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‘Rainbow Road’ on Strawberry Way Highlights the Diversity, Creativity of Young Local Talent
- THE 440-FOOT-LONG COLLABORATIVE ART PIECE WAS CREATED BY PITTSBURGH CAPA STUDENTS LED BY PROFESSIONAL MURALISTS AND GRAFFITI WRITERS MAX GONZALES AND SHANE PILSTER
- TITLED ‘RAINBOW ROAD,’ THE MURAL WILL BE DISPLAYED ON THE STRAWBERRY WAY PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY FOR UP TO THREE YEARS
A new street mural has transformed downtown’s Strawberry Way into a vibrant work of public art. Commissioned by the Uncommon & Curated Fund at the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP), with support from the City of Pittsburgh, the mural—titled Rainbow Road—was created to promote safety and sense of place in this much-used pedestrian walkway. This collaborative piece continues Downtown Pittsburgh’s long tradition of celebrating our alleyways and streets as spaces for people and art.
What’s special about this project is that it was designed and painted by visual art students at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) 6-12 located in the Cultural District. Lead artists Shane Pilster and Max GEMS Gonzales enlisted 37 8th and 11th grade students to co-create this 440-foot-long eclectic artwork. Inspired by the surrealist movement technique known as the “exquisite corpse,” the piece features 12-foot sections painted by individual students, strung together over a rainbow gradient. The mural highlights each student’s unique perspective and style, while also celebrating the diversity and inclusiveness that links the whole piece—and all of us—together.
“With a general theme of diversity and inclusion, it was important that we did not constrain the voices of the CAPA students; we really wanted them to shine and to feel senses of pride and ownership,” said Gonzales. “Knowing that this mural would exist for the thousands of people who would walk by and on it, we knew that it would be to our benefit to fit as many youthful voices on here as possible.”
Over the course of a four-week-long residency, Pilster and Gonzales met with the students in the classroom, in galleries and onsite to develop the general concepts, designs and layouts of the mural. This residency allowed for the artists to share their experience and knowledge as professional muralists and graffiti writers, while also learning the artistic interests and styles of the students. The title of the piece, Rainbow Road, was chosen by the students.
“We are grateful to have the opportunity to make this project happen and to be given the experiences we’ve had with these amazing students,” added Gonzales. “This truly has been the most authentic collaborative experience of my mural career.”
"Community partnerships for our young artists are invaluable in their growth as students and as artists. This is especially important for public art installations,” said CAPA Principal Melissa Pearlman. “The Strawberry Way project helped our students see the value of their creative ideas and sense of identity unfold right before them. Downtown Pittsburgh is their community and that was reinforced with this project. I am grateful to our two guest artists for their vision, Shannon Pultz for her leadership, and the PDP for their support and guidance in making this project a reality for our CAPA artists."
This project also holds a special significance to downtown business owners like Denny Scott of Weiner World, located by Strawberry Way, who are seeing foot traffic and patronage steadily return to pre-pandemic levels. “We think the Strawberry Way mural is a great way to welcome folks and hopefully keep them coming back, as they enjoy our outdoor dining experience directly ON the mural!" he said.
"Community spaces and outdoor dining are signatures of a vibrant downtown, and public art plays a big role in shaping what these experiences could be," added Jeremy Waldrup, President and CEO of the PDP. "Max, Shane and our student artists created a spectacular work of artistic expression that inspires interaction and engagement with the public."
PDP has commissioned this project twice prior—in 2016, with City Composition by Deanna Mance, and in 2018, with Who Gets to Eat the Most Fruit by JL Mallis. The current mural is intended to last up to three years.
Title: ‘Rainbow Road’
Medium: 2022, acrylic paint/texture additive
Artists: Shane Pilster and Max GEMS Gonzales, lead artists, in collaboration with 8th and 11th grade artists of CAPA
Visual Arts:
Alex Armstrong
Beatrix Bagin
Kiley Broom
Conner Carbone
Rebecca Carter
Ellie Choi
Malichite Clute
Curtis Crowder-Woods
Matteo DiNunzio
Elliot French
Jason Garland
Lara Garrett
Nathaniel Gipko
Amalia Glowczewski
Mya Goldman
Niya Hauser
Summer Hippert
Grace Hartley
Marie Harless
Xavier Hay
Gudrun Jaeger
Sydney Killebrew
Hugo Mastroberardino
Layla Kitchin
Stephanie O’Neill
Lila Patterson
Emma Pearson
Lilah Rubin
Jada Ruby
Miles Rybicki
Violet Schaeffersmith
Oona Shaw
Abigail Smith
Lillian Spencer
Archer Treese
August Miller
Annika Vaughan
CAPA Visual Arts Staff:
Shannon Pultz
Tresa Varner
Julie Stunden
More Details about the Downtown Activation and Public Art can be found here: