Register now for a Free Ferris Wheel Ride!
Friday, October 4, 2024 | 11:00am-12:00pm
Allegheny Landing
Play is serious business.
Play is essential to human well-being. Playful public spaces encourage people to interact with their environment and each other in new ways. Temporary activations, such as art installations and festivals, can transform familiar spaces into sites of wonder and exploration, drawing people together and sparking conversations.
Studies show that play in children reduces inequality, and fosters academic and social-emotional growth. It helps children process emotions, develop critical skills, and thrive. Adult play enhances memory and thinking skills, reduces the risk of disease, and fosters better communication and relationship health.
This conversation will explore how artful play, landscape design, community engagement through artful experiences, and ‘tough art’ installations contribute to our cognitive, social, and emotional development, and how we are highlighting the themes at Allegheny Landing.
Discover how these creative expressions can invigorate public spaces, foster community connections, and support well-being.
The first 20 registrants will receive a complimentary ride on the Pittsburgh Oktoberfest Ferris Wheel adding a playful twist to the experience!
Panelists
John Pena
John Peña is a multidisciplinary artist who makes art as a way of exploring the natural world and his daily interactions. He creates comics, sculptures, video works and public art. A few of his projects include racing with clouds, making a daily drawing about his life for the last fourteen years, and creating a site-specific artwork on the new Fern Hollow Bridge that illustrates significant water events throughout history ranging from the current day Fern Hollow Creek to the ancient sea of the Paleozoic Era.
Mindy Cooper
Mindy is a principal at dwg., an Austin-based practice with a focus on urban architectural landscapes. As a member of the dwg. leadership team, Mindy has had an active role developing the organization’s structure and strategy. Mindy leads a studio within dwg. that is focused on collaborations with public-private partnership (P3) and higher education clients. Recently completed projects include: Rainey Trailhead Park at the Ann and Roy Butler Trail (Austin, TX) and St. John Encampment Commons at Austin Community College Highland Campus (Austin, TX).
Mindy’s projects have garnered numerous Texas ASLA Honor and Merit Awards, and been recognized by AIA Austin, ULI Austin, and Austin Green Awards. She has served as chair of the AIA-Austin Urban Design Committee and as a planning committee member of the AIA-Austin Leadership Collective program. Mindy is a licensed Landscape Architect in the states of
Texas, Nebraska, North Carolina, New York and Pennsylvania. She is the 2024 recipient of the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture’s Alumni Award for the Department of Landscape Architecture. Mindy splits her time between Austin, TX and Lancaster, PA with her fiancé and their three neurotic animals.
Sallyann Kluz
Sallyann Kluz is a Pittsburgh-based arts administrator, architect, and urban designer whose practice is situated at the intersection of art and community development. With over 20 years of practice in the Pittsburgh region, her work is focused on the public realm and the people who inhabit it. Her practice includes public art programs and strategies, community engagement, design education, public space design, and neighborhood development strategies.
Prior to joining Shiftworks, she was an associate and project architect with Loysen + Kreuthmeier Architects (1998–2013), and served as an urban design, planning, and facilitation consultant in the Pittsburgh region.
Sallyann earned her Bachelor of Architecture with a Minor in Art from Carnegie Mellon University, where she has also taught urban design and architecture. A registered architect in Pennsylvania, she serves on the Board of Directors and Investment Advisory Committee of Neighborhood Allies, and on the Board of Directors of Riverlife. She previously sat on the Board of Directors of East Liberty Development, Inc., the City of Pittsburgh’s Contextual Design Advisory Panel, Community Design Center of Pittsburgh’s RenPlan Steering Committee, and the Board of Directors of the East End Food Co-op Federal Credit Union.
She lives in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh with her spouse and two children.
Jane Werner
Jane Werner’s 40+ years of museum experience includes over 3 decades at The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh as the Director of Exhibits and Programming and for the last 23 years as the Executive Director. The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh serves 320,000 visitors a year with with a program built on joy, kindness, curiosity and creativity. Program Spaces include the 80,000 square foot museum, Buhl Community Park and Museum Lab, an experimental space looking at the intersection of informal and formal educational spaces.
Matthew Galluzzo, moderator
Matthew Galluzzo has dedicated his entire career to Pittsburgh and its neighborhoods. In September 2019 he joined Riverlife as president and CEO and leads a transformative agenda for creating, activating, and celebrating Pittsburgh’s riverfronts.
Prior to Riverlife, Matthew served for 9 years as executive director of Lawrenceville Corporation, a community development corporation in Pittsburgh’s East End. In addition to facilitating over $200 million in public and private investment in the neighborhood, Galluzzo oversaw the creation and implementation of the first Community Land Trust in Western Pennsylvania, and served as the organizational lead for several catalytic neighborhood planning processes including the Upper Lawrenceville Plan and the Allegheny Green Boulevard Plan. Since he arrived in Pittsburgh, Matthew has worked as a community development professional in numerous areas of the city, including the Penn Avenue Arts District, Hazelwood, and the Northside. He has also taught as an adjunct faculty member for the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School for Community Organization and Social Administration.
Matthew has served on several boards and committees, including the URA Real Estate Loan Review Committee, the URA’s New Market Tax Credit Advisory Board, Radiant Hall Board of Directors, Sprout Fund Public Art Advisory Committee, the Carnegie Mellon Artist Incubation Advisory Committee, and the Owen Galluzzo Memorial Fund Board of Directors.
This event is a part of RAD Days, RAD’s annual ‘thank you’ to taxpayers, offering a chance to see the best of Allegheny County’s top cultural destinations free of charge. While Allegheny Landing is space that is open to the public, we are looking forward to bringing it to life in the shadow of a Ferris Wheel in celebration of this wonderful series of events.
This is one of Riverlife’s “Completing the Loop Conversations.”
These panel discussions bring together thought leaders, designers, engineers, environmental experts and artists to delve into critical themes in our work to create world-class rivers and riverfronts that belong to everyone. Set against the backdrop of our rivers, examine how innovative design and creative expression can transform urban landscapes, making them more resilient, inclusive, and vibrant.
Made possible through the generous support of the Henry L. Hillman Foundation
