Some of recorded interviews are with local arts figures, from the top: Vernell Lillie, Carol Brown, Demetria Gibson-Bocella, Michele de la Reza, and Barbara Luderowski.

Pittsburgh's arts and cultural scene has been carrying the standard for the city's economic development for years, but it has another aspect worth bragging about: a significant number of women in leadership roles.

The city lags behind the national average of women in executive roles at public companies -- holding 10.9 percent of the jobs, to the nation's 15.6 percent -- but makes a much better showing in the arts. Almost 60 percent of executive roles at Pittsburgh's cultural organizations are filled by women, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette study last year.

To celebrate that success -- and keep it percolating -- the New Hazlett Theater on the North Side is holding a festival called "Women in the Arts: Founders, Pioneers, Instigators," which begins with a fund-raiser June 13. The yearlong festival will continue with a multi-day symposium in September and performances in September, November, January and February.

The fund-raiser will celebrate 36 leading women in Pittsburgh's art scene with the release of a DVD of interviews with the group: Hazlett director Sara Radelet randomly off paired the women over four sessions in April, filming while they interviewed themselves.

In talks with women leaders from their 20s through their 80s, themes emerged about Pittsburgh as a supportive environment for accomplishing things in the arts, Radelet said, as well as what people did individually to persevere.

"If you look at a lot of the women leaders in the arts in Pittsburgh, it's vision plus dogged determination and optimism. It's all there," says Heinz Endowments arts and culture director Janet Sarbaugh, in an interview with Children's Museum of Pittsburgh director Jane Werner.

"Courageous and tenacious but without ego, that's a characteristic of a lot of the women in the arts in Pittsburgh and all over the place."

Arts patron Jane Arkus, in an interview with Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts Dean Hilary Robinson, says, "We caught the attention of people in a power position and made a big noise. ... It's very satisfying to have people come to you for what they think are all the answers, which you don't have, but what you can do is prod and probe and help generate answers."

Besides celebrating the women in leadership roles, Radelet is hoping to support and teach new women leaders. The September symposium will include workshops on demanding equal salaries as men, how to start arts organizations, grant writing and other skills. Hazlett officials will be working with artist Grisha Coleman -- who is performing in September -- to package her show "echo::systems" for touring to theaters in other cities.

Radelet also hopes Pittsburgh women will do some "conspiratorial elbow-rubbing" and will network during the series.

"In the bigger picture and the context of younger people contributing to the arts in Pittsburgh, they can get value from interacting with people who've been around the block," she said.

The New Hazlett Theater, the former home of Pittsburgh Public Theater, reopened in September through a partnership between the Andy Warhol Museum and the Children's Museum. The theater plans to program similar, themed festivals every year.

Tickets for a VIP reception June 13 at the Hazlett are $200, followed by a party at the same venue for $55. Tickets are available at www.proartstickets.org or 412-394-3353.