225 Stories to Celebrate: Insights Into Society and Culture

Students explore cultural oasis

The New York Times has called Pittsburgh a “gleaming cultural oasis.” Since 1997, the PITT ARTS program has been helping Pitt students to explore that oasis.

From museum visits to nights at the opera to the dazzling gymnastics of Chinese acrobats, PITT ARTS gets Pitt undergrads excited about cultural life in an urban environment. Special PITT ARTS programs like the African American Arts Project (A3P) connect students to both the arts and their own cultural heritages.
One student commented about A3P, “I have never been to a program like this before, engaging and witnessing people who are passionate about their art. It was very inspiring… .”

Through PITT ARTS’ Cheap Seats program, students buy discounted tickets to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Public Theater, and many other arts groups and troupes. And just because tickets are affordable doesn’t mean students get stuck in the nosebleed sections. Sometimes, Cheap Seats patrons of the Pittsburgh Opera end up sitting so close “they can actually watch the diva sweat when she’s singing,” says PITT ARTS director Annabelle Clippinger.

PITT ARTS’ Free Visits program enables Pitt students to visit, free of charge, such world-famous institutions as the Carnegie Museums, with their  natural history, art, and science collections; the Warhol Museum; and Phipps Conservatory, one of the few remaining great glass horticultural showcases.

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