FALL 2005

The Magazine of The Heinz Endowments

INSIDE: RESPECTING YOUR ELDERS A WELCOMING LANGUAGE inside

Founded more than four decades Our fields of emphasis include apart, the Howard Heinz Endowment, philanthropy in general and the established in 1941, and the Vira I. disciplines represented by our Heinz Endowment, established in 1986, grantmaking programs: Arts & Culture; are the products of a deep family Children, Youth & Families; Economic commitment to community and the Opportunity; Education; and the common good that began with Environment. These five programs work H. J. Heinz and continues to this day. together on behalf of three shared The Heinz Endowments is based in organizational goals: enabling Pittsburgh, where we use our region southwestern Pennsylvania to embrace as a laboratory for the development and realize a vision of itself as a of solutions to challenges that are premier place both to live and to work; national in scope. Although the majority making the region a center of quality of our giving is concentrated within learning and educational opportunity; southwestern Pennsylvania, we work and making diversity and inclusion wherever necessary, including statewide defining elements of the region’s and nationally, to fulfill our mission. character. That mission is to help our region thrive as a whole community — economically, ecologically, educationally and culturally — while advancing the state of knowledge and practice in the fields in which we work.

h magazine is a publication of The Heinz Endowments. At the Endowments, we are committed to promoting learning in philanthropy and in the specific fields represented by our grantmaking programs. As an expression of that commitment, this publication is intended to share information about significant lessons and insights we are deriving from our work. Editorial Team Linda Bannon, Linda Braund, Maxwell King, Carmen Lee, Maureen Marinelli, Grant Oliphant, Douglas Root. Design: Landesberg Design About the cover The multi-colored Volkswagen van suggests the young and groovy experimenter that WYEP once was. After 30 years, Pittsburgh’s independent community radio station is a lot more grown up, but it hasn’t lost its passion or eclectic style. Thanks, in part, to some philanthropic nurturing, the station is financially sound and artistically respected. 4 Elders’ Wisdom As the generation of black Americans that stood in the vanguard of the modern civil rights movement begins to fade, a multi-media project “Elders: An African American Oral History,” captures personalities and pivotal memories that otherwise would be lost to western Pennsylvania history. 12 Higher Fidelity With help from the Endowments and other foundations, one of Volume 5 Number 4 Fall 2005 the country’s most successful independent community radio stations is moving its varied music mix and award-winning public affairs shows into a new $3 million home. 22 No Adult Left Behind The Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council’s new Downtown Center, launched with state and foundation support, is helping to replace the programs that were lost when the Connelley Technical Institute and Adult Education Center closed last year.

2 Feedback 3 Message 28 Here & There

Elders, page 4 feedback

Our Summer 2005 issue featured the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s expansion, with its new interactive attractions and dynamic design that have dramatically boosted the number of visitors to the museum. We also examined how the Cabaret at

2 Theater Square is adding new flavor to the Cultural District.

From Summer 2005 Museum of Pittsburgh, I believe Michelle The Cabaret at Theater Square More Than A Great Big Place to Play Pilecki’s “A Great Big Place to Play” caught For nearly five years, I was vice president of My babysitter Jenn has taken me and my two the essence of what makes the Children’s programming at the Pittsburgh Cultural sisters and brother to the Children’s Museum Museum such a great place: It has all the Trust, so it was exciting for me to read about about 10 times this year. She plays along with qualities that make a successful community the developments in the Cultural District, us when we’re there, and I explore on my own. and then some. especially the opening of the new Cabaret My favorite part is the art place [The Studio] In one place you can experience exciting Theater. As Seth Beckerman’s article points because I like art and getting on the climb-a- and outstanding design, lots of choices of out, diversifying the mix of entertainment jumbo [Kids’ Climber]. I like playing with the things to do, and a variety of identifiable options downtown is key to ensuring a clay and I make sculptures — well, I just make places and neighborhoods that not only healthy future for the district. stuff, not like real sculptures. I like to paint engage one’s interest but also encourage Here in Charlotte, N.C., downtown resi- hearts and flowers and sometimes bunnies. I social interaction. The different activities dential development is booming. Charlotte’s like playing and painting all in the same place. are executed in an intimate and human scale most active nightlife is downtown, with I think other fun places at the museum tailored to children and adults. a large number of bars and clubs located are Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, the house that As a “green” building, the museum is within a six-block radius of the Blumenthal tips [the Gravity Room] and the water place environmentally and ecologically responsible. Performing Arts Center. Until a few years ago, [Waterplay]. My twin little sisters really like It preserves and revitalizes two endeared city the center was one of the few entertainment the house that tips. Tessa says she likes the way assets — the old Allegheny Post Office and the options in downtown Charlotte. Today the it makes her feel dizzy. Kelly says she almost former Buhl Planetarium — by giving them offerings and establishments continue to falls when she’s there, but she thinks that’s fun. a new life and knitting them together with a expand here, and it’s important for the I think one thing they should add is major piece of public art, a glass-and-steel Blumenthal Center to play an active role in on every Thanksgiving, Halloween, all the structure known as the “Lantern Building.” that nightlife. Performances must cater to holidays, there could be rooms that would The Children’s Museum interweaves the more than just the traditional arts audiences turn into that holiday— one for Halloween, type of economic, social and environmental that attend productions by the center’s resi- Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter. Then on improvements we all strive for in a successful dent opera, symphony and dance companies. Thanksgiving, there could be a turkey room, community. Add to that an experiential As I enter my second season at the Blumenthal and you climb on the turkey; on Halloween, learning environment for all ages — the real Center, I also see how the Cabaret at Theater there’d be ghosts in the room and other “center” of the museum — that encourages Square plays a similar role in Pittsburgh as it scary stuff. everyone to join in and play, get their hands tries to lure audiences interested in a more If I could go to the Children’s Museum as dirty or wet, or hang out in the town square. intimate entertainment experience. much as I wanted every year, I’d go 17 times. The message is: “It’s OK to have fun. It’s even The Cabaret at Theater Square can only Tessa says she’d go 65 times and Kelly says OK to act like children.” be enhanced by galleries, clubs and other she’d go 100 times — that’s a lot. My brother But that’s not all. Just as important, and establishments that can attract a different Axel is too little to talk about the museum; perhaps more sustaining for the community, demographic to Pittsburgh’s Cultural District. he’s only 2. But I know he likes going, too. has been the coming together of people from With downtown living in Pittsburgh becom- Asher Herrmann many disciplines and interests to create this new ing easier and more attractive, the Cabaret (As dictated to her babysitter, city resource and new model for children’s should be able to become a focal point Jennifer Braund.) museums around the country. And with them of activity. Asher, 6, her 5-year-old sisters and her all the way have been the children and their Frances L. Egler brother live with their parents in Shaler, families. What comes across so clearly is the Vice President of Programming a Pittsburgh suburb. vision that was shared by everyone who touched North Carolina Blumenthal this project and the commitment to quality. Performing Arts Center

As an architect, urban designer and principal Stephen Quick with the firm that provided local support to American Institute of Architects Principal, Perkins Eastman Koning Eizenberg Architecture, the Santa President, AIA Pittsburgh Monica–based designers of the Children’s message

By Teresa Heinz Chairman, Howard Heinz Endowment

3

ecently, a group of girls from Pittsburgh waged The article profiles the work of the Greater a “girlcott” against Abercrombie & Fitch to protest Pittsburgh Literacy Council to continue a regional its sale of T-shirts emblazoned with messages commitment to providing recent immigrants with demeaning to women. Their campaign caught English-language training. As the story indicates, fire nationally and attracted sufficient attention my late husband was a strong advocate for such from the media that the offending T-shirts were training, which he saw as key to giving immigrants withdrawn from the market. an opportunity to become full and productive Supporting the girls in their unlikely success members of American society. He believed it gave at playing David to the retailer’s Goliath was the them the one thing all people need to prosper: the Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest ability to make themselves heard and understood. Pennsylvania. The idea for this organization was In “Higher Fidelity,” which profiles the birth and born after a group of Pittsburgh-area women impressive evolution of local public radio station attended a keynote speech I gave in Philadelphia WYEP, the notion of giving voice is more subtle but about the importance of getting more women no less real. In this case, the challenge was to find involved in philanthropy. They saw an opportunity a forum for music widely neglected by commercial to do exactly that by launching radio stations. Really, though, this is a story about In giving voice to those a foundation dedicated to making room for unusual voices and art forms who otherwise might find addressing long-neglected that, especially in our consumerist and conformist gender-equity issues in culture, too easily get shunted to society’s margins. it difficult to speak, and our region. “Elders’ Wisdom” tells the story of the Elders: whose stories might For me, the successful An African American Oral History project. Its lofty “girlcott” was a perfect example goal is to help re-establish the elderly as a source otherwise be neglected, of what can happen when of wisdom in the African-American community. we empower them to philanthropy embraces new Its more immediate payoff, though, is to preserve voices. The girls were partici- stories, in the form of oral histories, that otherwise enrich not only their pants in the Women and might be lost forever. The voices it captures and Girls Foundation’s “Girls in gives expression to are the richly inspiring voices own lives but also ours, Philanthropy” project, which of individuals whose lives have given them much and the lives of gave them the confidence and to share, if only someone would think to ask— the platform they needed to and listen. our communities. speak out effectively. Reading about the Elders project reminded me In an era when the drone of the mass media of an African proverb that likens the death of an and the cacophony of the Internet routinely drown elderly person to a library burning to the ground. out the concerns of individual citizens, philanthropy In a way, each of the articles in this issue describes helped give these young women a voice so com- an effort to augment the array of stories and voices pelling it could not be ignored. It also taught them, that make up the living library of human experience. and everyone who heard their story, an invaluable If you believe, as I do, that the world is shaped lesson about leadership. by the stories we tell, then you cannot help but What got me thinking about all of this was appreciate the value of that. In giving voice to those reading the mix of articles in this issue of h maga- who otherwise might find it difficult to speak, and zine. We rarely plan the magazine around single whose stories might otherwise be neglected, we themes, preferring instead to present a cross-section empower them to enrich not only their own lives of our work in every issue. But themes always seem but also ours, and the lives of our communities. to emerge anyway, and in this issue there is an If you have any doubts about that, just ask obvious theme around the notion of giving voice. those girls in Pittsburgh. Believe me, they won’t In “No Adult Left Behind,” that is almost literal. have any problem telling you. h ELDERS’ WISDOM IN A FOUNDATIONS-SUPPORTED MULTI-MEDIA PROJECT, PHOTOJOURNALIST CURTIS REAVES CAPTURES THE FACES AND VOICES OF OLDER, BLACK WESTERN PENNSYLVANIANS WHOSE STORIES OTHERWISE WOULD BE LOST. BY CARMEN J. LEE AND BARRY ALFONSO. IMAGES COURTESY OF CURTIS REAVES urtis Reaves knew it when he heard it — gold. As he videotaped his mother’s then–85-year-old first cousin recounting family lore, Reaves realized he had tapped a rich mine. He knew the interview was worth far more than its intended use as the centerpiece for a family reunion celebration. During their conversation in 1991, Reaves’ relative, Anirl Morton, told Chim about his great-grandparents, John and Sarah Jordan, who had been slaves in North Carolina. Morton described John’s anguish when his mother and sister were sold to a slave owner 5 in Mississippi. She explained how Sarah, an herbalist and a midwife, frequently was sought out to heal people of their

ailments as well as to deliver babies — black and white. “She was overturning a lost history in her mind,” Reaves says. “From that I saw the importance of ‘eldership,’ the treasures of the history of the elders.” After he finished the video for the family reunion, the Duquesne-based photojournalist expanded it and made a digital film that became “John & Sarah: A Family’s Journey to Freedom.” The highly praised documentary and exhibit, completed in 1998, traced his family’s experiences back to his great-grandparents’ living through slavery and learning to move past it. But Reaves knew he wasn’t finished. There were more stories to tell about African-American life through the last century, stories beyond those in his family tree. “Once this generation dies, that’s it,” he says. “There’ll be a real hole left. That’s why it’s so important to take full advantage of their particular history… What I’m seeing is a lot of people get to a certain age in their lives and they just want to get their story out. Being able to take all these stories and make them into one story—that’s the mission.” 6 With foundation support that includes The Heinz Endowments’ Small Arts Initiative, The Pittsburgh Foundation’s Multicultural Arts Initiative, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, Reaves’ mission has evolved into “Elders: An African American Oral History.” The multi-media creation will include a video documentary, story quilts, publications and educational materials. Part of his vision is to have the film shown on monitors set up to look like panels within the quilts as they hang on display. Once this generation of people dies,

At the heart of the project are the stories of black people, primarily from western Pennsylvania, who share their struggles and triumphs in living through the Depression, two World Wars and the civil rights movement. The goal is a permanent archive of these conversations, where future generations can learn about what the elders experienced. “If they aren’t captured soon, these stories will be lost forever,” says Kerry Spindler, a former officer in the Endowments’ Arts & Culture Program, which helped support the Elders project. “But they are too important to the memory of the community for us to allow that to happen. Ultimately, the struggles, triumphs and failures of individuals make communities and nations what they are. Curtis’ goal is to capture pockets of stories from a time when the public consciousness was in a period of significant change.” So far, Reaves has raised $119,000 from private donors and the various foundations and nonprofit groups. To complete his project, which already has amassed 60 hours of interviews with some 40 elders, Reaves wants to do another 10 interviews. For that and other work required to turn the material into a one-hour documentary, he will need another $150,000.

Endowments Communications Officer Carmen J. Lee is the editor of h. Barry Alfonso is a Pittsburgh-based freelance writer who has worked as an oral historian. His last story for h was a profile of Pittsburgh’s Extra Mile Foundation, a project of local philanthropies that offers a Catholic grade-school education to inner-city students. In addition to providing $14,000 in funding, the Endowments’ Small Arts Initiative panel has given Reaves project-management advice and helped him find additional revenue sources. Spindler says Reaves’ ambitious project is just the type that the initiative — begun in 1994 — is supposed to support: community-based, well-defined and fueled by passionately dedicated people. Also, Reaves’ track record with the “John & Sarah” project proves, says Spindler, “that he has a unique talent for compiling a web of personal stories and 7 perspectives to create a larger narrative.” Reaves says talking with elders in his family and throughout the region for the larger project revealed gems of wisdom sprinkled in a valuable historical narrative. Some of these elder voices are amplified on the following pages, and they articulate memories of a rich western Pennsylvania history for African Americans. But they also that’s it. There’ll be a real hole left. Curtis Reaves photojournalist and videographer highlight how slowly the wheels of justice turned — even in the eastern part of this country — in rectifying profound racial inequality. There is the 80-something church musician who talks about the pressure she felt being one of only two black students in the music school of what is now Carnegie Mellon University in the 1940s. There is the retired gospel singer who remembers being among the black students in her predominantly white high school “fighting their way in and out of every day.” There is the civil rights–crusading Pittsburgh attorney who, as a child, never knew that his proper place was supposed to be in the back of the bus, since his parents vowed to drive him or he wouldn’t go. In words and in facial expressions cleanly captured by digital technology, the elders strip away the makeup we all apply to the harsher features of our personal and collective histories. But they do not shine a spotlight only on the blemishes. These are the voices of those who have lived long enough and traveled far enough to know the value of casting a broader light. The legacy they provide and that Reaves brings to us in his work is essential to the future well-being of any community: an honest history. Byrd Brown’s parents never allowed him to think he wasn’t good enough. They didn’t let him get pushed to the back of the bus. His family drove him where he needed to be or he didn’t go. “Racism has been a cancer that is eating us up, and we have to under- stand how to heal ourselves,” said the lawyer and activist before his death in 2001. “Rightness is important. The civil rights movement was not propelled by a bunch of black people who all of a sudden got self-conscious. …It was a group of people who believed in something right — and it’s still right.” Brown’s activism started early. While still a youth, he was asked to attempt to integrate groups for young people. He became the first black camper at a local YMCA because he had light skin, but Y officials wouldn’t promote him to counselor with his peers because he was black. His first local demonstration was at Duquesne Light Co., when only 33 of the 1,000 employees were black — and 32 were janitors and one was a receptionist. He sent fliers to nearly 90 organizations, and thousands of people showed up. “Racism has been a cancer As head of the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Association for the that is eating us up, and we Advancement of Colored People, Brown helped organize other protests have to understand how to seeking fairer treatment of African Americans at companies such as Sears, heal ourselves. Rightness is Kaufmann’s, Equitable Gas and Mine Safety Appliances. important. The civil rights One of his most vivid memories was listening to the Rev. Dr. Martin movement was not propelled Luther King Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington. A train had to be by a bunch of black people chartered for the overwhelmingly large number of Pittsburghers who who all of a sudden got self- wanted to go. conscious. …It was a group “It was about 90 or 95 degrees, and there was no such thing as a Port-a- of people who believed in John invented. The trees were about as skinny as my arm and didn’t offer any shade,” Brown recalled. “Everybody’s leaving, and then Martin gets up something right — and it’s and starts the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. We all turned around and crowded still right.” yrdback in. By the time he finished, I was crying like a baby.” For decades, Grace Hurt, known to many as “Aunt Sissy,” has been a person folks go to for help and advice. The retired gospel singerGrace has long been active in community groups in her Beltzhoover neighborhood and used to have a reputation for confronting drug dealers on street corners. Several generations of family and friends have relied on her strength during tough times. But when “I can see my mother when she Hurt thinks of strength, she remembers her mother’s fortitude. worked at the William Penn “I can see my mother when she worked at the William Penn Hotel,” Hotel. The things she had to 9 she says with a catch in her voice. “The things she had to go through to go through to make a living… . make a living… . She had to do the dirtiest laundry and get called ‘nigger.’ She didn’t get paid that much money, but she wouldn’t quit, because she She had to do the dirtiest wasn’t a quitter.” laundry and get called ‘nigger.’ Hurt faced similar racism while attending the now-closed South Hills She didn’t get paid that much High School. The nearly 100 black students “had to fight their way in and money, but she wouldn’t quit, out” of the predominantly white school, she recalls. Hurt describes herself because she wasn’t a quitter.” as a rebel who frequently got into trouble because she wouldn’t allow anyone to dictate what she could and couldn’t do. “You had to be tough,” she says. “Teachers were prejudiced, so you had to work extra hard.” Hurt believes that many older African Americans in Pittsburgh during the 1960s weren’t ready to take a public stand against discrimination — but she was. She went to rallies in the city and once participated in a march with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Throughout her life, Hurt has sung gospel music and maintained close family ties, often with the two intertwined. She and relatives performed with other family singing groups in the city. As an adult, she also opened up her home to children who needed someone to care for them. A mother of five, she’s had several foster children during the past 20 years. “My family, my kids, my foster kids are my life.” she says. 10

Growing up in the Hill District in the 1930s and ’40s, nobody talked to Ralph Hill about going to college. But that didn’t stop him from feeling proud when people saw him carrying schoolbooks home. “When I was in junior high, I’d walk over to the University of Pittsburgh and sit. At the time, you had to look hard to see a black person there,” recalls Hill, 70. “But I swore I would go to that school someday. Nobody thought I would do that. Praise be to God, he worked it out for me.” The accomplished pianist and music educator earned a doctorate from Pitt, a master’s from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor’s from Norfolk State University. He taught in the Pittsburgh Public Schools and at LaRoche College and is pastor of Greater Emmanuel AME Zionist Church in Aliquippa. But attaining professional success was a challenge. “When I was in junior His father supported his family by collecting paper for recycling, and his high, I’d walk over to the mother became a hairdresser, working long hours to supplement the family income. In elementary school, Hill enjoyed singing Stephen Foster songs but University of Pittsburgh was often beaten up by schoolmates because he liked music. He sometimes and sit. At the time, you cleaned houses to raise money for piano lessons, which cost 25 cents each. had to look hard to see Hill also succumbed to peer pressure and began hanging with “a bad a black person there. group,” playing hooky and smoking. He was kicked out of junior high and But I swore I would go high school. Feeling like an outcast, he lied about his age and joined the to that school someday.” Army at 16, only to be thrown out of the military, too, when officials learned his age. He was sent to live with an aunt in Manassas, Va., and, attended a black boarding school housed in a dilapidated building. “But,” Hill says, “that was the first time…that people cared about me — the first time. And this is where God really began his work in me. He planted a seed in me then that I alphwould never lose and would continue to grow.” Peggy Pierce Freeman says that music was “born” in her. Her mother was a church pianist; her sister was a vocalist; and the family discovered Freeman’s interest in musicPegg when she was about 4. “I was around music all the time. My father wasn’t a trained musician, Freeman was one of the few but…you came up Conemaugh Street, and the player piano was going,” says African Americans in the 1960s Freeman, who grew up in Pittsburgh’s Brushton and Homewood neighbor- invited to join the American hoods. “You could hear it when you hit the street, ’cause my father liked music… . Everyone in this family loves music.” Guild of Organists. She was the first black female member and Now 82 with 55 years experience as a musician, Freeman still remembers 11 paying for piano lessons in grade school by earning 75 cents a week to escort first African-American female a younger girl, who was being bullied, to school. life member of the Pittsburgh When Freeman was 9, she began taking piano lessons from Mary Piano Teachers Association. Cardwell Dawson, founder of the National Negro Opera Company and her “I pride myself in these mem- mentor. She also listened as another Dawson student took lessons — Freddy berships because it’s history. Jones, who would later be known as renowned jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. They’ll never be able to get me Dawson urged Freeman to study music at Carnegie Institute of off the books.” Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University. With a scholarship from a benefactor she declines to name, Freeman became one of only two black students in the day program at Carnegie Tech’s music school. Although she didn’t graduate from Carnegie Tech, what Freeman learned further enriched her musical background. She has worked as an organist at several churches, as an accompanist for choirs and as a piano teacher in her home. For 33 years, she was an accompanist at the Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Center for Musically Talented Students. Always the pioneer, Freeman was one of the few African Americans in the 1960s invited to join the American Guild of Organists. She was the first black female member and first African-American female life member of the Pittsburgh Piano Teachers Association. “I pride myself in these memberships because it’s history,” says Freeman. “They’ll never be able to get me off the books.”

The Elders’ and African American Oral History project’s next steps To generate momentum for his Elders project, Curtis Reaves plans to showcase excerpts of interviews before release of the full exhibit, scheduled for completion in 2007. He has an agreement with UPN Channel 19 to provide 30-second interview segments for broadcast in February as part of a “Wisdom Moments” public service series. He also is arranging to show an abbreviated version of the documentary in at least two locations in Pittsburgh that month. “I’m ramping things up for the big exhibit so that when it hits, there’s a buzz in the community,” Reaves says. Reaves has a letter from staff at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center expressing interest in displaying the completed project in 2007. He also is in negotia- tions for an exhibition at the African American Cultural Center, which is scheduled to open in downtown Pittsburgh in 2007. h 12

Photo by Cami Mesa HIGHER FIDELITY

HOW A BUNCH 91OF TIE-DYED 3 IDEALISTS

GOT TOGETHER

TO START A

RADIO STATION,

FOUGHT, WENT

BROKE, GOT

REAL JOBS,

LISTENED TO

THEIR HEARTS

AND RETURNED

TO BUILD THE

THIRD-LARGEST

INDEPENDENT

STATION IN

THE COUNTRY.

BY CHRISTINE

O’TOOLE 14 ay Christman, Bjork to Buffalo Springfield. DJs and recent $500,000 grant for the capital surveying Stone Mountain from his 22 volunteer hosts mine a 13,000-CD campaign to build the WYEP community terraced 10th-floor office in downtown library and computerized playlist to mix broadcast center. “But for reasons of both Atlanta, is choking with laughter. The Americana, alternative rock and country, artistic and cultural merits, we believe buttoned-down president of the city’s blues, folk and world music, often within WYEP is an important asset. It’s well Federal Home Loan Bank is recounting the same half hour. managed. It has a huge amount of his days with a scrappy community radio In its 30-year march from adolescence community support, and the station station in Pittsburgh— a low-frequency, to adulthood, 91.3 FM has followed a supports other local artists.” high-decibel, basement operation fueled path most Boomers would recognize: Through the past decade, the by zealotry, Benzedrine and hoarded youthful passion and experimentation; Endowments has contributed nearly LPs. As president of the station’s board self-doubt; longing for stability, respon- $1.2 million to the station. This includes of directors, Christman woke to the sibility and commitment; and finding six years’ worth of grants totaling ringing of his bedside phone one bitter the balance between self-expression and $600,000 to support “The Allegheny midwinter night in 1980. paying the bills. The station’s new build- Front,” the only environmental news “One night at 1 a.m., I got a call from ing, launched with the Endowments’ help, program in western Pennsylvania. the late-night DJ, W.T. Kolteck, who’d is proof that its board members, with an Environment Program Director Caren play stuff like The Clash and Elvis impressive business plan and a financial Glotfelty says the funds have helped the Costello. He was whispering,” says the surplus, have budget-conscious minds station make the program, developed by 56-year-old executive. “He told me he without having lost their rock-loving souls. volunteers, more professional. The result was being held hostage in the broadcast For WYEP, maturity means embrac- of the long-term investment is that booth by another volunteer who had ing its hometown with award-winning listener numbers are up. pulled a gun and was demanding that public affairs shows, a downtown concert “We are happy with the product, W.T. play ‘more coal mining music.’” series of national headliners, six-figure and we see opportunities for growth, The DJ, the kidnapper and the station fundraisers for causes like the Greater even to the point of becoming self- survived. But none of them could have Pittsburgh Food Bank and sales of in- supporting,” says Glotfelty. “The show predicted that their rabid, proprietary studio performance CDs. The hometown does an important local service in cover- passion for authentic music would has loved it back. Individual contributions ing environmental issues in western eventually give WYEP both the third- have doubled. Membership has tripled, Pennsylvania, but it’s grown to cover largest audience for “album adult alterna- and renewals are frequent. WYEP’s issues in the larger region.” tive” music in the nation — behind retention rate of 58.3 percent is the Such programming innovation and similar public radio stations in New York highest in the country among its peers. development have contributed to the and Philadelphia — and its own new “Because they’re heard and not seen, Endowments’ confidence in supporting performance space and broadcast center we don’t usually think of radio stations the station. on Pittsburgh’s South Side. as cultural assets,” says Mary Navarro. “As you see an institution struggling The station’s programming still defies As a senior officer in the Endowments’ to grow, you often don’t know, exactly, easy description, ranging from Beck to Arts & Culture Program, she directed its where it is headed,” says Navarro.

Christine O’Toole is a Pittsburgh-based writer whose last story for h, about changing lifestyles in the young to reduce childhood obesity, appeared in the Spring issue. Photo courtesy of WYEP

PERFORMANCESlatest, “We BecomeLikeBirds.” Will has madefouralbums,includingher Music Festivals.The27-year-oldsinger Summer at oneofthestation’srecent listeners Below: ErinMcKeownserenades WYEP fundraiserinthe1970s. balcony ofaSouthSideclubduring the from Price andhisbandrock ofWYEP’smission.Atleft:Billy part hasalwaysbeen established artists or byemerging Staging performances

Christopher Rollinson 15 Prosody

16 Each Saturday night, this program and Every Tuesday evening, WYEP airs Listeners can tune in Saturday mornings another, Blues and Rhythm, bring the best western Pennsylvania’s only to the Music Mix to hear an eclectic of local and national blues, rockabilly regularly scheduled radio program featuring collection of music that spans genres, and gospel, while mixing in jump, swing, contemporary poets and writers. generations and the globe. acoustic and rock styles.

“The Allegheny Front,” a weekly environmental Three times a week, this program helps The weekly Roots and Rhythm Mix is devoted radio program and web site, is designed listeners to discover new music or to the music of people and communities to deepen listeners’ respect for nature and find out new facts about their favorite albums. that thrive outside of the mainstream. inspire them to act in an environmentally responsible manner. Photo courtesy of WYEP Joshua Franzos Eclectic programming gives WYEP the spice that attracts a similarly varied audience. Opposite, bottom left: Maine singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne croons a tune in the station's studio. He has performed on “The Late Show with David Letterman” and won three awards at this year’s Boston Music Awards. This page, bottom left: Bill (W.T.) Koltek poses next to some groovy electronics in this 1976 photo. Bottom right: DJ Stephan Bontrager plays a wide variety of artists during WYEP’s Midday Mix, which airs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays. Bontrager moved to Pittsburgh from his hometown of Denver in 2001.

17 WYEP Audience Profile “At every stage, WYEP has successfully building. (The current signal is 18,000 Education taken the next logical step. If you’re really watts, less than half the strength of most High School Graduate 22% good, you get out of the basement.” commercial stations.) Some College 13% College Degree 36% Rosemary Welsch remembers the “It was off the air as much as it was Advanced Degree 29% basement days. “If you’d told me in on,” says attorney and current board September 1981 that we’d be moving into chairman Blaine Lucas, one of several Annual Income this new building, I’d have said ‘that’s a volunteers who’ve spent decades serving Under $25,000 7% $25,000–$34,000 17% fairy tale,’” says the 46-year-old Welsch, the station. “The meetings of our board, $35,000–$49,000 26% whose butterscotch voice has been a most of whom were the DJs, were fights $50,000–$74,000 19% signature at the station since then. over who took whose albums. It was an $75,000 + 31% WYEP’s new home on Bedford Square extension of a college radio station, part

Gender is a $3 million mansion compared to its of that second wave of public broadcast- Female 48% original crib in south Oakland, a typically ing stations.” Early programs, controlled Male 52% louche college neighborhood. Its Cable solely by the person commanding the Place studio was a pair of dingy sub- mike, linked art, music and politics. Age terranean rooms “whose only other use “One of the wonderful aspects was 25–34 21% 35–44 30% would have been as an S&M dungeon,” that every sexual, ethnic and political 45–54 34% recalls Christman. With a mission of interest group imaginable could and 55–64 13% “cultural ear shock,” the fledgling station generally did have their own radio Median Age 41 hit the airwaves in 1974, borrowing show — the Lesbian Republicans, the

Family Size 2.6 members space for an 850-watt transmitter atop Indian Lesbian Republicans,” says the University of Pittsburgh’s highest Christman facetiously. The Media Audit: Media Profile Report 2004 TUNED IN Joshua Franzos Tom Barr Tom 18 It was cultural ear shock all around. Rosemary Welsch and Bruce Mountjoy, market. In 1996, all restrictions on “We tried to be very respectful of that voted to restructure, in effect taking national ownership were lifted. While ad format,” recalls Peter Rosenfeld, a board themselves off the board.” revenues boomed, local programming member since 1979. “But it was con- The vote was agonizing and emo- variety went the way of Milli Vanilli. trolled chaos,” with predictable results. tional. “Some people left in protest. Meanwhile, programming at WYEP By the mid-1980s, programming There were broken relationships and edged toward a definitive style. languished. Federal funds dried up. So hurt feelings,” acknowledges Christman. “We didn’t have a format,” says did membership donations. “It wasn’t With the old board dissolved, a new Welsch. “So we trimmed off the extremes, sustainable,” says Rosenfeld. “We couldn’t executive committee put the station back took out jazz and bluegrass, and we really charge subscribers, like cable TV. We on the air in 1987. For the next two watched the phones. Our early choices were $20,000 in debt — not much, but years, they debated its identity and role. were folk-leaning. We’d occasionally play we didn’t have it. We weren’t doing what Pro bono consultants led discussions on Van Morrison or Joni Mitchell, but no the community wanted. And we were audience and programming. Beatles. We were moving into AAA— going to lose the license.” Research uncovered a demographic adult album alternative. At the time, we At the end of its first decade, Rosenfeld of mid-20s-to-50s listeners who were didn’t know what that was. Then new took the helm and convinced the board equally passionate about music, arts and artists like Sheryl Crow started breaking to take the first step to regroup: The media, and connecting to the commu- in AAA. She played in our studio and got station signed off the air. Small grants nity through volunteerism. From its col- great success with listeners.” from the Pittsburgh and Laurel founda- legiate roots, WYEP had always attracted The station sparingly added other tions allowed the station to match a youthful audience. While retaining well-known artists to the mix, heeding federal funds, creating the possibility many of those early loyal listeners, the audience requests. “People wanted to for a move to a stereo studio at nearby station began to build its numbers. Its hear the music they recognized, that no Chatham College. share of the overall Pittsburgh market of one else was playing. To guide our vol- Risking support for a station “in a million adult listeners, still small, was unteer hosts, we began to develop a list complete disarray” was a hazard for well-schooled: 84 percent of its listeners of core artists. We had to narrow down funders, says Endowments’ Arts & had attended college, and 26 percent had what we were doing — but not make Culture Program Director Janet Sarbaugh, graduate degrees. From a base of fewer it totally predictable. That’s still the who was a Pittsburgh Foundation staffer than 30,000 listeners at the beginning of challenge today.” at that time. But taking responsibility the ’90s, the station’s listeners now The balancing act between eclectic for the grant was equally daunting to number 85,000 weekly. and alternative still vexes listeners, who the station’s board. A climactic meeting With a bigger transmitter and staff, call on-air DJs, pepper the station with in spring 1986 addressed the issue. WYEP was attempting audience growth e-mails and even write to the newspaper. “The marching orders were, ‘you guys just as the ground rules of the broadcast “Compared with anything out there in have to start acting more like a normal industry shifted. After more than half of radio land, WYEP puts out great music,” nonprofit,’” remembers Lucas. “The deal the country’s commercial radio stations wrote listener Brian Connelly in a recent was, sever your on-air people from your lost money in 1990, corporations lobbied op-ed contribution to the Pittsburgh board members. To their credit, two DJs, to acquire more than one station per Post-Gazette. “But…can you be 19

WYEP takes its style of music and entertainment beyond the confines of the studio and into the community. At right: Even canine hair gets let down at this year’s WYEP Summer Music Festival. Below: Michael Penn, brother of actor Sean Penn, performs at a “World Cafe” taping. Below right: Zany Umbrella Circus performers move to their own groove at the station’s Raise the Roof event in August. Photo courtesy of WYEP Christopher Rollinson COMMUNITY Christopher Rollinson 20 non-commercial and service a commer-

Tom Barr Tom cial market?” Program Director Welsch also has heard the criticisms: that the playlist is bland “Starbucks alternative,” that it shuts out African Americans by ignoring hip-hop and rap. “That pulls a very young demographic, who at this point in their lives are not listening to public radio. We don’t exclude songs that have that element, and occasionally are criticized for that, too,” she says. As the station stepped into the vanguard of the adult alternative format, emerging local and national artists took heart. “WYEP and AAA radio are the only Joshua Franzos home a band like us has,” says 24-year- Josh Franzos old mandolinist Chris Thiles, of the Grammy– award-winning acoustic “We wanted to maximize the poten- Ferraro cites sponsorship of the combo Nickel Creek. “Sadly, there is only tial of our medium to do good things for Pittsburgh Blues Festival, which has a handful of stations that are looking for the community,” says station manager raised $100,000 for the region’s food the new — where a DJ’s taste dictates Lee Ferraro, who joined WYEP in 1996. bank, as “a perfect example. We’re about what gets on the air.” “We needed to get strategic. The Heinz music. We drive audiences to blues Quirky public affairs programming, Endowments advanced our critical shows, and they can raise money.” The a hallmark of the early era, survived thinking of how to do that.” station’s annual holiday concert benefits musical changes at WYEP. (It produces The Endowments’ Navarro concurs. child abuse –prevention programs. “Prosody,” Pittsburgh’s only literary talk “What we saw evolving was a resource Growing competition from Internet show, and airs syndicated programs like that could strengthen the whole structure radio began to worry Lucas. “If anyone “This Way Out,” a gay and lesbian news of the arts and cultural community.”At in a garage in Cleveland can get lots of show, and “This American Life,” with an Endowments-funded 1997 retreat, the CDs, put them on the air and sound like first-person audio essays.) The desire to board and staff identified four needs that WYEP, how do we protect our turf? serve local causes, musicians and concerts could benefit from WYEP airtime: arts We came to realize that, our great Web remained. But as requests proliferated, and culture, hunger, family and children, site and live streaming notwithstanding, setting priorities grew more difficult. and the environment. what was going to distinguish us was our CENTERPIEC

That was then; this is now. At far left, some of the WYEP staff in this undated photo from the late 1970s. At left, the station’s staff today in front of their new South Side building (left to right): Development Director Maura O’Neill, General Manager Lee Ferraro, Program Director Rosemary Welsch, Music Director Mike Sauter, Underwriting Sales Representative Tony Pirollo, and Marketing Director Melissa Franko.

21 local ties to the community, staying local Though the board had banked eight “A good capital campaign strategizes and having a sense of place. Embarking years of operating surpluses in anticipa- on how to bring people to the organiza- on that approach— as the rest of the tion of such a project, the capital tion who haven’t been there before and radio industry was changing into this campaign goal of $3.4 million was more offer opportunities for truly significant mass-consolidated, vanilla [industry]— of a stretch than a step. The board, now service,” says Ernie Gutierrez, Kresge’s has enabled us to set ourselves apart.” with years of corporate expertise to program director for special initiatives. A downtown concert series with head- match its passion, meticulously mapped “In that sense, WYEP appears to be a liners like Bonnie Raitt and Raul Malo a campaign that included research, a little gem.” brings audiences to theaters and events. crisp business plan and a catchy public With the capital goal met as the “We want to support the urban core,” campaign. The plan drew grants from moving vans arrive, graying veterans of says Ferraro. “So that was a natural [fit].” local philanthropies, such as the the board now face their next challenge: Since 1999, WYEP’s popular Summer Endowments and the Richard King obsolescence. “Agewise, we’re a homo- Music Festival has included a week of live Mellon Foundation, and, nationally, genous board. We run the gamut from broadcasts of “World Cafe,” a syndicated from the Kresge Foundation, which will 45 to 55,” says Lucas with a laugh. “We’re alt-music daily show. These special broad- add a bonus of $150,000 to its $350,000 bringing in new blood to figure out how casts from the Andy Warhol Museum commitment when the completed we’re going to use the performance showcase that venue and Pittsburgh to a building receives “green” certification. space, who we want to partner with and sophisticated audience at more than 200 Plans for the new broadcast center what kind of new programming we want.” stations nationwide. include an 85-person hall for live per- Those decisions will demand as much The looming end of the station’s lease formance; expanded studio space; and, patience as forging consensus on coal above Shootz Bar on Carson Street, its particularly important to Endowments mining music, but the station has the South Side home since 1994, motivated program staff, rooms for education out- chops to handle them. more strategic planning in 2001, again reach — from songwriting workshops Out of the basement and into the funded by the Endowments. This round to internships. “There are so many limelight — with a welcoming public addressed how WYEP could finally afford things we can do under our brand,” says face and a place to match its new cultural to buy a home. Rosenfeld. “Isn’t that a sickening term? stature — 91.3 continues to keep music The Bedford Square site is just blocks But when you say ‘YEP,’ people know in its soul. When Welsch cues up David from Shootz on the South Side, a funky what you’re talking about.” Bowie’s “Rock and Roll with Me” as a neighborhood described as having “both The station’s notoriety isn’t casual. rousing finale to her afternoon show, kinds of blue hair,” for its grannies and In the capital campaign, devotees pulled the audience applause may be unheard, Goths. When the existing 19th-century out their wallets in impressive numbers. but the station’s reception in town has structure proved unsuitable for rehab, Some 1,700 listeners contributed $1.2 never been stronger. h architect Kevin Gannon designed a million, topping the $1 million target for new, environmentally sustainable that group. As expected, current mem- “green” building, a requirement for bers comprised the bulk of the donors. Endowments’ funding. 22

UNTIL ITS CLOSING LAST YEAR, A NONDESCRIPT SCHOOL BUILDING ON A HILL OVERLOOKING

DOWNTOWN PITTSBURGH HAD BEEN A BEACON FOR IMMIGRANTS STRUGGLING TO LEARN

ENGLISH. NOW, LOCAL FOUNDATIONS SEE THEIR AGENDAS FURTHERED BY KEEPING

THE WELCOME LIGHT BURNING. BY GREGG RAMSHAW PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNIE O’NEILL Lois Feldman, arms folded and full of confidence from nearly 25 years of teaching English to Pittsburgh’s immigrants, is flanked by students (from left) Jiratchaya Muscari of Thailand, Mayang Bezner of Venezuela, and Leonid Brusilovskiy of Russia during a class break at the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council’s Downtown Center. NO behindadult left rom her third-floor classroom at Connelley Tech, Lois Feldman offered her adult students two things: a commanding view of downtown Pittsburgh, F and, if they worked at it, a command of the English language. For 24 years, Feldman conducted an English as Second Language class, known as ESL, at the Clifford B. Connelley Technical Institute and Adult Education Center, perched above the city and a giant portal to the Hill District. But no more room with a view. Feldman now teaches her class on the fifth floor of an office building several blocks away. The old Chamber of Commerce building at Seventh and Smithfield is Duquesne Light Co.’s headquarters, but it’s also home to the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council’s new Downtown Center. When it was built in 1929, Connelley was an education landmark — a nationwide model for vocational training. Now it is an almost-vacant shell, most of its contents having been auctioned off in July. On a brighter day last summer, Feldman was teaching an intermediate ESL class and showed students a birthday card featuring a dairy cow and the phrase “Have a moo-vah-less birthday.” The students — Russian, Japanese, Moldavian, Chinese and Indian — were stumped as she tried to explain that “moo-vah-less” is an almost- homonym for “marvelous.” Finally, the pun registered and there were some chuckles. “That’s American humor — for better or for worse,” she warned them, in relating the quick culture lesson to language studies. From its origins in the 1930s as a vocational school for boys to its later role beginning in the 1970s as an adult-education center, Connelley gave men and women from outside the American mainstream education system the tools to find good-paying jobs to support themselves and their families. Alex Ryzhik Russian immigrant “Certainly none had ESL programs as good as Connelley’s,” turned caterer and grocer ETHNIC FOOD, SQUIRREL HILL says Gerald Balbier, the Endowments’ senior program officer for education. “This wasn’t just a nice thing to do to acclimate newcomers. We need to preserve programs like English “We thought it was important to be close to the Connelley instruction that support immigrants and may attract others.” building,” says Literacy Council Executive Director Don Block. The Literacy Council had the infrastructure, so the “People had built a pattern of going there…and we wanted Endowments stepped forward in December with a $100,000 to make it an easy transition. It was essential that the center grant to help the council replace the academic parts of the be on a major bus route. The private funding made the Connelley program. The board renewed that grant last month. facility possible.” A major Endowments goal is to get people from other Since the city school board established an adult-learning countries to come to western Pennsylvania, join the workforce center at Connelley in 1971, some 46,000 adult students have and help generate economic opportunity in the region. In the graduated from the acronym soup of programs: ABE, Adult last 15 years, the Endowments has awarded nearly $4.6 million Basic Education, the basic academic and life skills most people to programs designed to attract and retain immigrants. need to survive; GED, General Educational Development Other foundations — Eden Hall, Buhl, Equitable Resources diploma, the equivalent of a high school diploma for those and the Urban Affairs philanthropy of the United Jewish who dropped out or never completed the traditional four-year Federation — also have boosted the Literacy Council’s program; and ESL, which helps immigrants learn the language Downtown Center project. Private funding, including the of their new homeland. Endowments grant, for the center’s start-up totals $225,000. These students attended Connelley days, nights and That sum and a $400,000 allotment from state government weekends, mostly free, with the visible promise of Pittsburgh have enabled the council to hire teachers, buy materials, and stretched out before them in office buildings, retail stores, lease, renovate and equip office space. factories and universities.

Gregg Ramshaw, a producer for public television’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, formerly known as the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, for 21 years in Washington, is now a freelance writer in Pittsburgh. This is his first story for h. Donald G. Block, the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council’s executive director for the past 21 years, talks with staff mem- bers at the Literacy Council’s Downtown Center. Before head- ing the Pittsburgh organization, Block ran a similar adult literacy program for a four-county rural area north of the city. 25 Victor Beltrán moved to the city from Peru 15 years ago, made it clear an architect with no money and no English language skills. he didn’t like He took the only ESL class he could afford — the one offered government’s at Connelley for no cost. He now works for Astorino, one of abandonment of the city’s leading building and design firms. adult education. H.J. Heinz Co. executives brought Eliezar Sanchez, 37, a ESL teacher Carol food-processing engineer at its Venezuela plant, to Pittsburgh Schutte, who about a decade ago. He learned English at Connelley and taught 30 years earned one master’s degree in business administration and at Connelley, another in environmental science at Duquesne University. remembers several Today he travels around the world as an associate food visits by Heinz. technologist for Del Monte. “He’d always walk But despite a long list of such testimonials and an impres- up from downtown sive record of academic achievement in decades of service to unaccompanied. the city, Connelley could not be sustained. He’d trudge up the Enrollment declined as immigration and the city’s population stairs, shake hands growth slowed. Employment needs shifted away from traditional with teachers and skilled trades, and state legislators and policymakers found students and talk with them, and then walk back downtown.” other uses for such funds. Last year, then–Pittsburgh Public In one of his meetings with Pittsburgh school board members, Schools Superintendent John Thompson finally pulled the Heinz vowed to “do all in [his] power to see that appropriate plug. Connelley’s adult academic programs and its 75-year-old federal funds are made available to support [Connelley’s] vocational-education facilities were shut down. vital mission.” “You really couldn’t blame him,” Joseph Poerio, Jr., “He was instrumental in keeping us open,” Feldman recalls. Connelley’s last director, says of Thompson. “The public Connelley survived another 16 years. schools’ mandate is to educate children, pre-kindergarten As the inevitable loomed in recent years, Endowments through 12th grade. Although I hated to see the place close, officials recognized the need to make an investment in a suc- adults are not really the Board of Education’s responsibility cessor to Connelley to keep its academic courses going. Local when you get right down to it.” community colleges and trade schools would fill the void left That argument had been kicking around for several years, it by the closing of Connelley’s vocational programs. turns out. In 1986, a study by the Pennsylvania Economy League The Literacy Council’s Block took the initiative, asking the concluded that Pittsburgh school district taxpayers should not Endowments to endorse his bid for the state and federal pay for Connelley’s adult program. One author of the report monies that had been funding the Connelley program. Block wrote that Pittsburgh may have been the only school district applied to state education officials, and the Literacy Council east of the Mississippi River supporting such an arrangement. received the $400,000 grant to restart Connelley’s adult-learning Two years after the study, Pennsylvania Sen. John Heinz was program at a new location. The money was a state allocation of heading a Republican task force on job-training programs and federal adult-education funds. 26 The Downtown Center, open since January, has five Adult Basic Education students have had criminal or drug classrooms that can each hold up to 20 students. The facility abuse problems. also has a computer lab, carrels for one-to-one tutoring and “Mention my name in your article and maybe someone some offices for staff. will want to hire me,” Thornton says with a confident grin. Officials with other foundations that gave grants to the cen- Literacy Council staffers say student achievement is at its ter say they view preserving the former Connelley programs as best and most consistent in the ESL program. “ESL students important for Pittsburgh’s future. Its work with immigrants is are the most determined of the adult-learning students,” says particularly attractive to the United Jewish Federation, which Greg Mims, the council’s public relations director. has a long history of resettling Jews from other countries in the One explanation could be that those students may be more Pittsburgh area. motivated and have less troubled backgrounds. Maria Urbandt, “We feel that the vibrancy of our city is well served by the 42, spoke no English when she came to the United States with infusion of diverse constituencies and that immigration is an her surgeon husband from their native Argentina in 2003. important driver of that vibrancy,” says Estelle Comay, a mem- Private schools and even University of Pittsburgh classes were ber of the federation’s Urban Affairs Foundation board. “This not as helpful, she says, as the Connelley program. “I can pay in an endeavor that we are committed to, feel very strongly anywhere, but the best teachers are here. Here we learn from about and want to continue for whatever population, Jewish scratch…the language and the culture. It’s not the same at and non-Jewish, that comes to Pittsburgh.” other places, where you just get the language and not necessar- On a Tuesday morning in June, there are two ESL classes in ily the culture.” progress. The students and their teachers sit casually in circles There has been a high demand for the center’s services since in bright, functional rooms. In one class, Danielle Evonich, a Connelley closed, Dow says. “We could have an even larger full-time salaried instructor, is asking her students simple ques- program. We’re getting a large draw from all over the city. And tions: “When is your birthday? How many people are in your we haven’t had to turn anyone away.” Replacing the academic family? What color eyes do you have? Who is sitting next to you?” classes offered by Connelley now consumes about 20 percent As part of this exercise, the students write down the answers of the Literacy Council’s program operations. The $400,000 and then try to formulate a reply in English. This is considered state allocation is good through the end of next June but then a high beginners class. Evonich’s students are from Sudan, must be renewed. Turkey, Congo, Morocco, Japan, Russia, Albania and Korea. The Literacy Council’s Block, a soft-spoken man with a salt- They’ve been in the United States for anywhere from 10 and-pepper beard, contemplates the future of adult education months to six years. Only the Japanese student says she plans as he sits in the Literacy Council’s main offices in East Liberty, to return home. a still somewhat rundown part of town, where blight and In a GED class, volunteer Joy Weatherwax, an aspiring writer urban renewal co-exist amid new construction and empty on hiatus from full-time employment, sits next to 35-year-old buildings and storefronts. Theresa Thornton as they work on word problems in math. He questions some of the boundaries set up by those trying The mother of two teenagers, Thornton readily describes to improve public education systems for children. “Doesn’t a herself as a recovering substance abuser with only a 10th-grade public school board have a vested interest in adult education education, but she now wants to complete her secondary edu- and literacy? Adults who are dropouts and go back and get cation so she can go back to work. Alex Dow, the 28-year-old their GEDs raise kids who do better in school. They don’t director of the center, estimates that 30 percent of its GED or repeat the pattern of illiteracy,” he says. Victor Beltrán Peruvian immigrant turned architect ASTORINO, DOWNTOWN

27 should be left behind, either!” he shouted. That line drew cheers. Despite the fervor of the organ- izers, the rally generated little publicity in Pittsburgh and none in Washington, even though a funding slash of such magnitude presents a huge challenge for nonprofit organizations and philanthropists. “Private donors don’t want to be surrogates for what they believe is the government’s responsibility,” says Block. “We have excellent rap- port with private donors; we have their support. But we can’t expect them to substitute their funds for the government’s.” Block says he hopes the enroll- ment numbers will make the case for continued funding from the state. By July, the new center had 398 students. Clearly, with funding in place, there is strong evidence that more students will graduate from the program and return the public- education investment many times That view was advanced noisily this year by more than 100 over into the regional economy. Alex Ryzhik, 54, of Greenfield, demonstrators on a sun-drenched first day of summer. Local a Russian immigrant who spent two years at Connelley study- adult literacy providers organized a lunchtime rally in the west ing English in the 1990s, attended ESL class in the morning courtyard of the Carnegie Library in Oakland to call attention and worked as a dishwasher, waiter and bartender at night. to announced 75 percent cuts in federal spending for adult In the decade since, he’s built a booming catering business, education. In Pennsylvania, that would mean a drop from banquet hall and ethnic food store in Squirrel Hill. $19.3 million this year to $4.8 million next year. He’s grateful for the encouragement Feldman and Schutte Joe Moyo, who arrived in the United States from Zimbabwe gave him as he struggled with a new language in a new in 1963 and now is director of the academic department country. “They were very, very good teachers,” says Ryzhik. at Bidwell Training Center, was one of several speakers who “Only in the United States could this happen, believe me. exhorted the crowd. “If no child should be left behind, no adult I love this country.” h 28 here&there Endowments program directors Margaret Petruska and of Environmental Resources. Also noted were Glotfelty’s STAFF Caren Glotfelty were honored recently with awards for efforts to encourage young women in her field when significant contributions to their fields. she was Pennsylvania State University’s Maurice K. updates At its September conference, Grantmakers for Goddard Professor of Forestry and Environmental Children, Youth & Families gave Petruska the 2005 Fred Resource Conservation. Rogers Leadership Award in Philanthropy for Children, In internal Endowments changes, Wayne Jones was Youth & Families. Petruska, the Endowments program promoted in September from program associate to director for this area, was recognized for her leadership program officer with Children, Youth & Families. His in municipal, county and duties include research and analysis, using information state reforms. She was com- and technology to improve organizations’ performance. mended for her instrumental Prior to joining the Endowments in December 2002, role in establishing family Jones worked for Great Lakes Behavioral Research as a support programs to eliminate consultant to Allegheny County’s Department of Human child fatalities in abuse and Services. He previously served as an analyst for Virginia’s neglect cases and in develop- Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. ing “A Better Start,” a groundbreaking maternal and Also in September, Carmen J. Lee joined the staff child health program to reduce Pennsylvania’s infant as communications officer. She will be responsible for mortality rate. She also was recognized for shaping the editing this magazine and assisting with internal com- Endowments’ support of a statewide early childhood munications. Lee joins the Endowments after 20 years education initiative for low-income children. at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she reported on Glotfelty, Endowments Environment Program several areas, including the Pittsburgh Public Schools, director, was among six Pennsylvania environmental which she covered for 11 years. For the past two years, leaders honored by Gov. Ed Rendell during a state she was editor of the Post-Gazette’s weekly East edition. dinner at the Governor’s Residence in October. She was recognized for her work in environmental innovation, ecosystem management, watershed protection and sustainable urban design. Among her highlighted achievements was guiding Pennsylvania into joining the Chesapeake Bay Nutrient Reduction effort, a project that later contributed to her serving as deputy water management secretary in the Pennsylvania Department

PHOENIXAMD&ART Inc. of Vintondale, Pa., was recently named AWARDdrainage scientists, public historians, and landscape winner of a national Phoenix Award, which recognizes excep- artists and architects to create a 35-acre public park and tional projects in brownfield redevelopment. The organization an acid mine drainage treatment system on the former is the recipient of the Community Impact Award for Mine Vinton Colliery site. The park’s colorful plants and trees Scarred Lands, marking the first time a Phoenix Award has create a type of living artwork that has enhanced land been given for a project addressing land damaged by mining. redevelopment efforts. The Endowments awarded AMD&ART a $50,000 The Phoenix Award program was created in 1997 grant in 1999 to help fund innovative acid mine drainage to honor individuals and groups from across the country remediation and community revitalization in Vintondale, that are working to transform abandoned industrial areas Cambria County. The project brought together acid mine through productive new uses. 29 MUSIC AND ART INSTALLATION ADDED TO PITTSBURGH’S STRAWBERRY WAY

Design and artistic improvements to downtown Pittsburgh’s much-used pedestrian throughway continue with the solar- SUMMER INTERNS powered transmission of music along Strawberry Way. Titled Endowments’ Children, Youth & Families Program V24/7/365, the project uses solar energy to power an audio Officer Wayne Jones, foreground, poses with interns amplifier and computer that continuously broadcast a musical Adrienne Atterberry, left; Kathryn McCaffrey; and Carson composition loosely based on Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.” Bruno during a site visit to the Sarah Heinz House Also as part of the ongoing Strawberry Way Enhancement on Pittsburgh’s North Side. The three local high school graduates learned more Project, “Phantasm,” an eye-catching public art installation of about giving back to their community this summer illuminated images, was installed in May. Both efforts are being by helping the Endowments award six interim grants led by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and are supported totaling $100,000. The grants were approved based on by a $75,000 grant from the Endowments’ Civic Design Initiative. the students’ recommendations. To create V24/7/365, solar panels were mounted on the While the Endowments’ internship program has Strawberry Way side of the AT&T building to power the audio always provided youth with the opportunity to learn about philanthropy, this was the first time students amplifier and computer. The audio signal from the amplifier worked in the grant-making process. travels to four speakers along the walkway, enabling the music Atterberry, an Ellis School graduate now attending to be heard by passersby. The project was conceived by local the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Bruno, artist Jeremy Boyle and architect Gerard Damiani. who graduated from Avonworth High School and is now “Phantasm,” by California artist Laurel Beckman, includes a freshman at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, illuminated street signs, a 100-foot-long row of illuminated, Va.; and McCaffrey, a Mt. Lebanon High School graduate color-changing panels and a band of LED — light-emitting in her first year at Pennsylvania State University, evaluat- ed projects designed to benefit teenagers in the region. diodes — lighting on the side of the Smithfield-Liberty Parking With guidance from Endowments staff, the interns Garage. In the photo below, Beckman stands beneath one of the researched issues facing the community, reviewed four illuminated images of human or animal eyes strategically reports about youth in the region and conducted 16 site placed throughout the alleyway. visits. They recommended six proposals from among 32 applications. They also suggested that the grantees form their own youth philanthropy teams to work with Endowments staff on small grant-making projects. The six grants approved based on the interns’ work

eserved. Reprinted with permission. were: $15,000 to the Pittsburgh Project’s Leaders in Training Program; $15,000 to the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh’s community service projects for building understanding among regional youth; $20,000 to the Human Services Center Corp.’s career and interpersonal development program; $16,000 to the North Hills Community Outreach’s youth volunteer referral service; $17,000 to Carnegie Science Center’s student science program; and $17,000 to Magee-Womens Hospital’s peer health education program. Copyright, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2005, all rights r THE HEINZ ENDOWMENTS NONPROFIT ORG

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