Parking spots become parks Sept. 17 on Schenley Drive

On Sept. 17, parking spaces on Schenley Drive near Hillman Library will be transformed into mini-parks, for the annual PARK(ing) Day.

Students and staff from the University Library System Archives and Special Collections; Parking, Transportation & Services; the Graduate School of Public Health; and ARTificial, the University’s student art club will decorate the parking spots, with the help of the Center for Creativity.

“Play is an essential, and often overlooked or undervalued, component of creativity,” said Erik Schuckers, the Center for Creativity’s manager of communications and programming. “Our partners have really embraced this idea, and planned spaces that are fun, interactive, and community- oriented.”

The Center for Creativity, along with Parking, Transportation & Services, organized the first Pitt PARK(ing) Day in 2017 in what is now Schenley Quad.

“I think that what you’ve seen with the transformation of Schenley Quad from parking spaces into a community gathering space is a great example of the power of the ideas behind Park(ing) Day,” Schuckers said.

Pitt’s PARK(ing) Day celebration is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 17. Community members are invited to visit the parking spaces on Schenley Drive between Posvar Hall and Hillman Library and take part in the celebration.

PARK(ing) Day was created in 2005 in San Francisco when three designers used 200 square feet of lawn, a 15-foot-tall tree and a rented park bench in a metered parking space as a site for art, activism and cultural expression.

Other Center for Creativity events

The Center for Creativity has a busy schedule for the fall. Starting Sept. 13, the Workshop at the University Store on Fifth is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. The new Text & context Lab in Hillman Library is open from 1 to 8 p.m. daily. Here are some upcoming events:

  • One Minute Film Festival: programming running throughout October with screening on Oct. 28

  • PITTch: From Spark to Screen panel (turning your idea into a film): tentatively Nov. 11

The center also is partnering with Pitt NAMI on a Mental Health Awareness Month in October with a virtual art showcase and open mic night on Oct. 20, and with the Latinx Connect organizers to host a virtual artifact showcase (Sept. 15-Oct. 15), and with UCIS on a series of creative making/cultural diversity workshops in October and November, then more in winter/spring. 

Find other workshops on the Center for Creativity website.

— Susan Jones

 

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