Monongahela Monster, by Blaine Siegel. One of the giant inflatable creations that will help spread the word about Pittsburgh Roars.

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Starting in March and continuing through November 2006, Pittsburgh’s arts, cultural, and family attractions are making some noise through special programs—many of them animal-themed—that are all part of a unique regional celebration called Pittsburgh Roars. The message is simple: Get out and have a roaring good time!     By Betsy Momich

This past winter, the thunderous roar of Pittsburgh Steelers fans pretty much overtook the country. It’s a familiar sound in Pittsburgh; and, true to form, it’s never totally quieted, even during some of those less momentous football seasons.

But there are a lot more things to make noise about in Pittsburgh. That’s the whole point of an eight-month regional celebration called Pittsburgh Roars, which launches in March. More than 60 organizations—including many of the region’s cultural, educational, and entertainment attractions—have signed up to be a part of Pittsburgh Roars. Its goal: to package the many offerings of the region in a way that encourages more local residents to get out and about over the next eight months, and to bring more out-of-towners into the city that roars with culture, beauty, and fun.

Appropriately, Pittsburgh Roars will kick off where the idea for it all began—with Fierce Friends: Artsts and Animals, 1750-1900, which opens to the general public at Carnegie Museum of Art on Sunday, March 26 (Carnegie Museums members get a private preview the day before). It’s the second collaboration between Carnegie Museum of Art and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and the Pittsburgh show will be the only U.S. viewing of Fierce Friends (see cover story, page 16). In Amsterdam, where the exhibition opened in 2005, reviews have been nothing short of glowing. “Fierce, fabulous, and fantastic,” is how the London Telegraph described the exhibition.

It was during the early planning stages of Fierce Friends that the show’s animal theme got Richard Armstrong, The Henry J. Heinz II Director of Carnegie Museum of Art, and Bill DeWalt, Director of Carnegie Museum of Natural History, thinking about using Fierce Friends as a lynchpin for companion exhibits at Carnegie Museums (see Director’s Note). But why stop there?

Enter the Richard King Mellon Foundation, which donated a lead gift to create something that would be bigger than any one organization or any one exhibit. Since that initial donation, Pittsburgh Roars has raised enough to fund a marketing campaign that will promote the many
special activities happening in the region through the fall of 2005. Michael Watson, senior vice president of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, is co-chair of Pittsburgh Roars, along with Suzy Broadhurst, director of corporate giving for Eat‘nPark Hospitality Group and chair of the Board of Trustees at Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.

In late 2005, The Sprout Fund stepped in to help make Pittsburgh Roars an even bigger splash, sponsoring a public art contest to create 10 large-scale works of temporary public art that could serve as giant symbols of the Pittsburgh Roars campaign throughout the city. The juried Sprout Public Art project commissioned local and regional artists to design inflatable art objects representing individual interpretations of Pittsburgh Roars. The chosen pieces of art will be monumental in size—20 to 30 feet tall—but also portable, creating opportunities to display them together or individually, inside or outdoors, at Pittsburgh Roars sites throughout 2006. The public will be able to follow the routes of the inflatables on the Pittsburgh Roars website.

So expect to run into some colorful, inflatable creatures this summer: at downtown parades; near major bridges and highways; and outside or on top local buildings, serving as rotating "markers" that designate sites of participating Pittsburgh Roars activities. Expect, also, to hear more about all that the region has to offer its visitors and its residents. And expect to have some fun in the city that roars.

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