In The News

Noted civil rights activist and Congressman John Lewis will discuss his life experiences during a discussion Saturday at the August Wilson Center on Liberty Avenue, Downtown.

The Caliguiri Fund of the Pittsburgh Foundation is giving $460,000, combined with a $275,000 grant from the Simeon M. and Katherine Reed Jones Fund to help launch the chair. A similar amount is expected from the University of Pittsburgh.

The Forbes Funds is expanding its executive-in-residence program, an initiative launched in 2014 that has thus far provided assistance to 100 Allegheny County nonprofits. The organization is increasing the number of retired executives who mentor nonprofit leaders from one to five. By doing so, it hopes to help more organizations and better address specialized issues. 

The Pittsburgh Foundation on Wednesday announced a partnership to create new $2 million endowed chair honoring the late Mayor Richard Caliguiri. The chair position, at the University of Pittsburgh, will focus on finding a cure for amyloidosis, the condition that led to Caliguiri’s death in 1988.

The Caliguiri family’s wishes are finally coming to fruition with the establishment of the Richard S. Caliguiri Endowed Chair in Amyloidosis and Heart Failure at the University of Pittsburgh. The chair will be endowed with $2 million that includes a combination of money from the Pittsburgh Foundation and the University of Pittsburgh. The endowment was scheduled to be announced this morning. The foundation’s contribution includes money from the Richard S. Caliguiri Fund, which the late mayor’s family established at the foundation soon after he died. 

Pittsburgh is the fifth highest recipient of foundation funding in the nation, receiving $157.13 per capita. It makes sense: The city is home to more than 250,000 residents, is in Act 47, the state's distressed cities recovery program, and is home to a number of large foundations. The Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation are just two of the many large foundations based in Pittsburgh that distribute grants in the area.

For the past week, a handful of dancers/creators/artists from The Space Upstairs in Point Breeze have been coloring Downtown sidewalks and streets with vibrant chalk art and dance. They’re calling it “Thought Pockets,” a pop-up outdoor series running through Friday that features improvised dance and abstract drawings. The project is the work of The Ellipses Condition, a collaboration between dancer/choreographer Pearlann Porter and musician/poet John Lambert.

Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh grantee Marcel Walker reviews a new graphic novel about the achievements of Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., lion of the civil rights movement. "... When the prose on that paper is taken directly from Mr. Lewis’ own powerful firsthand testimony and coupled with emotionally immersive artwork, a wonderful alchemy takes place. The reader is posited in the middle of a living history just as relevant today as it was more than half a century ago." Rep. Lewis and the authors will speak at the August Wilson Center on Oct. 8.

How does the president of The Forbes Funds spend her week? In this NEXT Up profile, Dewey states that she has “… a great job as president of The Forbes Funds finding ways to help community nonprofits be resilient and nimble, provide more effective services, manage the challenges of limited capital funding, and having to adjust to an ever-changing set of social issues.”

It had stormed the night before, hard enough to postpone the Pirates game and scrub the air, leaving it sharp and glittering for the early morning joggers along the North Shore Trail. The bridges overhead buzzed with the aggregate sound of thousands of people going to work. Halfway between PNC…