Preserving Wilkinsburg's Art-i-facts
Wilkinsburg's WPA Mural, Civil War Flags and Penn Lincoln Highway Statue of Abraham Lincoln
are the Art-i-facts that connect people across time and place, hopes and dreams.
Leader
Jody Guy
Location
605 Ross Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15221
About the project
The preserving Wilkinsburg Art-i-facts project will:
protect threatened cultural treasures,
foster pride in U.S. heritage;
educate citizens about our nation's cultural legacy;
raise concern for the urgent preservation needs of nationally significant artifacts.
Wilkinsburg history can be seen at the Wilkinsburg Borough Building as you climb the stairs between the second and third floors, where the W.P.A. artist Harold Carpenter has painted the Borough's history entitled "The History of Wilkinsburg". This 1940 mural depicts a vast panorama of First Nations trappers, Sam Rippy's famous tavern, houses of worship all the way to the Westinghouse bridge, plant, and belching smokestacks of the Carnegie-Illinois plants in Rankin and Braddock in the distance. There is a layer of dust and dirt on the surface; the varnish has discolored, and there are a number of abrasions that require expert attention.
The artifacts from Major W. G. Lowry Post #548, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), Wilkinsburg chapter, are also located in the same Borough Building stairwell. GAR was a Veterans association for the men who served in the Union Army during the Civil War in the 1860s. The GAR posts initially began in 1866 after the Civil War ended and veterans needed an organization to share stories and help one another.
The Steps
November 15 2018 Close of IOBY
February 2019 Save America's Treasures National Endowment for the Humanities grant due date
June 2019 - July 2019 Restoration work on the WPA Mural
July 2019 - tbd Restoration on Civil War artifacts
Why we‘re doing it
The Art-i-facts restoration project, a collaboration between the Wilkinsburg Historical Society, the Wilkinsburg Borough and Center for Civic Arts, falls within the context of
other renovations to the Wilkinsburg iconic train station, and to the Borough Building facilities. The Art-i-fact preservation effort will demonstrate that
Wilkinsburg can change public perception that our identity is blighted, instead of bright. We will do this by building on valuable community assets that are in danger of
deterioating from environmental conditions that are not that hard to correct. The Art-i-facts project will not only preserve and showcase Wilkinsburg's history, but also
showcase the contributions that Wilkinsburg has contributed to the greater good. Before the damage of age can no longer be reversed, we need to act now!
But we need your help.