Arts & Culture

Ballet dancer strikes a pose in the Ryan Studio of the new Byham Center for Dance. A view of the Strip District of Pittsburgh can be seen through the expansive windows in the background. New Byham Center for Dance, Ryan Studio. Photo courtesy of IKM Architects.
At a Glance

  • Arts and culture are vital to the well-being of individuals, neighborhoods and the world.
  • Arts and culture enhance educational progress, civic life and economic development.
  • Arts and culture should reflect a commitment to diversity, sustainability, and equitable access to the region’s cultural resources.

Overview

The Arts & Culture Program staff seeks to help make the Pittsburgh region one of the country’s outstanding arts centers, with a populace that appreciates and participates in the arts. We embrace the ideas that arts and culture are vital to the health and well-being of individuals, neighborhoods and the larger world, and that arts and culture can enhance many aspects of a community, including its educational progress, civic life and economic development. The program’s work reflects these beliefs as well as a commitment to diversity, sustainability, and equitable access to the region’s cultural resources.

Highlighted Grantee
Three young men working around the table who are participating in the Dreams of Hope program. Youth participants from Dreams of Hope. Photo Credit: Paul Kruse
Transformative Arts Process

As part of its Transformative Arts Process initiative, the Endowments awarded seven, $10,000 grants to support teaching artist residencies at organizations in African American or distressed communities. The groups and the artists who will be working with them are: Legacy Arts Project, Toni Stowers; Assemble, Darnell Chambers; POORLAW, Blak Rapp Madusa; YMCA Lighthouse Project, James Robertson; Focus on Renewal, Trevor Miles; Garden of Peace Project, Michael David Battle; and Ujamaa Collective, Dawn Surgest.

Learn more about the Transformative Arts Process

Our grants tell the story of what we care about - people and the places where they live.

View All Grants Awarded
Program Staff

Related Strategic Areas

Creativity Learning Sustainability

The Endowments’ work in Creativity supports and celebrates the importance of creativity in all aspects of the region’s success — through its artists and cultural organizations; the quality of life in its neighborhoods; the excellence of its public realm; and the voices of its citizens as active participants in cultural life.

View Strategic Area

The Heinz Endowments’ focus on family and child well-being, holistic education and workforce readiness helps to build a community where curiosity, collaboration and innovation are encouraged and everyone has the opportunity to learn and achieve.

View Strategic Area

As part of its efforts to pursue a just and sustainable Pittsburgh, The Heinz Endowments is advancing an equitable, clean economy that protects public health and the environment, and benefits all citizens of Pittsburgh.

View Strategic Area
Arts groups mobilize to save federal funding
A show of support: The PSO earns key grants from the foundation world
Art, Edibles and Community Make Magic in a Pittsburgh Garden
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra vows to raise $75 million in next 5 years

Related News and Media

Arts groups mobilize to save federal funding

In December, City of Asylum/Pittsburgh received a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It was a big honor: The NEH awards only a few dozen grants annually. City of Asylum shelters writers

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A show of support: The PSO earns key grants from the foundation world

Three Pittsburgh foundations are providing more than $6 million in much-needed financial assistance to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. But instead of writing checks and going away, the foundations will have an important behind-the-scenes role monitoring

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Art, Edibles and Community Make Magic in a Pittsburgh Garden Art, Edibles and Community Make Magic in a Pittsburgh Garden

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 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra vows to raise $75 million in next 5 years Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra vows to raise $75 million in next 5 years

Three local foundations are giving $6.5 million to help the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra revise its business plan and broaden its base of donors so the nonprofit can achieve financial stability.

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