First Published: July 8, 2025, 8:27 a.m.
Southwestern Pennsylvania has always taken a leading role in building this nation. Pittsburgh anchors a region of makers and creators, resilient to challenges and responsive to possibilities, often finding an opportunity for re-invention where others see struggle.
As tourism continues to bounce back after the pandemic, leaning into this regional history as a place of innovation and craftsmanship is a distinctive opportunity for regional branding and arts tourism. But in order to keep those makers and artists here, we have to make sure they get paid.
The Pittsburgh region hosts a variety of arts development programs. From Community Forge in Wilkinsburg to Contemporary Craft in Lawrenceville and the Westmoreland Cultural Trust’s Incubator for the ARTS, regional nonprofits not only support and promote both arts and crafts, but also create spaces where aspiring makers can train and collaborate.
This of this work as bridging the gap of funding and overall support between creativity and creation — and then getting those creations to market. Part of this shift was to better compensate struggling artists after the COVID pandemic wiped out gallery shows and public festivals, places where artists and craftspeople usually sold their works or rendered their services. Nonprofits allowed many to keep their jobs by shifting them into teaching roles.
In so doing, Pittsburgh has become a hotbed for the next generation of artists and craftspeople, who engage in traditional visual and performing arts, but also folk arts and craft, including glass blowing and screen printing.
This, in many ways, marries the region’s legacy of manufacturing and craftsmanship to the arts. It’s a perfect synergy of our past and present, and one we should work to maintain into the future.
The regional tourism agency VisitPittsburgh reports that arts tourism has a huge financial impact on many businesses within the region, including those dedicated to transportation, food and beverage, recreation, retail and lodging. Almost 43,000 jobs in Allegheny County alone are directly supported by tourism. And, of course, among those who are inspired during their visits here, at least some want to stay permanently.
Growing the industry will take a collective effort, from locals buying local art and attending performances to the city government increasing public events and arts programming to the state government better promoting the film industry, while the rest of us invite our out-of-town friends for a weekend visit.
They can take in an abstract gallery show at ZYNKA in Sharpsburg, or attend a portraiture workshop at the Sweetwater Center for the Arts in Sewickley. They could enjoy everything the Cultural District has to offer, while also taking in a lecture at BOOM Concepts in Garfield.
As with so many cultural opportunities, the Pittsburgh region has far more arts development organizations than its size would suggest. That’s all the more reason to lift them up, and to use them as a selling point for curious outsiders.
Pittsburgh has a unique opportunity to emphasize its distinct culture of innovation and make our region into a unique arts and crafts destination — the city of makers we’ve always been, and should be for generations to come.
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