Creative collaboration

Nonprofit to offer more art, concerts Downtown

Public art projects, maker spaces and a weekly concert series are among the initiatives the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership will bring to the city in 2018, the nonprofit announced Wednesday.

The organization, whose mission is to improve the quality of life for residents, will amp up its programming in the city — which, coincidentally, is a contender for Amazon’s second headquarters — after holding focus groups and meetings with city leaders throughout 2017.

The partnership also elected real estate developer Lucas Piatt as its new chairman Wednesday. He had recently served as vice chair.

This year’s plans are centered on making Downtown community spaces into areas that “inspire creativity and collaboration,” according to a news release from the organization.

Expanding on a 2017 initiative that linked local makers with exhibition opportunities, the PDP plans to buy a small building on Liberty Avenue to renovate into a curated retail showroom and maker space.

Downtown also will be host to three new public art projects in 2018, including a large-scale installation that will bring the experience of New Amsterdam to Market Square. Beginning in April, Ball-Nogues Studio’s “Amsterdam Island Antipode” will allow visitors to climb and explore a model of the small island, which is in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Also in 2018, an art project

will turn the alleyway segment of Garrison Place between Exchange Way and Liberty Avenue into an imaginary underwater future world of big data, according to the PDP. A few blocks away at Strawberry Way near Mellon Square, a new mural will be developed by local artist Julie Mallis.

The organization, which has been involved in a collaborative project to improve the city’s music scene, will put on some concerts of its own this year, expanding its SaturdayNight Market into a 25-week music series. Raelyn Nelson, granddaughter of Willie Nelson, will open the free series May 12, with a full lineupexpected soon.

Perhaps riding through the PDP’s events this year will be Lord Stanley, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police’s newly named police horse. He was named by the partnership, which held an online competition to solicit names from the community.