Thank you to everyone who helped make WAAG and the opening celebration street party a huge success!

click here for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's story and photos

WAAG would like to acknowledge the following businesses for their in-kind food, beverage, and product donations for the opening street party:  Jean's Southern Cuisine, Soul Food Connection, Mike's Corner Deli, Wilkinsburg Beverage, American Beverage Corporation, Save-A-Lot Wilkinsburg, Eat'n Park Edgewood, Hook Fish & Chicken, Giant Eagle Edgewood, and Sam's Club Monroeville.

Thanks also to Whitney Avenue Neighborhood Group and other individuals for generously donating food and beverages.

And big love to Mattress Factory for putting us out there on Twitter!!!

click on postcard images to view larger...

This summer (2010), the 700 block of Whitney Avenue in Wilkinsburg has become Whitney Avenue Art Gallery (WAAG), where blighted properties have been transformed into a temporary, outdoor art exhibit. Ten abandoned houses* have challenged artist-led community workshops to interpret the theme “Houses In Waiting.”

For each of the selected properties, plywood has been cut to size to perform the dual roles of blank canvas and of securing the windows of the houses.

Please click on Project Description for more detailed information.

*Plus one additional abandoned property on Wallace Avenue, across the street from Hosanna House, WAAG's host for the youth art workshop series.

This project was supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

Additional funding provided by Wilkinsburg Weed & Seed Initiative, Wilkinsburg Municipal Authority and Wilkinsburg Commercial & Industrial Development Authority.

Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf serves as fiscal agent.

WAAG is indebted to Whitney Avenue Neighborhood Group for their tireless efforts in landscaping the formerly overgrown yards with generous donations from Soergel Orchards & Garden Center and Garden Dreams Urban Farm & Nursery.

Thank you to Hosanna House for hosting the youth art workshop series and to Kathleen Connors and Bernard Murphy for donating a building near the project site to host the adult art workshops.

And many thanks to all the volunteers who helped make WAAG a success!

---