to join us as part of the Northside Corridor Free Day to provide free passes for a future visit,” the aviary said in a statement.

“There’s a tremendous amount of value in partnering with our fellow organizations on this initiative,” said Alana Wenk, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy director of marketing and communications. “This is a way to invite community members to explore new parts of their neighborhood that they may not have visited previously. The North Side is such a special place to Pittsburgh, and Corridor Day is another way to celebrate this community and one of Pittsburgh’s most historic parks (Allegheny Commons).”

Tribune-Review Allegheny Commons in Pittsburgh’s North Side will be one site of Corridor Free Day activities on Sept. 30.  

“People are not always aware that these organizations are so close to one another,” said Patrick Moore, director of The Warhol. “You can make a day of visiting them. We’re a very car-dependent culture, but you can even walk among them.”

Activities will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., including free timed admission and activities at the museums; raffles, giveaways and other activities from City of Asylum Bookstore; stilt walkers, jugglers, a plant walk and more in Allegheny Commons; and pop-up programming throughout the Corridor from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council Artsmobile.

Guests should reserve admission tickets, where needed, in advance. Specific information for each participant’s offerings is available on the institution’s website, with the full schedule posted at mattress.org.

Covid-19 protocols remain in place and may vary by institution.

The idea behind the initiative is to create a North Side destination, which will help to create a “lively atmosphere” for local businesses, Moore said.

For the Warhol specifically, he said, he hopes the Corridor will increase the number of local visitors.

“We get plenty of tourists, but in our cities, we are not always as aware of our local resources as our visitors are,” he said.

Mapping it out

Thursday also marks the launch of new walking maps for the corridor, which will be available online and in hard copy at all partner institutions. Corridor partners worked with the nonprofit organization Grounded Strategies to develop the maps, with Grounded also leading a survey and interviews with North Side residents to help Corridor partners better serve the community and its residents.

“There are so many great cultural destinations and activities on the North Side, that are all very close to each other,” said Max Pipman, Children’s Museum senior director of communications and visitor services. “The corridor project is about so much more than just wayfinding and locations, the program allows us to build stronger relationships with each other and in the local community.”

Steven Adams | Tribune-Review The Northside Cultural Corridor initiative aims to promote Pittsburgh’s North Side through wayfinding initiatives, collaborative outreach and joint programming.  

The Northside Cultural Corridor was created in 2019 with support from the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD). The goal is for the Corridor, inclusive of the partner institutions and surrounding community, to become a destination in and of itself through the wayfinding initiatives, collaborative outreach and joint programming.

The Mattress Factory served as project lead.

“All of our institutions are fortunate to call the North Side home,” said Mattress Factory Executive Director Hayley Haldeman. “Through this project, we hope to strengthen our connections with our neighboring communities. We are very grateful to RAD for its support of this project.”

“The value of working together is immeasurable,” Pipman said. “From building relationships to growing the audience of our organizations, this work is helping us highlight all of the programming and activities available on the North Side, and more importantly, creating more opportunity to impact not just the region, but the neighborhood directly.”

“We are very proud to be participating in the Northside Cultural Corridor and look forward to participating in future programming and working with our North Side neighbors to serve the community,” said Molly Toth, communication and content specialist at the aviary.

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---