Art component aims to highlight Pittsburgh's annual Garbage Olympics
A new art contest is looking to draw additional interest in Pittsburgh’s Garbage Olympics.
The Garbage Olympics — an annual litter pickup event that pits neighborhoods against one another to compete to see which community can clean up the most trash — takes place Sept. 13, a Saturday.
The inaugural Garbage Olympics art contest encourages anyone — children or adults — to submit original artwork celebrating their communities or imagining what their neighborhood could look like tomorrow.
“It’s just really trying to grow interest and engagement with folks in the communities,” Garbage Olympics event organizer Renee Robinson told TribLive. “We just want people to think about ways they can contribute to their neighborhoods.”
Submitted artwork will be displayed at the Garbage Olympics Closing Ceremonies at Velum Fermentation in the South Side neighborhood and featured in bus shelters throughout the city after the event.
Only original artwork can be submitted, with artificial intelligence-generated art prohibited. Submissions can include digital or physical media, but must be two-dimensional.
Art can include photos, spray paint, ink or other mediums. Pieces should be 11 by 14 inches and oriented horizontally.
The deadline for submissions is Sept. 4. Art can be submitted online or at Maria’s Ideas Art at 1705 Arlington Ave.
People who need art supplies to participate can pick up art kits at the Maria’s Ideas Art studio during regular business hours, which run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday and noon till 6 p.m. on Thursday.
The Garbage Olympics last year drew participants from 52 neighborhoods.
“It keeps growing, which is a good thing,” Robinson said.
Community groups and residents throughout the city already were working to collect litter and clean up their neighborhoods, even before the Garbage Olympics launched in 2017, Robinson said.
The goal of the Garbage Olympics, she said, is to coordinate those efforts and encourage people to participate in a larger clean-up day once a year.
“People are already engaged,” she said. “We created a format to make sure it’s all the neighborhoods doing it at the same time.”
Julia Burdelski is a TribLive reporter covering Pittsburgh City Hall and other news in and around Pittsburgh. A La Roche University graduate, she joined the Trib in 2020. She can be reached at jburdelski@triblive.com.
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