Initial Public Art Commissions Announced For Pittsburgh's New Arts Landing

Forbes

4 days ago

Arts Landing Pittsburgh, Aerial View. Rendering by Field Operations courtesy of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
More than a half million people are expected to descend upon Pittsburgh April 23-25, 2026, for the National Football League Draft, its annual selection of new players from the college ranks. A new public park for Pittsburgh will also be debuting next April to greet the huge crowds.
Arts Landing is a four-acre, outdoor civic space envisioned by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust centered in the city's Cultural District, a 14-block area in the heart of downtown. The $31 million park plays a key role in Pittsburgh's Downtown Revitalization Vision announced last year. That is a joint effort between city, county, state, private, and non-profit interests committing more than $600 million over the next 10 years to rejuvenate downtown.
Arts Landing's signature feature will be a one-acre Great Lawn and band shell facing the Allegheny River with sweeping views of two of the Three Sisters Bridges. Arts Landing will feature a Garden Walk, converting one block of 8th Street between Fort Duquesne Boulevard and Penn Avenue from car traffic to a tree-lined pedestrian walkway. It will create the first playground downtown along with a multi-use recreation area.
The footprint previously housed the city's red-light district and prior to groundbreaking in April of 2025 was parking lots. It is being designed by Field Operations, the landscape architecture firm best known for its work on New York's High Line, arguably America's most influential and transformative public outdoor redevelopment project of the last half century.
Arts Landing will be free and open to the public. There will be public restrooms. Festivals and performances. And, of course, art. Public art.
'What we're introducing in Arts Landing with this public art program is something that Pittsburgh hasn't had before,' Anastasia James, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Director of Galleries & Public Art, told Forbes.com. 'It is a rotating, multi-year, public art platform on a civic scale. This isn't a one-time installation, this isn't a standalone commission, it's a sustained, evolving platform that will bring new works into public life, and as such, fills a gap in our region's cultural infrastructure.' Art For Pittsburgh, By Pittsburgh
Today, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announced the first wave of public art projects which will be debuting at Arts Landing along with the park itself during the 2026 NFL Draft. The inaugural exhibition will foreground artists of global renown with strong ties to the region.
'Very early on, it became apparent to me that it was important that the inaugural presentation feature artists with strong ties to our region and to the city of Pittsburgh, artists who understand the city and whose practices reflect the complexities of our region,' James said. 'I came up through the Pittsburgh arts ecosystem myself, so I know firsthand the extraordinary talent that exists within our city. We always mention Andy Warhol as that genius who came from Pittsburgh, but there are so many more people that deserve to be spoken about with that kind of reverence.'
Yes, Andy Warhol–Andrew Warhola, Jr.–was born and raised in Pittsburgh.
Now, however, is the time for other Pittsburghers, like international contemporary art superstar vanessa german, who moved to Pittsburgh in 2000, to shine. People like Pittsburgh-based painter, sculptor, and illustrator Darian Johnson. People like the Pittsburgh-based duo Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis who have collaborated on major public commissions nationally. Multimedia artist, filmmaker, engineer, and Fulbright Scholar Mikael Owunna, who also serves as President of the City of Pittsburgh's Public Art & Civic Design Commission. Pittsburgh-based multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Shikeith. Pittsburgh-based multidisciplinary artist John Peña.
A partial list of artists selected for Arts Landing's first round of commissions.
Collectively, these projects will ensure that Arts Landing is not only a landmark for public art in Pittsburgh, but also a platform for advancing the careers of artists with deep regional connections, amplifying their work on the global stage.
'People will be excited to see their own represented on a scale like this and in a civic space. I'm hopeful that it's not only for locals, though, that it's for people traveling to the city,' James said. 'Maybe it becomes a destination where people visit the park, and maybe they've seen vanessa german's work in New York, or they've seen Thaddeus Mosley's work, and they learn this person was from Pittsburgh, they have a deeper understanding of how their work can resonate because of its connection to place.'
As divergent as the newly commissioned artworks are in scale and medium and subject, they are connected by place. By Pittsburgh.
'One thing that emerged as I've been working with (the artists), was this collective impulse to honor history, to honor the past while imagining a new future. It's because each of them has this deep relationship –whether it's personal or whether it's professional–to the region, their works really do reflect that, both materially, but also conceptually,' James explained. 'Together, the works speak of the city's ongoing evolution and the diverse communities that continue to shape it. Not one of them has an identical story of how they are tied to Pittsburgh, but there's this collective passion about engaging with the city that that I found exciting.' Thaddeus Mosley
Thaddeus Mosley, 'Gate III,' 2022. Bronze. Presented by Public Art Fund as a part of 'Thaddeus Mosley: Touching the Earth' at City Hall Park, New York City, June 3, 2025 - Nov 16, 2025. Nicholas Knight, courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY.
Arts Landing will additionally highlight works by Pittsburgh's greatest living artist, Thaddeus Mosley, in celebration of his 100th birthday in July 2026.
'Thaddeus Mosley is Pittsburgh,' James said. 'I don't think you could define a more Pittsburgh artist. Both his life and work embody the resourcefulness that I feel defines Pittsburgh.'
For more than six decades, Mosely's work has revolved around carving sculptures from fallen trees in the region.
'When you look into his biography, he, like our city, has weathered transformation after transformation, but he's remained deeply rooted. His commitment to staying in Pittsburgh has become a powerful counter narrative, especially for artists who have left, and offers this invitation for people to come back,' James explained. 'He also represents this Rust Belt Modernism that's helped define Pittsburgh's artistic identity, again, not through just what he's made, but also how he's made it. He's one of the most humble and appreciative artists I've ever worked with and I think that carries into the way that he treats his material and his respect for his hometown.'
Rust Belt Modernism. That's a cool moniker. What does James mean by that?
'When I'm thinking about Mosely's work, (Rust Belt Modernism) really ties into the story of his practice over the decades, his resilience, his dedication to material and to craft, but also bringing that urban edge to it,' she explained. 'One of the most amazing things about the sculptures that we're showing at Arts Landing is that while Moseley is known for these monumental wood sculptures, the sculptures we're presenting with Public Art Fund are all bronze, but they're so realistic, they almost feel like wood. It's transforming this natural material into this industrial material, which I think brings another exciting aspect to his work and another layer for people to engage with.'
Like coal into steel, the industrial material derived from a natural material that gives Pittsburgh–the Steel City–its globally recognized nickname. Everyone in Pittsburgh gets that.
'We exhibited a number of his bronzes last year and I always like to see how the public engages with the work. One day some steel workers walked by, and they were fascinated by the material,' James remembers. 'We had this amazing conversation about how the works were actually created. It was amazing to me that people could connect with these (sculptures) on a material level, that is very much connected to the way that they work with their hands and the way that they've experienced the industrial (legacy) of our city.'
Mosely exhibits a lasting commitment to honoring both material and place. Installed outdoors at Arts Landing, Touching the Earth invites viewers to encounter Mosley's work in direct relationship to the city and landscape that has long inspired him. 'Public Art Is Essential'
Colorful buildings of Randyland art museum in Mexican War Streets district in Pittsburgh's Northside. Pennsylvania, USA getty
Since 1984, the non-profit Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has worked to make the Steel City a place where the arts can flourish, focusing on the Cultural District. That Cultural District now represents a national model for how the arts can play a pivotal role in urban revitalization.
The arts in conjunction with green space, public space, open space, recreation, and relaxation at Arts Landing. Shade and beautification. Somewhere to sit and something to look at. Something to think about. A place to gather, to host markets and performances, free of charge, where all are welcome, every day of the year.
At a fraction of the cost of big sports stadiums or convention centers.
'The big picture objective is both simple, and ambitious. It's to create this dynamic, sustainable, evolving platform for artists to engage with the civic space in downtown, but also position Pittsburgh as a vital site for contemporary public art,' James explained of Arts Landing. 'One thing we're doing as the program evolves is beginning to establish partnerships with major public art organizations across the country, like we are with Public Art Fund for the opening of Arts Landing, which will help position Pittsburgh within this global network of cities where public art is not only supported, but it's really an essential part of civic life.'
Not an amenity. Essential. Like clean air, clean water, parks, and public transportation.
'Public art is essential, perhaps now more than ever, because it has the potential, when done well, to embody the spirit of a city and to mark everyday lives with meaning when they encounter it,' James said. 'I've been thinking about monuments. What are monuments? Not only as commemorations of the past, but markers of the present. If you think about it, public art, whether it's temporary or permanent, is a kind of monument into the moment of which it was made. So, the art that we're creating now will tell future viewers what we chose to elevate, to question, to remember, and in that way, it becomes this cultural memory in the making.'
The inaugural commissions James has chosen for Arts Landing elevate diversity race, gender, nationality, background, medium–while simultaneously centering Pittsburgh, exemplifying how Pittsburgh can remain authentic to itself without compromising wider, global ambitions or interest.
'In cities like Pittsburgh, in these post-industrial Rust Belt cities which are still evolving through industrial change, public art can play a crucial role in creating space for people to stop and to reflect on both the past and to think about transformation and imagine what those futures could look like,' James said. 'I think more so than architecture, more so than paintings and galleries, public art has that ability to engage with the public in a more meaningful way.' More From Forbes Forbes New Mayor Paul Young Putting Arts And Culture To Work For Memphis By Chadd Scott Forbes Hometown Hero Raymond Saunders Honored At Carnegie Museum Of Art In Pittsburgh By Chadd Scott