2021 was a year of rebuilding. Though COVID-19 remains a reality, we are in awe of the perseverance of our artists. They have worked so hard to rebuild their practices after such a devastating crisis, some experiencing greatest accomplishments of their careers thus far. Our studio members, alumni, friends and family have reinforced for us the importance of art and the value of community. This year, we focused on the health and safety of our members, welcomed a new executive director, and worked to build a stronger organizational foundation so that our studios and professional development programming can continue to grow and evolve.
Thanks to generous philanthropic support, we have been able to adapt and respond to the ever-changing needs of our artist community. A few highlighted changes include:
Opening the majority of our professional development programming to the larger arts community
Adapting our programming to serve artists in both in-person and remote events based on the safety guidelines.
Addressing immediate community needs with projects like the Lawrenceville Pop-Up Market to rebuild artist’s livelihoods.
Expanding our financial assistance programs to so our studios remain accessible as artists slowly begin to see economic stability.
Additionally, we made significant progress on several key initiatives:
We reached a milestone of 245 artists served in the history of Radiant Hall.
We completed the first year of the Knotzland Residency Program, developed by Nisha Blackwell. We will be bringing the second round of artists in at the beginning of 2022.
We started the BOOM Residency in partnership with BOOM Concepts to provide a month-long residency to an BOOM artists. Started through the generosity of alumni Paige Tibbe, we have seen 3 residents this year and will continue it for 2022.
We returned to limited in-person Open Studios and Mckees Rocks had its first Open Studios Event.
We welcomed a new Executive Director, Marina Balko, as founder and former Executive Director Ryan Lammie decided to return his attention to his creative practice after putting in 10 years of leadership with Radiant Hall.
We completed a full accessibility audit of all our locations with plans to further improve locations, updating the website with accurate accessibility information, and had our first ASL interpreted group critique.
From April through October, we hosted bi-weekly pop-ups for small businesses and makers to combat the effects of the pandemic on their livelihood. Started by Rona Chang of Otto Finn in fall 2020, Radiant Hall took it over to expand its capacity and create a four location market that was able to serve up to 70 artists for some events.
We are also thrilled to announce the our youngest honorary studios members! Program Coordinator Oreen Cohen welcomed baby Daeora ESH Cohen in February, and Studio Director Seth Clark welcomed baby Willow Clark Mason in October.
Read on for more 2021 accomplishments from the Radiant Hall community…
2021 IMPACT STATS
ARTIST MEMBER MILESTONES
Selima Dawson (RH Susquehanna) and Nisha Blackwell (RH Susquehanna/Staff) participated in the CASTUS Fellowship for Minority Business Owners.
Nisha Blackwell (RH Susquehanna/Staff) was featured in a Dollar Bank commercial, a final presenter of SIX x ATE, selected for the Smithsonian Craft Optimism virtual show, and co-curated a show at the Pittsburgh Glass Center.
Reba Harmon (RH Lawrenceville) was a part of a three month residency with Alloy Pittsburgh from Rivers of Steel at the Carrie Blast Furnaces.
Heather Heitzenrater (RH Susquehanna) will have artwork on the moon. A digital copy of "Ethereal Reign" is in a time capsule on the Peregrine Lunar Lander. Heather also curated Therefore... I am at Spinning Plate that featured several Radiant Hall artists including Amanda Scuglia (RH Lawrenceville), Annie Heisey (RH Lawrenceville), Chelsea Long (alumni), Ashley A. Jones (RH Susquehanna), Paige Tibbe (alumni), Rell Rushin (RH Susquehanna), and Brent Nakamoto (alumni).
Hannah Altman (alumni) had a solo exhibition, A Permanent Home in the Mouth of the Sun at Filter Space in Chicago, IL and at AAP. Hannah was also on the Silver Eye inaugural Silver List.
Call & Response at Union Hall featured works by Annie Heisey (RH Lawrenceville) and Nicole Renee Ryan (alumni).
Samira Shaheen (RH Susquehanna) was selected for the Pittsburgh Society of Artists Annual Exhibition at the Brew House Gallery.
Works by Lacey Hall (alumni) were on view in the interior castle at Bunker Projects.
Variant Magazine highlighted a collaboration between Otto Finn / Rona Chang (RH Lawrenceville) and Safran Everyday.
Lizzee Solomon (RH Susquehanna), atiya jones (RH Lawrenceville), and Lacey Hall (alumni) were in Mirror, Mirror, a group exhibition at Pullproof Studio.
Evan Rumble (RH Lawrenceville) reflected on his experiences and observations of the education system in his solo show COMPLIANCE, COMPLACENCE, & COMPROMISE at Thoughtrobbers Gallery.
Ian Brill (alumni) guest curated This Sacred Thing at SPACE, featuring work from 37 artists, including Andrew Allison (alumni), Oreen Cohen (RH Susquehanna), William Earl Kofmehl III (RH Board Member), Dafna Rehavia (RH Susquehanna), and Susanna Weyandt (alumni).
Samira Shaheen (RH Susquehanna) and Dafna Rehavia (RH Susquehanna) were exhibited in Push and Pull, at AAP.
Lucine Marine Folgueras (RH Lawrenceville), Conor Coleman (RH Susquehanna) and Margot Dermody (alumni) were in the group show Full Circle at Concept Gallery.
Selima Dawson (RH Susquehanna) and Rona Chang (RH Lawrenceville) were part of the Style412 Showroom, a 10 week digital accelerator for Pittsburgh Fashion Brands.
Jameelah Platt (alumni) was one of three 2021 resident artists at BOOM Concepts.
Paige Tibbe (alumni) was selected for the Peter Bullough Foundation Fall 2021 Artist Residency.
Meg Dooley (alumni) had a solo show, Lost & Found at the McCandless Heritage Center.
Seth Clark (RH Lawrenceville) had work on view in Places We Could Live at Nahcotta in Portsmouth, NH.
Dana Liebermann (RH Lawrenceville) had an installation on view at the Pittsburgh International Airport.
Annie Heisey (RH Lawrenceville), Peggi Habets (RH McKees Rocks), Rell Rushin (RH Susquehanna) were part of the Face Value group exhibition at MuseumLab.
Christopher Boring (RH Susquehanna/Staff) had 30 pieces on view in Along the Path & Around the Bend at Laurel Arts, and exhibited in the 2021 Erie Art Museum Nicole & Harry Martin Spring Show.
Lizzee Solomon (RH Susquehanna) was part of the inaugural cohort of Teaching Fellows at Protohaven.
Jeffrey Fuga (RH McKees Rocks) was part of a group show, Art Equality, at The Manos Gallery.
Joe Perry (RH Lawrenceville) was part of a group show, New Appalachia Mixed Exhibition, at Vestige Concept Gallery.
Alumni Chelsea Long's solo show Spring Equinox was on display at UnSmoke Systems.
Alumni Maritza Mosquera was featured in #notwhite collective's exhibition, We Are The Global Majority, at SPACE Gallery
Alumni Shannon Pultz's latest exhibition was part of the collective Art Club2000 travels to Kunsthalle Zurich.
Alumni Nicole Renee Ryan had a solo show, Experiments in Reality, at BoxHeart Gallery.
Alumni Phillip Anthony opened Waymaker Art Gallery. 100% of all gallery sales are donated to charity.
Alumni Njaimeh Njie exhibited in Silver Eye’s Radial Survey Vol. 2, and the Mattress Factory’s “making home here” exhibition along with RH artist Gavin Benjamin.
202021: a new constellation, a public art installation in the Cultural District, celebrates the work of 12 local artists, including alumni Njaimeh Njie and LaVerne Kemp.
Peggi Habets (RH McKees Rocks) became a designer for Honest Fabric. Her watercolor florals are available as fabric for quilt panels.
Gavin Benjamin (RH Lawrenceville) was an Artist in Residence at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. Heads of State was at Haw Contemporary in Kansas City. was part of a two person show at Brandt-Roberts Galleries in Columbus, OH. was among eight artists featured in the recently published book The Money $how: Cash, Labor, Capitalism, & Collage, and was among the 2021 awardees for the prestigious Eben Demarest Fund prize.
Zoë Welsh (RH Susquehanna) started graduate school at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College to pursue a Master of Arts in Art Therapy, Emphasis in Counseling, had solo shows at Union Hall and Concept Gallery, and had work on view at the Chautauqua Institution.
Oreen Cohen (RH Susquehanna/Staff) was featured in the Shady Ave Magazine and Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle,, launched a Facebook group dedicated to supporting emerging and established artists raising families in Pittsburgh, particularly LGBTQA+, BIPOC, and poly-non-monogamous, non-traditional families, and was part of a touring exhibition, Anthropology of Motherhood. With collaborators at HCUAP, 18 CLP libraries are offering graffiti coloring books and virtual workshops. Oreen Cohen (RH Susquehanna) and business partner Alison Zapata were selected for the City of Pittsburgh's 2021 expansion of its Art in Parks program. She created a site specific public artwork for the Engineering and Mathematics building at Robert Morris University.
Dafna Rehavia (RH Susquehanna) was part of a touring exhibition, Anthropology of Motherhood, and was featured on the new Google Arts & Culture project, Pittsburgh: Proud and Powerful.
Corey Carrington (RH Susquehanna) was featured in the #notwhitecollective In-Dialogue Series presented with City of Asylum. He curated Subversion at IUP Kipp Gallery. that included atiya jones (RH Lawrenceville), and Manue AG (RH West/McKees Rocks).
atiya jones (RH Lawrenceville) was selected as a 2021 VACE Fellow, completed an installation commissioned by mossArchitects and a mural, “our grandmothers warned us”, at the Concept Art Annex. Her work “Snake Prayer (Domino)” was on view at Sidewall (Lima + Millvale, in Bloomfield) in collaboration with BOOM Concepts.
Ramon Riley (RH McKees Rocks/Staff) had a solo show, Anecdotal Evidence at PCA&M.
Frank Menchaca (RH McKees Rocks) released a new studio album, Face of An Emperor, on vinyl with a limited edition of original hand-painted art works as an encasing.
TESTIMONIALS
“Radiant Hall has made a difference for me as a writer. My residency has provided me space to be creative and productive. I love the artist energy from the other artists. Having real space to practice my writing is a real gift. Radiant Hall has been a lifeline to me during this pandemic - the support of the other residents and administration has sustained me as a poet.” - Karen Howard (Knotzland Artist-in-Residence)
“My experience at Radiant Hall continues to be a wonderful one. I moved from Singapore last year knowing very few people in Pittsburgh. Having a studio at Radiant Hall has enabled me not only to find a safe, convenient and affordable space for my art practice, but also provided a feeling of belonging within a local community of artists. The staff and the artists have been extremely welcoming, helpful, and generous with their time. I absolutely love working at my studio and look forward to the interactions and exchange of ideas.” - Sukeshi Sondhi (RH Lawrenceville)