Bringing a ‘wow’ factor to public art

In 2006, Pittsburgh’s major cultural institutions embarked on “Pittsburgh Roars,” a nine-month, coordinated regional marketing initiative anchored by the Fierce Friends: Artists and Animals exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art. At a time when arts organizations often competed for visitors, this campaign was a collaborative effort to generate broad public excitement. The Sprout Fund was challenged to create a “grassroots excitement” to complement the institutional effort and “put a new, creative spin on a concept people ordinarily associate with traditional advertising.”

The Sprout Fund’s solution was the Giant Inflatable Art Project, which marked the organization’s “first foray into a new form of public art” beyond its established community mural program. The project commissioned local and regional artists to design temporary, “monumental in size (20 to 30 feet tall) but also portable” works of public art. These pieces were designed to be whimsical, engaging, and impossible to ignore.

Sprout issued a call for artists from the 13-county Western Pennsylvania region, inviting them to submit designs inspired by the “notion that ‘Pittsburgh roars in 2006!’” The community responded enthusiastically, with over 90 submissions received. A 19-member jury composed of local artists, critics, educators, and community stakeholders reviewed the designs and selected 10 winners. The selected artists each received a $1,500 honorarium, and their two-dimensional designs were fabricated into massive, three-dimensional sculptures by Inflatable Images, Inc.

Throughout 2006, Sprout managed the logistics of a rotating, city-wide outdoor gallery. A contracted installation team moved the 10 inflatables to cultural institutions like the Carnegie Museums, Phipps Conservatory, the National Aviary, and the Pittsburgh Zoo, as well as high-traffic public sites like Station Square and the Three Rivers Regatta. The mobility of the objects created a “where will the inflatable objects be next?” marketing buzz, serving as an “eye-catching and unusual tool” to connect geographically diverse events and “establish a common thread” for the entire Pittsburgh Roars campaign.

Program In Brief