HCUAP street artists share color and culture with Pittsburgh

If you’ve been out and about in Pittsburgh’s East End in recent days, you may have noticed some new murals adorning previously empty walls. These new artworks emerged from the latest edition of Hemispheric Conversations: Urban Art Project (HCUAP, pronounced “hiccup”), which brought in its latest cohort of international artists from as far as 8,000 miles away.

HCUAP executive director and University of Pittsburgh communications professor Caitlin Frances Bruce says the project emerged from conversations around Pittsburgh’s fragmented street art landscape — and plentiful empty walls.

“The idea was that, if we could bring artists here that are doing more permission-based work, it might sort of expand the parameters and expand the conversation about what’s possible,” Bruce tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “There are a ton of amazing artists here, but because of the history of graffiti’s criminalization and stigmatization in Pittsburgh, those conversations haven’t been as inclusive as possible.”