Seeking to create platforms for conversation and education about urban art production (graffiti, street art, and muralism, among other genres), and to explore aesthetic and historical connections between post-industrial cities.
30+ Artists & Educators
15+ Workshops & Lectures
10+ Events
8+ Public Murals Painted
Hemispheric Conversations: Urban Art Project (HCUAP, pronounced, “hiccup”) seeks to create platforms for conversation and education about urban art production (graffiti, street art, and muralism, among other genres), and to explore aesthetic and historical connections between post-industrial cities. Beginning in 2016 we have sustained programming that focused on the intercultural exchange between the post-industrial cities of Pittsburgh, Chicago, and León Guanajuato Mexico.
Urban Art covers a broad range of topics and issues. We activate dialogue through a combination of educational outlets: public debates, day-long symposia, and parallel public-facing research with art production residencies and a series of youth art workshops. This approach forges a collaborative approach to making and advocating for the amplification of urban arts and artists as positive mechanisms for imagining and reimagining urban space.
These topics raise larger questions about citizens’ power in shaping their environments; about the desired image of the city we would like to see; and about questions of just development and community history and identity.
HCUAP programming is organized by Caitlin Bruce, Oreen Cohen, Shane Pilster, and Max Emiliano Gonzales in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh.
All events are free and open to the public.
