Get them while they’re hot

Advance ticket sales will be ending Saturday at noon. Tickets will still be available at the door for $40.

Local Artist: Margaret Hagan

Margaret is the artist behind Razblint Crafts, custom made, uniquely designed dolls, monsters, animals, bags, and wall hangings.  Each is handmade from repurposed materials, out of everything from sweatshirts to upholstery samplers.  They are strange, they are cute, and they all come from Pittsburgh.

Schedule of Events

Our entertainment schedule has been finalized and our line-up is sure to delight and amaze.

7:30 PM Ringmaster’s welcome

-Jeffrey Dorsey, Executive Director

8:00 PM Documentary Film Unveiling

-Art Institute of Pittsburgh Students

8:30 PM Zumba Demonstration

9:00 PM West African Dance

9:30 PM Live Auction

-Justin Strong, Shadow Lounge and AVA and Karriem Sami, USED, GET:Larimer, and amateur hula hooper

In addition to performances on our stage, Unwrapped will be featuring entertainment throughout the building. Hula Hoopers from our Hoop Jam class will be performing all over, even outside (weather permitting). Our choir loft will be taken over by a grand puppet installation by Flora Shepherd.  Slackline walkers and jugglers will be performing during the evening in the Great Hall and a tarot card reader in the Atrium. Our studio arts space will feature a live painter as well as demonstrations from all of our main class offerings including: stained glass, mosaic, and ceramic throwing, hand-building, and decaling.

These talented artists and performers are just a few of the many offerings  at our circus. Join us Saturday to see all the things we’ve managed to fit under our “big tent.”

Local Artist: Alexis Royall

Alexis Royall is a 13 year old ceramics and fiber artist. Majoring in graphic design at Pittsburgh’s CAPA 6-12 and now a student at Union Project’s studio, her mother jokes that Alexis was born with a brush in her hand. Despite her artistic talent, Alexis aspires to be a chef and will be providing Unwrapped’s cupcake selection.

Local Artist: Layne Wyse

Layne is a local ceramicist who has partnered with Union Project to run wood fired ceramics classes and projects. The following is his artist statement:

“I spend a lot of time in the kitchen: drinking coffee, reading the
newspaper, cooking, baking, eating.  For generations, the kitchen was
the room in which people spent the most time awake.  My wood fired
functional pieces attempt to draw people back to the kitchen, to
gather around a meal and a conversation, with pots whose rich, warm
colors reflect those of good food and laughter.”

Local Artist: Garret Smith

Garret is a local ceramics artist participating in our artist sale. Below is an exerpt from his artist statement:

“My work as a ceramic artist has always fought the balance between functionality and aesthetic.  I usually create high fire stoneware pieces, and apart from the occasional bout of lunacy when I feel compelled to hand sculpt a piece; everything is made on the potters wheel.

The body of work you see here is a good representation of my various experimentation over the last few years.  There are incredibly varying glaze combination fired in a number of different environments.  There also is a good sampling of what I’ve tried sculpturally for design experimentation as a potter.

So in the interest of brevity for myself as well as you, the reader/ potential buyer of art, I will simply allow you to return to viewing and thank you for your time taken to browse my work.“

Local Artists: FYI

Fly Young and Independent (FYI) is a design and fashion business formed by 23 middle school girls from Faison Intermediary in Homewood through their after school program. Now in its 3rd year of business, the girls design, sew and create all of their own products ranging from gift bags, accessories, scarves, and clothing to logos, t-shirts, and digital designs.  In the FYI program the participants are taught about starting and maintaining a business, money management, art design, fashion creation, and the art of sewing.

Local Artist: Parvaneh Torkamani

Parvaneh is a painter whose work will be in the local artist sale. She also works as a development intern for Union Project.

Local Artist: Judith Gentile

Judith is a painter and jewlery artist participating in Unwrapped’s local artist sale. The following is an exerpt from  Judith’s artist statement: “I enjoy working working intuitively, whether I am painting, or designing my original jewlery. Allowing what happens, when water and paint combines, to dictate the outcome of each painting, I find exciting! I look forward to these ‘happy accidents,’ as one of my former intructors would describe it.

As for my woven and wire wrapped jewlery, I am drawn to unusual stones, and enjoy the challenge of including these in my sometimes abstract compositions, often allowing the base piece to dictate the flow of each design. I also prefer to use semiprecious stones in a more natural state to produce a more organic asethetic appearance to my work.”

Local Artist: Anna Duchene

Anna Duchene is an artist specializing in woodcut prints. Here is an excerpt from Anna’s artist statement: “In the woodcut prints presented here I used instinctive mark making, simplification of form, and manipulation of color to represent three very ordinary, but modestly beautiful subjects from my recent encounters. Carving each from a single block of wood, I deconstructed the images into multiple layers of subtle color and grayscale. I sought to capture the simple soul in each of my subjects, whether organic or inanimate in nature, rather than attempting to recreate a printed replica of what my eyes experienced.”