A four-acre space for gatherings, art, as well as events welcomes visitors beginning next week. Arts Landing, a multi-use civic space, stretches from Penn Ave. to Fort Duquesne Blvd., filling a sizable city block with shared, public amenities.
Arts Landing in Downtown Pittsburgh Opens Ahead of the NFL Draft
Pittsburgh’s new green-space Arts Landing was officially unveiled on Friday morning (April 17) ahead of the Pitt Block Party at Arts Landing, an NFL Draft-adjacent event set for April 23-25.
“Pittsburgh is on the rise, and this is just the beginning,” Governor Josh Shapiro said at the ribbon-cutting event. “We’re going to keep investing in Downtown. We’re going to see these projects through to the end, and then we’re going to start new ones in their wake. I believe the future of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania is bright.”
A Space with Its Heart in the Arts
The centerpiece of Arts Landing, the Dollar Bank Stage, will serve as the mainstage and also permanent home of the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival starting this year. ( They will announce a full schedule of concerts as well as events in May.) Closer to Penn Avenue, the Grable Playground — with “artist-inspired” equipment — is the first public playground in the Golden Triangle. The Giant Eagle Foundation Backyard, an area for casual gatherings featuring picnic tables, overhead lighting and public games, will also join the space in June.
Public art installations, featuring pieces by Pittsburgh-based artists, can be found throughout Arts Landing. Most notably, the site features Touching the Earth, a series of eight bronze sculptures by New Castle-born artist Thaddeus Mosley; the influential sculptor, also a lifelong Pittsburgher, died in March at age 99.
Arts Landing expects other amenities, including pickleball courts in the adjacent Highmark Courtyard and a Visitor Center (featuring public restrooms and 24-hour security staff) to be complete in the coming months.
“I really think this is a part of a movement — a movement where we’re all coming together and building the Pittsburgh that we want, that we desire, that we deserve,” Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato said at the ribbon-cutting event. “It is really amazing to see this work manifest.”
A Soft Opening Ahead, Leading to the Arts Festival
The first public opportunity to visit Arts Landing will come during the NFL Draft, as the University of Pittsburgh hosts the Pitt Block Party at Arts Landing from April 23-25. The event, which runs from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. each day, will feature DJ sets and live music, an interactive Pitt Football museum, family activities, a gaming tent and more.
A soft opening begins in May, at which time they will remove the fencing around the site and then Arts Landing will be accessible to the public. (Final landscaping and projects will be ongoing.) The formal opening will coincide with the Three Rivers Arts Festival, scheduled to take place from June 5-7 and 11-14.
Speaking of the intersection of art and local investment, Mayor Corey O’Connor said, “That’s what we want to capture in Pittsburgh — tell our story about arts and culture, and things that we have that we take for granted. And the whole world is about to see it.”
Story and Photography by Sean Collier
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