Carnegie: Art Connections

Carnegie Museum of Art: Art Connections

Weekend Classes at Carnegie Museums of Art and History Can, and Have, Produced the Likes of Andy Warhol

Picture it. It's Saturday morning. Youngsters are arriving at the museum. They come to learn about art. They try their hand. They explore their skills and test their talent. One of them could be the next Andy Warhol. Another may become a writer, like David McCullough, or an actor like, Jeff Goldblum. It's very possible. Years ago, McCullough, Goldblum, and Warhol were among those kids.

A program that has produced several influential American artists is still nurturing budding talent on Saturday mornings, just as it has for 80 years. The setting provides students the chance to observe and be inspired by the great works of art and science housed under one roof in the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History. Since 1928, these "Art Connection" kids have been alternately known as Tam O'Shanters or Palettes, but through the years their numbers have included distinguished American artists: the realist painter, Philip Pearlstein; visual artist Raymond Saunders; photographer Duane Michels; actor Jeff Goldblum; author David McCullough; conceptual artist Mel Bochner (whose works are featured in the art museum's reinstalled Scaife contemporary galleries); and the incomparable Andy Warhol.

The Art Connection is open to students in grades 5 through 9. In 2008, 288 children took part in The Art Connection. About half of the students now enroll in the program on the recommendation of their Pittsburgh Public School art teachers. Such students from the Pittsburgh Public Schools receive a portion of their tuition through a partnership with Pittsburgh Public Schools and the rest through an endowment at Carnegie Museum of Art. Such assistance is in keeping with the wishes of Andrew Carnegie, who spent large portions of his own treasure to make art accessible to ordinary people. The program meets for 18 weeks and culminates in an exhibition of student work in the Hall of Sculpture, one of the same galleries in which art is displayed in the Carnegie International. Combined, Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History attracted 386,300 visitors last year and generated $35.5 million dollars in tourist spending.

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