AEU teen artist assistants Tashay and Tayshaun and Center of Life youth worked with CMU School of Architecture professor Dana Cupkova, Matthew Huber and their students on sculptures for the nursery at Hazelwood Green.
These sculptures were 3D printed using sand. The source text was generated through multiple Mad Lib sessions with youth in kindergarten through 6th grade during the Center of Life Summer Camp.
Read about the project in the Rivers of Steel newsletter.
We hosted a night of outdoor film screenings of filmmaker Tony Buba’s work! Buba joined us at the event in the Spartan Center parking lot.
We led a public art walking tour of Hazelwood, complete with a marching band! We started at the Barn Swallow in Mill Plaza and made our way along Second Avenue to the Elizabeth Street bridge and back. Our six stops each had a speaker with neighborhood connections talk about the art from their perspective.
Ceramic artist, Marce Nixon Washington was also on site sharing her ceramic knowledge and skills with a hands on take home project in the plaza.
A bunny took a ride on the back of a motorcycle to deliver Easter baskets throughout Hazelwood. This daredevil creature delivers baskets to the young and old throughout the neighborhood.
Many friends close and far supported our spring basket fundraiser by purchasing baskets for young people in the neighborhood, donating lots of candy and one extraordinary resident, David, donated drinks, chips and baskets. This is his second year of loading us up with treats and snacks to make the spring special for his neighbors. He told us he is blessed and so are we!
32 handmade eggs with words were hung up throughout the neighborhood for residents to find and use the words to write poems with. We didn’t get any poems but most of the eggs made of cardboard, paint, paper and sharpies survived a snow storm, a couple of downpours, freezing temperatures and 70+ degree sun.
AEU was awarded a mini-grant through Census 2020 and the Pittsburgh Foundation to tell the benefits of being counted as part of the Hazelwood, Glen Hazel, and Glenwood neighborhoods. We recorded a video featuring the stories of elders, the voices of youth, and shadow puppetry to illustrate the importance of the census.
Arts Excursions Unlimited presents Hazelwood Counts: a shadowy tale of numbers featuring Homer Craig
This short film will help you get to know Hazelwood resident, Homer Craig, and a little bit about the 2020 Census.
Homer Craig was born in 1939. He has been included in 8 censuses. That’s 80 years of making sure he is counted. This is important because the results of the census are used to determine how much funding local communities receive for key public services and how many seats each state gets in Congress. State and local officials also use census counts to draw boundaries for congressional, state legislative, and school districts.
For more information about the census go to census.gov.
AEU worked with Hazelwood artist Dylan Rooke on an asphlat painting project and parking lot seating at the Spartan Center, a community center in Hazelwood.
The project also includes portraits taken by photography Heather Mull. Residents from the neighborhood sat for portraits at the AEU Satellite Studio. The portraits adorn the newly created parklet featuring words describing the residents and neighborhood.
Residents were also gifted a portrait to display at home.
We missed our creative Hazelwood families during COVID-19, so after much discussion and brainstorming and making, we launched the first ever Physical Distancing Scavenger Egg Hunt.
Large paper eggs were screen printed in the studio with questions about the coronavirus written on them. The eggs were posted throughout the neighborhood for residents to find and answer during their outdoor fitness time. Participants called crew member Joey with their answers which then became a ticket to get a special visit from the Social Distancing Rabbit!
Special consideration: There are people in this video that shelter in place together so if they seem they might not be practicing six foot distancing safety do not get upset. Also, our youngest participant had some trouble with his mask staying on.
Arts Excursions Unlimited is community. To foster a sense of togetherness, while we must be apart, due to COVID-19, AEU presents: AEU Home Art Gallery!
AEU Home Art Gallery featured the work of five Pittsburgh-based artists, who were commissioned to provide content for the kit. Hazelwood residents can get to know the artists and use their artwork in the kit as inspiration to create at home.
The first kit focused on Drawing and features these artists:
Physical kits were distributed to the neighborhood in April 2020 with all of the needed materials to draw at home.
In October 2019, we celebrated the opening of the Hazelwood Community Garden, a neighborhood Play Stop in collaboration with artist Dylan Rooke!
Almost 100 residents joined a rainy, costumed parade from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh—Hazelwood to the Hazelwood Community Garden accompanied by Colonel Eagleburger’s Highstepping Goodtime Band. We celebrated the opening of the new Play Stop with music, food, and games with our partners the Family Center of Hazelwood, the Hazelwood Initiative, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and Trying Together.
