Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust To Launch Inaugural Pittsburgh Humanities Festival

By Shilo Rea / 412-268-6094                       

Carnegie Mellon University and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust are teaming up to bring new ideas and engaging conversation to the city with the inaugural Pittsburgh Humanities Festival.

Running March 26-29, the festival will feature “Smart Talk About Stuff That Matters” by internationally renowned experts, artists and intellectual innovators offering interviews, intimate conversations and select performances focused on topics ranging from art, literature and music to science, policy and politics.

To launch the festival, CMU and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust will outline the vision for the festival at 10 a.m., Jan. 28 with a roundtable discussion at the James R. Rohr Building at 805-807 Liberty Ave in downtown. Participants will include:

•       J. Kevin McMahon, president & CEO of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust;
•       Paul Organisak, vice president of programming for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust; and
•       David Shumway, professor of English and director of the Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon.

"The festival will demonstrate the humanities — broadly defined as knowledge of humankind and its works — are stimulating, entertaining and vital to the life of the community. Carnegie Mellon has helped lead Pittsburgh into the 21st century and the Humanities Festival, modeled on Chicago's 25-year old example, is another step in the city's transformation into a capital of culture and innovation," Shumway said.

Over the past decade, Carnegie Mellon has strengthened its standing in the humanities. Its Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences has distinguished faculty and talented students in the departments of English, History, Modern Languages and Philosophy who are focused on teaching and learning deep intellectual knowledge as well as developing useful, practical skills.

To attend the festival’s launch event, RSVP to Shaunda Miles at miles@trustarts.org or 412-471-1578.

The Pittsburgh Humanities festival is a project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and CMU’s Humanities Center.

For more information, visit http://www.trustarts.org/events/festivals/pittsburgh-humanities-festival/.
     
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