CITY OF ASYLUM PITTSBURGH
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Mission Statement
City of Asylum builds a just community by protecting and celebrating freedom of creative expression. We provide sanctuary to endangered writers and artists, so that that they can continue to create and their voices are not silenced. We offer a broad range of free literary, arts, and humanities programs in a community setting to build social equity through cultural exchange. And by transforming blighted properties into homes for our programs, we anchor neighborhood economic development.
About This Cause
City of Asylum Pittsburgh (COA) is a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation, chartered in October 2004. COA received its IRS exemption letter in April 2006 and is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. In November 2015, City of Asylum Pittsburgh, located on Pittsburgh’s Northside, became the U.S. headquarters for the International Cities of Asylum Network (ICORN). In 2004 a small group of Pittsburghers gathered to start City of Asylum. The plan was to provide a safe house for a writer exiled under threat of persecution, so their voices were not silenced. But the presence of these unique and heroic figures in our community led to unexpected exchanges and inspired the creation of a broad range of cultural programming in a community setting--often outdoors, on closed streets and in vacant lots--by City of Asylum. Programming has been primarily in the literary arts and in jazz and in multi-disciplinary collaborations between them. During the past decade, City of Asylum has presented over 280 writers and musicians from 58 countries—all in free programs for residents of the Northside and Southwest Pennsylvania. And the programming is growing rapidly: from 13 programs in 2013 to over 50 in 2015, with over 150 annually since 2017.7 City of Asylum has anchored neighborhood economic development by transforming blighted properties into homes for our programs and energizing public spaces through public art with text-based components. We have rehabbed 6 abandoned and dilapidated houses for artist residencies; and in April 2016, we will open the Alphabet Reading Garden, our new artist-designed park on the Northside (formerly the site of a nuisance bar and vacant lots) to the public In 2017 we completed our biggest project to date--the $10.5 million redevelopment of the long-abandoned historic Masonic Building in the Federal-North area of Pittsburgh's Northside. It includes City of Asylum Alphabet City, a flexible performance space with a bookstore and a full-service restaurant. Alphabet City offers us a year-round venue in which to program. Its flexible, acoustically-tuned performance space will be able to accommodate groups as small as 10 and as large as 225 for readings, music, performances, and workshops, all with automated recording and webcasting capabilities. Alphabet City is a permanent home for City of Asylum programming and the arts—as an economic and cultural engine—at the gateway to our community. Our economic impact, now about $2 million annually, is estimated by the Center for Community Development at Williams College to exceed $4 million annually and to create over 50 jobs once City of Asylum Alphabet City opens in the summer of 2016. Mayor William Peduto wrote that “City of Asylum is already a wonderful North Side institution and I am thrilled at this next step in their evolution. This [$12.5 million] project will be key to the continued rebirth of the Federal North corridor, which is one of the key entryways not only to the North Side but the city as a whole.” His chief of staff Kevin Acklin, Chairman of the URA, added that “City of Asylum Alphabet City will be the cultural and social hub of the community.” Programs Our exiled writer residency program is the largest in the world, with 4 - 6 writers and artists in long-term residence at any time. Writers (and family) are provided a living stipend and benefits (medical, legal) for two years and translation and publishing of work, social services, and a rent-free furnished house until the writer can become stable and financially independent while continuing to write. City of Asylum is a member of the 70-city International City of Refuge Network and is considered "the model for the world" by the Executive Director. We are also the only grassroots-funded organization in the world, unaffiliated with government or a university.. By giving voice to local, national, and international artists, we seek to create community and to effect cultural exchange among diverse individuals—bringing the world to Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh to the world. In Alphabet City we present over 150 free arts and culture programs per year. The artists we present are the most diverse in Pittsburgh--from many countries and many backgrounds. And because we reduce barriers of access, our audiences are also diverse and engaged with people different than themselves. In a context multi-cultural awareness and exchange, our programs engage very diverse groups of neighbors and regional residents in the arts through attendance, creation, performance, and the use of electronic media and discussion. Our programs include international writers residencies (exiled and visiting); a year-long series of literary readings, lectures, and musical events; annual events like Jazz Poetry Concert, Writers in the Gardens, and I Don’t Know What I’d Do, if I Couldn’t Speak My Mind; creation of text-based public artworks—both permanent and temporary; and publication of Sampsonia Way, an online magazine about creative freedom (operated in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh's journalism classes). In 2014 we launched the “Garden to Garden” trail, an arts-activated walking path through the residential interior of the Central Northside to the Federal North corner. It includes temporary public artworks, performances, smartphone mobile tours, a seasonal outdoor performance venue, and the above-mentioned artist-designed park. In 2014 we also initiated community-based artist residencies, in which visiting artists create new work with and about Pittsburgh communities. For example: The Allstar Refugee Band and Archa Theatre (10 musicians and actors from Prague) created “Lost and Found” with refugees living in Pittsburgh; Jazz composer and musician Oliver Lake created “Stoop is a Verb,” a 75 minute song cycle based on transcripts of focus groups about living on the Northside; and Pascal Rambert, director of the French National Contemporary Theater, created a new theater work with 50 people with disabilities, their families and care-givers. These are challenging to produce but also very successful in engaging residents, as artists and audience members. The projects have resulted in dialog and exchange among all participants, well beyond our expectations. And the projects have also created awareness of important issues related to the communities in the general public. In 2015 we launched the BNY Mellon Jazz Residency at City of Asylum, a unique ensemble-based during which the artists created and recorded a new CD to be issued on a commercial label with material promoting the residency and Pittsburgh. The residency has also been instrumental in helping us extend our relationships to a new generation of jazz audiences and jazz musicians, which is important to us, as we often work directly with musicians and use them as curators rather than through agents. We have been recognized by our “city of refuge” peers around the world as the “model” program; and we are winners of the MetLife “Space for Change” award, the Ford Foundations “Innovative Space Award” for our in-development literary center, Alphabet City (700 competed, only 12 won awards). In recognition of our innovative programming and ability to engage broad audiences, we were in 2013 awarded a $300,000 ArtPlace American grant and a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment of the Arts for our creative placemaking projects, which activate the community with art and engage a broad public In addition to providing free world-class cultural events, otherwise unavailable in Allegheny County, we have brought national recognition to Pittsburgh by being featured in media like The New York Times, the Wall St. Journal, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and in two 8-minute segments of PBS NewsHour. In the words of James and Deborah Fallows in their book, "Our Towns," "City of Asylum started out offering sanctuary to exiled writers, and it ended up bringing compassion to a city." Pandemic Note: During the pandemic, we created the Pittsburgh region's first and only shared streaming platform, opening it up to all regional presenters. We produced, marketed, streamed, and raised funds. Programs were free to the public; artists were paid, with a special fund reserved for BIPOC arts. Creating our shared streaming platform enabled us to present 270 programs since May/2020, despite the pandemic. In September 2021 we resumed live-audience programming at Alphabet City with concurrent live-streaming. Programs are also available free on-demand after showing, with captioning added. Compared to regional arts attendance, City of Asylum's programs are significantly more diverse: 60%+ more Black, Asian, and Hispanic/Latino audience. 15% of audience is younger than 25, 51% 25 - 64; and 33% aged 65+. 1/3 of audience has income less than $50,000, 1/3 50,000 -$99,000, and 1/3 $100,000+.