Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Media Contact:

Diana Roth, Senior Communications Manager
roth@trustarts.org | 412-471-8717

Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival 2020: People’s Choice Award
 

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

Announced People’s Choice Award Recipient

For the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival 2020

Transverse: Juried Visual Art Exhibition

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has announced this year’s recipient of the People’s Choice Award, given to an artist by way of Festival attendees’ most-popular vote, as part of the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival (held virtually June 5-14, 2020) - Juried Visual Art Exhibition, is Douglas J. Webster for his painting, Encore.  The artist’s drawings are created using soft pastels on suede board.  Mr. Webster was also one of four artists in the Exhibition who received a Juror’s Award for his artwork, and was a scholarship recipient, one of 10 artists, as an Emerging Artist in the Artist Market, doing business as Bezaleel Studios from Pittsburgh.  For more information and to connect with Douglas J. Webster: Facebook and Instagram.

This year, due to unprecedented circumstances related to the global pandemic, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust conscientiously made the decision to bring to the community the 61st annual Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival (June 5-14, 2020) through a digital platform that honored the community and artists, and to serve as a world-class Festival model for other organizations and similar festivals.  This unique 10-day virtual Festival was open at all hours for everyone and all ages, bringing tens of thousands online to be part of immersive art experiences that continued the Festival’s legacy of celebrating music, art, creative activity, food, visual art, public art, one-of-a-kind artistic projects, and more. 

As part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s mission and goals, free and open to the public programs such as the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, envision our region as a place where impactful, artful experiences contribute directly to the quality of life for everyone and are embraced as essential for the entire community.  This vision for the Festival also embraces art experiences as a safe place for the open exchange of creativity and dialogue, ideas and participation.

In addition to the Juried Visual Art Exhibition and the Artist Market, the 2020 Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival included digital programming components: Digital Stages: Dollar Bank Digital Main Stage and 24/7 Stage; Compass Roses Maps by Artists (immersive public art project); Anthropology of Motherhood: Culture of Care, Public Art in the Cultural District, Creative Activities, Film and Food.   In total, the 2020 Festival featured 500 artists, across the various genres.  The Festival was virtual.  The art was real!

About the Transverse: Juried Visual Art Exhibition

  • This year’s artists had already been juried into Transverse: the Juried Visual Art Exhibition prior to the onset of the pandemic. Showcasing their work, even without a physical exhibition, was a key motivation for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust while developing this virtual Festival experience.  All of the juried works chosen for this year’s exhibition were announced the first weekend of the 2020 Festival, and on view through June 14. 
  • Transverse, the theme given to artists during the October 2019-January 2020 open application period, was about art having the power to offer new ways of seeing and experiencing our world. The exhibition sought submissions of work “exploring ideas about altered realities, utopias, and challenging the status quo.”
     
  • Out of hundreds of submissions, 51 works by 40 artists were selected by a panel of four jurors, showcasing exceptional new art (never exhibited in Pittsburgh) by regional artists (within 150 miles of Pittsburgh).
     
  • The esteemed 2020 jury panel featured Richard Hylton, Exhibition Organizer, Lecturer, and Writer; Dan Leers, Curator of Photography at Carnegie Museum of Art; Lise Ragbir, Writer, Curator, and Gallery Director; and Jessie Rommelt of Bunker Projects.
     
  • For the first time ever, each artwork was displayed on its own custom-built web page. These new pages featured photo(s) or video of each piece, a description of the work from the artist, links to purchase the work, optional audio recordings from the artists reflecting on their work, and a button for Festival-goers to vote (one time) for a specific piece as their selection in the People’s Choice Award.  The artist whose work has the most votes receives a $500 cash prize.

About the Artist Market

  • This year, all 350 artists from cities and states across the country appeared simultaneously on the digital Festival grounds, Artist Market, for the full ten days, June 5-14, 2020.  This online footprint maximized the audience for every artist, and a custom-designed map organized by art medium, provided convenience to all Festival visitors, with access to contacting each artist to view and purchase items.

About the Emerging Artist Scholarship Program

  • Established in 2002, the Emerging Artist Scholarship Program of the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival provides individuals with little to no experience exhibiting in festivals the opportunity to take an important first step towards a future in fine art and craft shows. The program supports the growth and longevity of fine arts and fine crafts in the Pittsburgh region with a special devotion to introducing new art forms to the Festival and new audiences to emerging artists.

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Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival (61st year in 2020), a production of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, is a 10-day celebration of the arts in downtown Pittsburgh unlike any other in the nation.  Dollar Bank has been a long-time supporter of the Festival, and became the title sponsor in 2010.  This world-class, multi-disciplinary Festival is free to attend and open to the public. Attracting nearly 500,000 visitors annually, the Festival begins on the first Friday in June and takes place at the confluence of Pittsburgh’s famed three rivers in Point State Park, throughout picturesque Gateway Center, and in the city’s renowned Cultural District. The Festival’s loyal visitors have enjoyed an extensive array of music, dance, theater, literary arts, public art, gallery exhibitions, and an Artist Market featuring 300+ artists from around the country.  The Festival is also the recipient of several distinguished green initiatives awards.
TrustArts.org/TRAF

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has overseen one of Pittsburgh’s most historic transformations: turning a seedy red-light district into a magnet destination for arts lovers, residents, visitors, and business owners.  Founded in 1984, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is the cultural and economic revitalization of a 14-block arts and entertainment/residential neighborhood called the Cultural District.  The District is one of the country’s largest land masses “curated” by a single nonprofit arts organization.  A major catalytic force in the city, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a unique model of how public-private partnerships can reinvent a city with authenticity, innovation and creativity.  Using the arts as an economic catalyst, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has holistically created a world-renowned Cultural District that is revitalizing the city, improving the regional economy and enhancing Pittsburgh’s quality of life.  Thanks to the support of foundations, corporations, government agencies and thousands of private citizens, the Trust stands as a national model of urban redevelopment through the arts.
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