Arts Profile: Kim Chestney Harvey

This week, we’re profiling Pittsburgh notable Kim Chestney Harvey, the Director of the Art and Technology Initiative for the Pittsburgh Technology Council.

Kim got her start as good old fashioned artist, with a background in oil painting. She moved into graphic design and became involved with the Pittsburgh Technology Council as the creative director of their magazine. When President Audrey Russo announced the new Arts + Technology Initiative last year, she was an obvious choice to head it.

As she put it, “The Arts + Technology Initiative supports regional artists, culture and commerce, and works to enhance the cultural tapestry of Pittsburgh.” One of Kim’s first efforts was to increase the amount of local art exhibited in businesses and workspaces, which was the inspiration behind the 15 Minutes Gallery (named after the famous Warholian phrase). Since last year, the Pittsburgh Technology Council has sold over 4000 dollars worth of local art by using their headquarters to advertise and exhibit artists.

Kim also organizes and hosts the Annual Arts + Technology exhibition (going on now at the Technology Council’s 15 Minutes Gallery) which works to introduce businesses to local artists of all mediums. This year, they partnered with the Carnegie Mellon CREATE (Community Robotics, Education and Technology Empowerment) Labs to work on the BurghBot Project, what she calls “a next generation manifestation of robots, something you’ve never seen before.” This intersection of art and technology had adult artists learning new techniques by programming and coding robots, and featured primarily artists from the Pittsburgh area.

Kim with CREATE Labs’ Ian Ingram.

When asked if she found forging connections between businesses and artists challenging, she replied that “It’s not that challenging, sometimes business people don’t get how art is relevant- but they realize that there isn’t going to be business in city without a strong art culture.” The Arts + Technology Initiative is definitely helping to make connecting Pittsburgh’s disparate interests easier.

Finally, we asked her about her personal tastes in art and, of course, movies. She enjoys traditional art, but feels that “new technology can add to the aesthetic experience” and anything that “creates a compelling object” is worth looking at. She also enjoyed The Piano Story which showed at the opening for the annual exhibition. As she put it, “Film is like having an opportunity to merge art and music and the dimension of time, an extra way to reach out to people and share the human condition.” She’s looking forward to the upcoming gallery crawl films, and Séraphine, showing at Regent Square at the end of July.

For more information about the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s Arts + Technology Initiative, you can visit their website. You can also see the Annual Arts + Technology Exhibition through August at the 15 Minutes Gallery. Kim can be followed on Twitter at KimChestney.

If you know of any companies doing an excellent job at combining arts and technology, the 2009 Tech 50 Awards are looking for nominations until July 9th.

A Worthy Cause: Denis Theater Foundation

It’s not every day we get the opportunity to both show support for a great arts initiative and suggest free events around town, so that’s why the Denis Theater Foundation’s Last Saturday Cinema makes us really happy.

In case you haven’t heard of the Denis Theater Foundation (and you should have), they’re a group of arts minded citizens dedicated to bringing back the Denis Theater in Mt. Lebanon. The original Denis operated as an arthouse movie theater from 1938 all the way until 2004, when it shut down. It was home to, among other notable happenings, Pittsburgh’s run of To Sir with Love. Also, it was one of the first theaters to show The Graduate before Dustin Hoffman’s break out film became mainstream.

In 2007, the Mt. Lebanon commissioner Raja bought the property, and teamed up with community leaders to form a foundation dedicated to bringing back the Denis. However, the new Denis isn’t just going to be a movie theater. The current plan is to turn the Denis Theater into a community arts center, housing classes, lectures, and showing of up and coming filmmakers work (something we’re always a fan of), in addition to independent movies. The Denis Theater Foundation wants to raise 3 million dollars to achieve this goal, and their fundraising efforts are well underway, despite the economic downturn.

This summer though, the Foundation is offering the Last Saturday film series, outside in the center of Mt. Lebanon. Films are the last Saturday of each summer month at 9, and will have all the amenities, including a covered seating area, concessions and a cash bar. They’re kicking it off with Bringing Up Baby, the Katherine Hepburn classic released the same year that the Denis originally opened. After the movie, there will be a critical discussion led by Elaine Wertheim.

If you’re interested in more about the Last Saturday Cinema series, or the Denis Theater Foundation, plenty of information can be found at their website, here.

They also have a blog, Denis Theater: Act 2. We know we’ll be sitting outside this Saturday munching some popcorn and enjoying a classic film, and hope to see you there.

Filmmakers faculty on nat’l television

Kerry Skarbakka, one of our adjunct faculty members (teaching Constructed Visions this fall) was on the Today Show on Tuesday, April 21.

Click here to see the video at MSNBC

February happenings…

Film Kitchen is coming up in a week-ish. Tuesday night (Feb. 10) marks the monthly screening-with-food even, which will happen at the Melwood screening room here at the PF facility. This month’s Film Kitchen will feature Shelter: a Squatumentary (Hannah Dobbz), Gone, and Son of Richard (both by Eddie Bursch). Admission is $5, with the reception (and food!) at 7 pm and the films starting at 8.

The film schedule for February for all three theaters, including the more romantic Sunday night series can be found here along with a brief synopsis of all movies being shown.

Other than that, class is in session and we’re hard at work up at Filmmakers, bringing in the best of independent and well-loved classics for your viewing pleasure. Hope to see you at one of the shows!

Short Films

Granted, the film festival was a few months ago, I finally remembered to come back and post a couple short films from the Symposium. These two films are part of the reason that I enjoyed the symposium as much as I did. Neither one is longer than about 4 minutes, and I hope you will take the time to enjoy them as much as all of the attendees did.

Dear, Sweet Emma

Lucky

Adventures in setting up exhibits…

Pittsburgh, 2009. Picture it. (If you know where “picture it” comes from, you’re my new hero.)

It’s 9 in the morning. 1 degree is the actual temperature. I (native Texan) am dressed in every single piece of warm clothing I own. I have on three pairs of socks, but only one pair of gloves. I begin to wonder what I’m in store for as I clear the snow off my car. I get in and let it warm up, and then I head to the gas station. I pull up to the ONLY pump on the premises that has no latch to keep the pump pumping without me having to hold it. So I stand there, in the bitter cold, waiting to fill up my SUV from empty.

10 minutes and 10 very frozen fingers later, I am in the car heading to Pittsburgh Filmmakers to meet up with my coworker. We get a quick breakfast to warm ourselves up and fortify ourselves for the work and weather. We head back to the office, load my car with pieces of art, and get directions.

As I’m getting directions (on the slowest computer on EARTH), my coworker tells me that we have one more stop in downtown. 15 minutes later, we head out with directions in hand.

Here we are, driving into downtown Pittsburgh on a Friday morning, and the temperature is barely above zero. We have directions and a vague plan. We stop in front of a gallery and load four pieces of art into my already stuffed car. We take off in the wrong direction for the Pittsburgh Technology Council. We figure out (as we are about to cross a bridge) that we’re heading in the wrong direction and make a u-turn. Finally, we find the street and make the turn.

About 5 minutes and some confused looks later, I accidentally run a red light (I blame it on the bridge) and we wind up at a dead-end street that is very obviously NOT where we are supposed to be. I turn to go around the block, and wind up at the same light I ran as a cop pulls up. I’m trying to determine if this same light is actually green while trying to decide on right or left. After a few fakes in each direction, I turn left and double back. My coworker urges me to turn around so we can try again, but every time I check my mirrors, there are at least 3 or 4 cops in the vicinity.

At this point, I’m convinced that a crazy Texan driver has been called in and all units are on the lookout for me. I’ve turned from a 25 year old film buff into that crazy grandma driver. Or perhaps, someone has seen all the oddly shaped, wrapped packages obscuring my view and called us in as art thieves, leading to not-so-subtle surveillance. Who knows? All of this is happening while we are still in downtown. We finally get turned around, but that was close to where we started. We retrace our steps and realize that the light that I originally ran is the light where I should have turned left. This time, I make the turn.

As we’re on this new street, another cop pulls up alongside me, toying with me, daring me to mess up. Thank goodness I had a navigator or I probably would have had a heart attack! At one point, we pass a right turn (and hey, the directions called for a right turn!) that didn’t have a street sign. I make a (bad) decision to turn right in the off chance this is where we are supposed to be, and we wind up in front of the jail(click on bird’s eye view for the full effect). On a very narrow street. In an SUV.

After a 4396-point turn, I manage to swing the car around and head back out. Wouldn’t you know it, as we get back onto the main street, ANOTHER cop is there ready to pick up where the first left off? We keep driving, and finally wind up in a familiar area. Realization hits us at the same time. We were maybe a mile away from Filmmakers in an area both of us knew. And it only took us about an hour and a half to finally get there!

I park (crookedly) in the handicapped space as people from PTC come out and help us unload. I check my phone and see several missed calls and texts from my boss. Thankfully my coworker reminded me to check, otherwise we would have had to repeat that trip! We unload one of the four extra pieces we picked up downtown, as it is being added to the exhibit. We are happy that the job is done, but the best part is knowing that due to the nature of the business, the exhibit won’t be set up until next week…

We almost always set up early because dear old Murphy usually tries to interfere with the best-laid plans, as this little adventure clearly shows. Oh well though…this misadventure is only an excuse to have an after-work drink and a chance to warm our frozen extremities. All of this is also EXACTLY why we expect to be seeing you at the exhibit (details below) next week!

Bear with me…

I’m slowly getting my bearings about me as the new semester (and the new year) begins. You can see where my priorities are, eh? Good…you’re smart!

I’ve been asked to pass along a little info for those of you who are still following along. Hope to see you there!

Media Arts in the 21st Century: Selections from Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ Students and Faculty

Come join Pittsburgh Filmmakers and the Pittsburgh Technology Council for this exciting show! 15 of our artists will be presenting both photographic and moving picture works highlighting the importance of art and technology in current artistic work.

The opening event is at Pittsburgh Technology Council’s 15 Minutes Gallery on January 22nd, 4:30-6:00 pm. The cost is $15 per person and includes drinks, snacks, networking, and guest speakers.

To register, call 412.918.4229 or go online at The Tech Council’s events page and look for the Council’s Art and Technology Initiative Launch Event.

Regular gallery hours are 9-5.

Pittsburgh Technology Council
2000 Technology Dr.

Pittsburgh, PA 15146

I am sure you’ve noticed…

Since the festival, things have slowed down quite a bit. Unfortunately for the blog, I’ve been caught up in the post-festival wrap-up as well as getting pertinent things taken care of at school. That economics exam isn’t the most exciting thing to post about here, so I keep all of that special econ goodness to myself.

I just wanted to let you know that with the winter break coming up, I will be on hiatus for a bit, to return in mid-January. Meanwhile, I highly recommend our holiday-ish lineup, and enjoying a few of our non-holiday screenings as well.

Happy Holidays Pittsburghers!

This month’s Film Kitchen

The showing will be at Melwood, not the Regent Square on Tuesday December 9th at 8 pm. Three short films are slated to be shown, in addition to food and a Q&A with the artists. You can read about the specific films at the Film Kitchen site.

Open house

Just wanted to get out there that this coming Thursday is the open house at Filmmakers, in preparation for next semester’s classes, starting on January 13th.

We offer classes in digital media, film, technology, and photography, and I’m sure there are more available that my brain just can’t think of.

If you might be interested in taking a class with us, please call us at (412) 681-5449 x201, and ask for Meredith.