“It only takes one spark to change a child’s life,” says Jo Ellen Parker, president and CEO of Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, “and those kinds of transformational moments happen every day at Carnegie Science Center.” It’s only appropriate, then, that the $34.5 million campaign to expand the Science Center’s educational reach and regional impact be called the SPARK! Campaign. At its April 19 public launch, museum leaders announced the campaign had already raised $26.5 million— 77 percent of goal. The Science Center plans to grow its acclaimed science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programming, and build a three-story Science Pavilion featuring 6,000 square feet of STEM Learning Labs and a 14,000-squarefoot Special Exhibitions Gallery for world-class changing exhibitions. Other projects of the SPARK! Campaign include two new permanent exhibitions, a new giant-screen digital theater, renovations to current exhibitions, and endowment.

“We’re thrilled to be so close to achieving our goal of creating the next-generation Science Center,” says Ron Baillie, The Henry Buhl, Jr., Co-Director of Carnegie Science Center.

The Science Center’s commitment to STEM learning and career awareness is something shared by the entire region, says Jerry MacCleary, president of Covestro LLC, which made a lead gift to the campaign. “If we intend to keep Pittsburgh at the forefront of technology and innovation, then we need to ensure the next generation is prepared to succeed in the STEM fields,” MacCleary says. “Carnegie Science Center has established itself as a leader in advancing STEM education. While all sectors of the community can contribute to the effort, the Science Center will always be a critical part of the equation.”

More than 120 foundations, businesses, and individuals have made SPARK! pledges so far, including the DSF Charitable Foundation, which made the largest gift to date of $5 million. Others who made lead gifts of $1 million or more are Allegheny Health Network, Bob and Irene Bozzone, Suzy and Jim Broadhurst, the Buhl Foundation, The Burke Foundation, Eden Hall Foundation, The Grable Foundation, The Rossin Foundation, and Thomas and Alba Tull. “We applaud and thank the many who have stepped up in such an enthusiastic way to support the SPARK! Campaign,” says Suzy Broadhurst, campaign chair and a life trustee of Carnegie Museums. Broadhurst was a member of the volunteerleadership team that planned the opening celebration of Carnegie Science Center 25 years ago.

Imagine being 15 years old and creating a prosthetic hand for someone missing fingers at birth or as a result of war or disease. That’s what local students are doing thanks to a partnership between Carnegie Science Center’s Fab Lab and e-NABLING the Future, a global community of more than 1,500 members who collaborate to make free 3D-printed prosthetic hands. Over the past few months, the team at the Fab Lab, the Science Center’s popular new maker space, has been training young people ages 14-21 to fabricate the parts for the prosthetics. In June, those same students will lead a group of community volunteers in assembling them. The project is being funded by the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board.

The Andy Warhol Museum has welcomed its new Milton Fine Curator of Art, José Carlos Diaz, whose background is described by Warhol Director Eric Shiner as “global in outlook, and eclectic and thought-provoking in content.” Before joining The Warhol on May 16, Diaz was curator of exhibitions at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, Florida, where he commissioned new art projects by Athi-Patra Ruga, Jérémy Gobé, and Sylvie Fleury, and curated the traveling exhibition GOLD. Prior to joining the Bass, Diaz worked at Tate Liverpool and served as project coordinator for the 2010 Liverpool Biennial. “Moving to Pittsburgh fits with my natural gravitation toward culturally rich communities with a focus on the arts,” Diaz says. “I look forward to working with Eric Shiner and the museum’s outstanding team.”

"It was fantastic. Not only [Teenie Harris'] work, but the stories behind his work. ...This is what emotional intelligence is about right here. What he turned out is inbelievable great." - Michael Keaton, a photography lover who had long been curious about the work of fellow Pittsburgher Charles “Teenie” Harris. During a February visit, Keaton explored Carnegie Museum of Art’s collection of 70,000-plus Harris images.

In a first-of-its-kind report examining the long-term impact of teen art programs, a whopping 75 percent of respondents rated their teen art-making experience as the most positive influence on their lives, surpassing family and school. Four museums— The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles—commissioned the study as a way to assess the effectiveness of their longstanding teen offerings.

A digitally-rendered view of the titanosaur skull reveals the size and placement of its brain. Witmer Lab, Ohio University

Even for seasoned dinosaur hunters, it’s the kind of discovery that almost never happens: a nearly perfectly-preserved skull. Rubén Martínez of the National University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco made the “once in a lifetime” find in southern Argentina 19 years ago. And after years of analysis by a scientific team that included Carnegie Museum of Natural History paleontologist Matt Lamanna, on April 26 the world learned what the scientists had discovered: an entirely new species of long-necked dinosaur, named Sarmientosaurus musacchioi—a member of the titanosaur family, which includes the world’s largest land animals.

“To truly understand a creature, you need to have its head,” says Lamanna, who joined Martínez in publishing their findings. “Because titanosaur skulls are super rare, lots of important aspects of how these dinosaurs lived and behaved have really been anybody’s guess.” Until now. After performing a CT scan of the 25-pound skull, the scientists learned a lot about what went on inside it, and what made this 95-million-yearold titanosaur tick. They were even able to deduce the vision of Sarmientosaurus and its ability to hear low-frequency airborne sounds outstripped those of most other sauropods; also, based on the balance organ of the inner ear, the animal probably lumbered with its snout facing down.