From Rust Belt to arts mecca

The festival brings in European and Asian troupes to present American premières of spectacular, bizarre multidisciplinary performances. About 14,000 Pittsburghers watched a German group reenact the Titanic's sinking on a barge on the Allegheny River at midnight. Amid clownish chaos, actors constructed an 80-foot-high ship's skeleton, then collapsed the mishmash in a gush of 8,000 gallons of water, flaming rigging, and spinning firewheels.

The audience represented "a huge range of demographics, from people with Steeler vests and Pirates caps to trendy kids from the South Side. People are hungry for this kind of thing," says to Elizabeth Bradley, head of the Carnegie Mellon school of drama, She cites the need for a "mixed ecosystem" in the arts.

The positive buzz generated by unconventional arts is what people are counting on to lure the "boomerang generation" - college-educated 30-somethings who left for Los Angeles or New York - back to Pittsburgh.

By attracting younger audiences and emerging artists, they hope to achieve density, diversity, 24/7 dynamism, and participation by people of all economic and social levels. The process is intended to leaven the "graying effect" evident in most highbrow music, opera, and ballet houses.

A program called PittArts gives free tickets to the opera, symphony, and ballet to University of Pittsburgh students.

At a recent production of the Verdi opera "La Traviata," "Pitt kids" sat in $125 seats beside subscribers in ball gowns and mink coats, a fusion that energized the scene.

The Cultural Trust's approach seems to be working. One million tickets were sold in 2003 to performing-arts events in the downtown anchor theaters, which are on course to sell 1.5 million in 2004, according to Mark Weinstein, general director of the Pittsburgh Opera. Sales for cultural events are up 25 percent in the last two years, revenue is up 35 percent, and tourism has grown 20 percent. The spiffed-up Cultural District now has the largest number of theaters in a square mile outside Broadway.

Cultural tourism has contributed $65 million to the city's coffers since 1999, according to Tinsy Lipchak, Pittsburgh's director of tourism and cultural heritage. The revenue is a boon, given that the city is experiencing crisis-level budget deficits and is "nigh on to bankruptcy," as Mr. Sokolowski of the Warhol Museum puts it.

Since the recession hit in 2000 "the Cultural District has been the bright spot in the city," says Mr. McMahon.

But, as Professor Coltin points out, "it takes more than just theaters. [Long-term] success comes from artists, not from arts organizations."

If any one organization can push such a dual agenda, it's the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

"The trust is the 800-pound gorilla," says Deane Root, chairman of the music department at the University of Pittsburgh. "They have the ability to make this happen."

The trust also has the will, according to its director. Having established the Old Faithfuls of performing-arts institutions, it now seeks to ferment new growth among creative artists bubbling up below the surface.

By adding a hip overlay, Pittsburgh hopes to put to rest forever the lingering negative image of Steeltown USA - a rusty, postindustrial city eviscerated by job losses. The city has cleaned up its notoriously sooty skies and rivers and now wants to rebrand itself as a happening place for culture.

"Those who come for events are amazed. Their jaws are dropping," Professor Root says. "Word is slowly spreading."

Professor Frost-Kumpf agrees. Of the 120 designated cultural districts in the US, she considers Pittsburgh "very sophisticated" and "one of the most developed."

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