Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and the advisory board of the Three Rivers Arts Festival have appointed Colleen Russell Criste acting director of the arts organization, four days after the Carnegie took over the festival, citing a concern over its "financial health," and eliminated its executive director and associate director.

Ms. Criste is deputy director of The Andy Warhol Museum. Ben Harrison, associate curator for performance at The Warhol, will serve as festival acting curator of performance.

Both will maintain their roles at The Warhol and work with the Three Rivers Arts Festival staff and advisory board, as well as with the many contractors, community leaders and other festival stakeholders to ensure the festival's future, according to a news release from the Carnegie Museums office.

Ms. Criste says that her chief role will be to give stability to the organization during this transition period as the staff, the Carnegie and the board determine "which direction the [festival] path seems to be more naturally headed toward."

Equally important will be "minimizing the expenses and keeping the finances in check."

There are immediate decisions to make concerning upcoming events, some of which will have to be canceled, such as the FLUX art/performance event, planned for Sept. 27.

The festival has also been the organizer for First Night in recent years, and Ms. Criste says they want "to make sure that program happens this year and happens well."

"Even for [next] summer's festival, there's a sense of urgency over the decision making." It will be the festival's 50th anniversary.

More long-term decisions will evolve over time, and could include the festival operating through a consortium of groups with different skill sets taking on different tasks.

Another would be for it to file for its own 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and go its own way, a direction it was headed in earlier this year before relations with executive director Elizabeth Reiss broke down.

For the past decade or so, the Three Rivers Arts Festival has been as much a music festival as a visual arts showcase. It hit a musical peak in 2003 when it presented premier acts Sonic Youth and Wilco in the same week.

Given Mr. Harrison's record of booking live events at The Warhol for the past 10 years, it's expected that he would guide the festival in a more adventurous music direction.

With the renovation of Point State Park and the festival's move to the smaller Stanwix triangle, it lost some of that momentum in 2007. Gary Hinston, who had been booking the music as a contractor, scaled back to club-size acts like the Cowboy Junkies and Koko Taylor to keep capacity down.

This summer, the festival did brave the limits of that space with jam-band sensations moe. and injected a dose of edgier punk rock with the New York Dolls.

At the moment, at least, there is a commitment to keeping the festival going.

"I don't think the Carnegie Museums would have gotten into this position if they didn't think it was important," Ms. Criste said.