Cultural Trust’s Virtual Gallery Crawl Brings ‘A New Constellation’ Online and to Cultural District

Colorful contemporary art embroidered canvasses by Charmette Young are part of ‘202021: a new constellation.’

Art. Camaraderie. Communal cheese plates. All hallmarks of the quarterly Gallery Crawls in the Cultural District. The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust began them in 2004, but the pandemic postponed them last year. The crawl returned March 26, 2021, albeit as the Gallery Crawl in the Cultural District: Virtual Edition (and sans cheese). 

The virtual crawl has three “stops.” The first is 202021: a new constellation, curated by Tereneh Idia. Some Indigenous communities, such as the Incas, created constellations out of the darkness between the stars. Similarly, the space between this installation and the viewer “creates a new celestial body; a ground constellation; a space for celebration of Black creativity and people,” according to the Cultural Trust. 

This fashion exhibit by Patrice Jones, founder of Thrift Out Loud fashion, is inspired by August Wilson’s ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ and is at 821 Penn Avenue.

202021 can be experienced four different ways. Patrons should mask and social distance as they walk outside through the Cultural District to view work by the installations’ twelve Black Pittsburgh-based artists; the mediums range from video to vintage clothing, and a map of the installation is online. A virtual exhibition includes photographs and audio commentary. There’s also a time-lapsed video walkthrough. Finally, patrons can register for a lunchtime talk with Idia and some of the artists on Friday, April 9.

The second stop will spotlight local artists via two live-streamed, behind-the-scenes events on April 16 and April 30. Patrons can also purchase artists’ work. 

For a glimpse of the third stop, check out the SPACE Gallery windows for phase one of We Are the Global Majority by the #nonwhite collective. The virtual component, which begins May 14, will allow patrons to meet the collective before the full exhibit opens in-person June 4. This will be the first in-person gallery opening since the beginning of the pandemic. (More information on stops two and three is forthcoming.) Cultural District. 

Bekezela Mguni’s poster art can be seen along Penn Avenue.

Photos courtesy of Seth Culp-Ressler and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

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