In The News

The Ai Weiwei exhibit at the Andy Warhol museum has been extended through September 11th. The exhibit displays the work of Weiwei, the provocative Chinese artists who has attracted the ire of his home country’s government on multiple occasions, being jailed in 2011. (Funding for the exhibit was provided by W. Paul Spencer Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation.)

As community foundations nationwide, including the Pittsburgh Foundation, look forward after the tech failures during Give Local America Day in May, they discuss the ways they hope to improve these events going forward. Representatives from various groups across the nation held conference calls to identify the problems that plagued the last event and to create a plan of action for future community giving days.

The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation announced $1.8 million in total across 8 grants on Wednesday. The grants were awarded to researchers at both local and state universities.

Presented in collaboration with The Pittsburgh Foundation, the event also served as a prelude to Desmond’s Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures talk on his New York Times bestselling book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, an in-depth, intimate look at America’s affordable housing crisis as seen through the experiences of eight Milwaukee families and two struggling landlords. 

Harvard sociologist Matthew Desmond gave a lecture about the costs of eviction to Pittsburgh tenants, landlords, and public officials at the University of Pittsburgh. Desmond is touring the country in support of his book Eviction, which tells the story of various families and individuals facing the fallout from eviction in Milwaukee.

The conversation was facilitated by the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Foundation and Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures.

Local veterans are experiencing lowered levels of anxiety, depression, and stress after receiving highly trained dogs from the Florida-based Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs Inc. One of the dogs can even tell her owner, who has diabetes, if his blood-sugar level is too high or low. “Twenty-two is the number of veterans who commit suicide each day,” activist Tony Accamando said. “For veterans who have received a Guardian Angel dog, the number of suicides is zero.”

Author Matthew Desmond is giving a lecture today on the effects of eviction on both tenants and landlords. Though his book Eviction is set in Milwaukee, Desmond thinks that the stories he tells are applicable to any Rust Belt city, including Pittsburgh. Note: This article includes a quote from Max King, and Mr. Desmond’s lecture is sponsored by the Pittsburgh Foundation.  

The event was the first of Ligonier Valley Historical Society's History With a Purpose events, which recently received a $3,000 grant from a group of young philanthropists, the Visionaries of the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County.  

Olga M. Welch has been dean and professor at the Duquesne University School of Education since 2005 and has served on many community boards in Pittsburgh, including The Pittsburgh Promise, The Hill House Association and Communities in Schools. She is working on a book about African-American women leaders in education.