Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) is a home for creative experimentation in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Thursday, May 15th through Sunday, May 18, 2025, KST will lead Owning Our Future: A Symposium on BIPOC Institutional Ownership. We are delighted to share a taste of our thought-provoking conversation with Co-Executive Director, Joseph Hall, about the power of ownership and the necessity of including all voices in shaping cultural communities.

How did the idea for Owning Our Future come about? What was the spark?

Like so many performing arts organizations and arts organizations in general, we rent our building. Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s building, which was originally the Regent Theater built in 1914, has been around for more than a century. Generations have been in that building to see movies, performances, to celebrate and come together. It was one of nine theaters in East Liberty. Now, it's the last remaining theater that exists here. Over time, we have seen the disappearance of cultural spaces and organizations in our neighborhood.

Think about the Shadow Lounge that was a hub of culture in the city. Securing cultural spaces, means owning our spaces. It means owning the brick and mortar - literally owning the land. Cultural ownership is challenging, not only in Pittsburgh, not only in the US, but around the world. When these challenges are faced across race, across socioeconomic status, we know that it impacts people of color more. So, this symposium is specifically talking about BIPOC institutional ownership.

Who will be coming together for these conversations?

You will hear from performing and visual arts organizations, artists, funders, community development groups, architects, and more. Panelists and speakers are from collectives. They are from foundations. They are from media and social impact investing groups. We hope our audience will include our political leaders, foundation leaders, artists, arts workers, urban planners…Anyone who is invested in seeing this region flourish.

I don’t believe culture is owned by arts organizations. It has never been owned by arts organizations. I believe that culture is the soul of community and art is the expression of that soul. The job of arts to question and/or celebrate culture, to reflect culture back to the folks who create it. Culture is created by everyone in every industry in every community. This region has an opportunity to differentiate between and harness the power of culture and art to affect positive change in all communities.

On the first day of the symposium, we'll host a special presentation by the celebrated national arts strategist Lisa Yancey. I've been working with Patrick Fisher at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council on a cultural plan. The idea of a cultural plan started in 1986 in Chicago and it was really to make a plan to strengthen and grow arts and culture assets in the city, in the region. Since that time, many cities have adopted cultural plans: New York, Akron, Washington DC, Philadelphia, many, cities, both larger than Pittsburgh and our size. As officials are going into comprehensive plans at the city level and also at the county level, we encourage them to consider and embed culture across all categories because we know culture affects everything we do.

For the cultural workers, artists, EDs of arts organizations, I would like for us to have different tools and tactics for the 21st century. Not only around ownership of spaces, but how an organization is governed, the programming, our business models. We're exploring exciting emergent strategies for organizations. I hope that practitioners and decision makers within government and philanthropy will all take away new ideas and double down on their support for the transformative power of culture and art in our region.

Arts, Equity, & Education Fund™ supports Kelly Strayhorn Theater with a multi-year capacity building grant. Sign up for updates and reserve your tickets this month.

Spring Grantmaking Starts Now!

We are happy to announce that our Spring 2025 Grant Cycle is open!

We are accepting LOIs from February 14 through midnight February 28.

Please review our funding category guidelines and create an account when you are ready to share your plans and ideas with us. As always, feel free to contact us with any questions along the way.

Spring Cleaning Reminder: If your personnel or organizational contact information has changed, please remember to update this within our Grant Portal. If you need assistance feel free to reach out to grants@aeefund.org

Partner Events

stop, collaborate, listen is an inclusive exhibition featuring artwork created from and inspired by vinyl records, record sleeves, album covers, and more. Artists from AAP and CCS worked independently, alongside each other, and in collaboration to create the work on view.

January 15–February 25, 2025
Associated Artists of Pittsburgh
100 43rd Street, Suite 107
Pittsburgh, PA 15201

Reserve your tickets today for Dwell Together a choral-orchestral concert program presented by Resonance Works. Dwell Together takes its name from Psalm 133: "How pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." It’s the final line from Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, which will be presented alongside the Pittsburgh premiere of Joel Thompson’s powerful The Seven Last Words of The Unarmed, Julia Perry’s heart wrenching Stabat Mater, and several other choral works. Dwell Together isn’t just sentiment, it’s a powerful call to action.

Arts, Equity, & Education Fund™ strives for a better reflection of the real world in arts and education.