Photos: Courtesy VisitPittsburgh; Andy Warhol, Heinz Box, 1964, silkscreen ink on synthetic polymer paint on wood, ©AWF
Lifting her heavy steel industry skirts with an unusually colorful display, Pittsburgh is celebrating her 250th birthday this October with light, light, light! And, for her age, she looks pretty good, too. Since the metalworking industry collapsed and its accompanying pollution dissipated, Pittsburgh snagged Forbes' rating at 10th Cleanest City in 2007.
The Pittsburgh 250 Festival of Lights, which runs from October 10th to November 20th, invites international artists and lighting designers to light up Downtown building facades from hotels and historic sites to churches and synagogues. Like playing Lite-Brite with the city grid, almost.
In addition to the Festival of Firsts, which brings a handful of internationally-acclaimed arists like the Ballet Maribor and Teatro de los Sentidos (Theatre of the Senses) to Pittsburgh from October 10th to 25th, also check out the Andy Warhol Museum. Up on the historically German Northside, the museum is opening a special exhibit called 1958 that documents the city's 150th birthday year through ephemera from the year Elvis went to the Army and De Gaulle and Krushchev found power -- and through works by Andy Warhol, of course.
