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'N'Art' initiative looks to help Pittsburgh arts nonprofits recover from pandemic losses

This is the web version of N'Art's map of arts attractions in the eastern portion of the city.
Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council
This is the web version of N'Art's map of arts attractions in the eastern portion of the city.

With thousands of people still being infected weekly in Allegheny County alone, the pandemic isn’t over yet – and neither are the struggles of arts groups to win back audiences lost to the shutdown and subsequent surges.

The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, which last year pitched in with its Restart the Arts campaign, returns with an initiative called N’Art. With a program whose name plays on Pittsburghese, the advocacy group is taking a new tack to let people know about the breadth of Pittsburgh’s art scene, and encourage them to take advantage of its offerings.

The $83,000 N’Art campaign includes paid, in-kind promotions for nearly 70 local nonprofits, from art galleries to dance troupes.

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GPAC has also printed a run of four fold-out maps, each spotlighting dozens of arts groups and venues in a different section of Pittsburgh: Downtown and the north, south, and east. In all, about 140 places are represented on the maps, from the Homewood’s Afro-American Music Institute to the Carnegie Museums, in Oakland, and from Off The WALL Productions, in Carnegie, to the Pittsburgh Banjo Club, on the North Side.

“Our hope is that people in and around the city will find something new and in doing so support the arts community, because attendance is still lower than it was previous to the pandemic,” said Kristen Wishon, who manages N’Art for GPAC.

And indeed, while most performing-art troupes resumed full, indoor seasons last fall—and museums reported attendance bouncing back even sooner—many performance groups say audiences have been reluctant to return, whether because of health worries or because they are simply out of the habit.

The promotional campaign, which began in August and continues through September, includes paid placement on local news sites and blogs, as well as spots on WQED radio. While the list of promoted groups includes Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, and the Mattress Factory Museum, most are smaller, like Arcade Comedy Theater, Harambee Ujima Black Arts and Culture Association, and Pittsburgh Camerata. Wishon said GPAC prioritized small and mid-sized groups and those that serve the BIPOC and LGBTQ communities.

“We wanted to make sure that the organizations that had less capacity and less resources were really the ones that were getting the help,” she said.

The maps – GPAC has printed 3,000 total, including 750 of each part of town – will be distributed at some 230 coffeeshops, restaurants, shops, arts venues and other sites. The initiative’s web site includes digital versions.

Finally, the campaign includes oval “N’Art” stickers. Wishon said that for four weeks starting Sept. 19, anyone whom a GPAC staffer spots sporting a sticker (on their bumper, water bottle, or wherever) will be eligible for free tickets to a local arts event.

N’Art is supported by the Henry Hillman Foundation, FedEx Ground, and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

Bill is a long-time Pittsburgh-based journalist specializing in the arts and the environment. Previous to working at WESA, he spent 21 years at the weekly Pittsburgh City Paper, the last 14 as Arts & Entertainment editor. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and in 30-plus years as a journalist has freelanced for publications including In Pittsburgh, The Nation, E: The Environmental Magazine, American Theatre, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Bill has earned numerous Golden Quill awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania. He lives in the neighborhood of Manchester, and he once milked a goat. Email: bodriscoll@wesa.fm