This year's Three Rivers Arts Festival footprint combines familiar sites with new additions. Some streets bordering the central festival area will be closed daily, with additional closings on weekends. Here's where the main programs will be:
DUQUESNE LIGHT ARTISTS MARKET
Approximately 300 artists from across the United States and as distant as Hungary and Israel will appear over the course of the festival in Gateway Center Plaza. There are three separate weeklong sessions that swell over the weekends with new additions. New artists arrive June 1, 6, 8, 11 and 15. Seven Emerging Artists will also sell their works this year, on various festival dates. Open noon to 8 p.m.
'MAKE IT HAPPEN!'
Programming on an Artists Demonstration Stage from noon to 8 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays at Gateway Center Plaza. Included will be silk-screen printmaking by Artist Image Resource, vessel turning by Woodturners Anonymous and flameworking by the Pittsburgh Glass Center. Festival-goers may paint banners with the Steel Valley Trail Council to welcome riders of the sixth annual Greenway Sojourn, biking from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh.
DUQUESNE LIGHT ART MART
Children sell their handiworks from 1 to 3:30 p.m. June 9 at Gateway Center Plaza.
HOT GLASS ROADSHOW
The Hot Glass Roadshow of the Corning Museum of Glass, New York, showcases master glassblowers demonstrating their craft, noon to 8 p.m. June 16 and noon to 6 p.m. June 17, at Gateway Center Plaza. Co-presented with Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass!
'THE MAGIC GARDEN'
The Family Festival, which has moved to Four Gateway Center Plaza, will feature four activity areas: Tinker's Grove, Buggy Bog, the Botanist's Nook and Ballyhoo Bridge. Steve O'Hearn, co-founder and artistic director of Pittsburgh's Squonk Opera, has created an interactive 20-foot-high sculpture for the Grove. In the Nook, children learn about leaves, then make some to add to a tree canopy. In the Bog, butterflies emerge from chrysalises as their life cycles are illustrated, and children make bug puppets and wearable art. Storytellers, magicians, songsters and performers appear in the Ballyhoo area (see times in the performance schedule). And WQED sponsors PBS's Miss Lori to help children navigate the world around them through art, song, dance, storytelling, humor and advice. Open noon to 7 p.m. daily.
'BEST OF PITTSBURGH 2007'
In its fourth year, the re-formatted visual-arts exhibition, curated by Katherine Talcott, has moved to the PPG Wintergarden. Forty-five artists from Pittsburgh and the surrounding 16 counties present a variety of media including painting, photography, video, glass, sculpture, drawing and mixed media. Open noon to 8 p.m. daily.
'MARKET SQUARE'
The public art project, "a site-specific performative installation" by Brett Yasko, will take place in the site of its title. Yasko based his work on overheard conversations of people who use the Square. At noon daily, he'll display an excerpt from these transferred to a "low-tech message board" in the spot where the conversation occurred. At 4 p.m. Yasko will switch the board, with a different text, to a new location. Open noon to 8 p.m. daily.
'THE THREE RIVERS'
A room-sized three-dimensional glass and mixed-media installation by Omaha-based artist Therman Statom, in the Stanwix Street Lobby of Fifth Avenue Place. Continues through Aug. 17. Open noon to 9 p.m. daily.
'COLLECTIVE FUSION'
A storefront installation by students from Manchester Craftsmen's Guild who workshopped with Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass! artist Therman Statom at 800 Penn Ave. Continues through Sept. 3. Open noon to 9 p.m. daily.
'SPLASH!'
A new site-specific work choreographed by Beth Corning of Dance Alloy Theater for the area in and around the PPG Place fountain. Performances will be at noon and 12:40 p.m. June 1 and June 4-8.
'STEPHEN PELLEGRINO'
Pittsburgh performance artist brings his off-beat creations to PPG Place at 12:30 p.m. June 11-13 (also 7:30 p.m. June 11 on the Stanwix Triangle Stage).
'SWOON!'
Australian performance troupe Swaypoles co-present a series of shows with the Pittsburgh Dance Council at 12:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. June 14 and 15 at PPG Place and 12:30, 2 and 3:30 p.m. June 16 and 17 at Stanwix Plaza. On 12-foot-high poles the vibrantly costumed performers tell a "spectacular story of love, loss, joy and freedom up on high."
4TH RIVER PROJECTS
These projects were piloted last year and are launching this year with eight productions at four locations. Admission to each performance is $5. They are:
"American Humbug" -- In a 19th-century theater, a group of 21st-century rogue actors put PT Barnum, the world's greatest showman, on trial for hoaxing the American public. Co-produced by ArtUp and the festival, written by Lynne Conner with concept development by Tavia La Follette, and directed by Bruce McConachie.
"Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail" -- A spoken word musical comedy that offers a socially relevant look into grass-roots activism. It's the second work in Kimberly Ellis' Dr. Goddess performance project. Ellis collaborated with Vanessa German and Roopa Singh on the spoken word play "f.i.r.e.," commissioned for the 4th River Project's pilot year.
"Jaggerbush Junction" is a walk-through set populated by comic strip characters created by the art, comic and music collective Unicorn Mountain. (The only Project piece that plays one time only, noon-11 p.m. June 9).
"I Am My Mother's Daughter" -- An autobiographical one-woman show by Tavia La Follette that investigates a mother, a daughter, mental illness and self-medication -- taking a look at the mental health industry and myths of creativity along the way. Commissioned for the 2007 Arts Festival, directed by Mikelle Johnson.
"To Suffer the Silence" -- The story of Darfur refugee Hashim Mersal written by Paulo Nzambi, a refugee from Angola. Directed by Roni Ostfield of Pittsburgh Playback Theatre.
"Poetry of the Fantastic" and "Poetry of Today's Pittsburgh" -- The former is an evening of live readings that carry on the traditions of science fiction, fantasy and macabre poetry. The latter features Pittsburgh-area poets reading their works, followed by an open mike.
"Soma Mestizo's Telomere" -- A "music, art and dance experience" directed by Staycee Pearl.
"panPittsburgh2007" -- Steelpan drums and jazz, organized by Janera Solomon.