‘GATE III,’ A 15-FOOT BRONZE ARCHWAY, BY THADDEUS MOSLEY. IT’S PART OF ‘TOUCHING THE EARTH,’ A SCULPTURE SERIES ON DISPLAY AT CITY HALL PARK IN NEW YORK CITY THAT IS COMING TO ARTS LANDING. | PHOTO BY NICHOLAS KNIGHT, COURTESY PUBLIC ART FUND, NY

As construction on the $31 million Arts Landing — a new entertainment area in the heart of Downtown’s Cultural District — progresses on schedule, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has announced a public art program that will grace the area when it opens in April 2026.

Thaddeus Mosley, Vanessa German and John Peña are among eight artists or artist collectives with Pittsburgh ties whose works will be on display in the 4-acre 8th Street Block Civic Space. The works will be of “global relevance that honor Pittsburgh’s cultural identity,” according to the announcement.

The 8th Street project is on track for a soft opening just before the NFL Draft, to be held April 23-25, that could bring as many as 700,000 people to Pittsburgh. The grand opening will coincide with the start of the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival the following June; Arts Landing will be the festival’s permanent home starting next year.

“We’re on schedule, on budget,” Trust President and CEO Kendra Whitlock Ingram said in an interview this week. “All good things, particularly when you only have about seven months left of construction. So that’s great.”

She said the stormwater system is in, work is underway on grading the elevation changes in the great lawn area and on renovating Cultural Trust-owned buildings at 819 and 821 Penn Ave. that will house a visitors center and public restrooms.

‘INCLINATION,’ A SCULPTURE BY THADDEUS MOSLEY ON DISPLAY IN CITY HALL PARK IN NEW YORK CITY. THE SERIES OF SCULPTURES, ‘TOUCHING THE EARTH,’ IS COMING TO ARTS LANDING NEXT YEAR. | PHOTO BY NICHOLAS KNIGHT, COURTESY OF PUBLIC ART FUND, NY.

Paving will start throughout the space in early September and the bandshell will be built in early 2026. The furnishings will go in during March, she said.

“Even the trees will be planted in April, which I think we weren’t initially expecting,” she said. “The only thing left after the Draft is the perennial and annual flower plantings that have to happen in May.”

The public art project for Arts Landing was developed by Anastasia James, director of Galleries & Public Art for the Trust, with guidance from the Trust’s Public Art and Design Committee.

“Our goal with Arts Landing is to present thoughtful programming prioritizing artist-driven collaborations and public participation, while further highlighting Pittsburgh as a leader in contemporary public art,” James said in a statement.

THADDEUS MOSLEY TURNS 100 NEXT YEAR | COURTESY PITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST

Among the new pieces, bronze sculptures by Mosley, currently on display in City Hall Park in New York City until Nov. 9, will move to Arts Landing. The exhibit also will celebrate his 100th birthday, which will occur in July 2026. He was born in New Castle and his studio is in the Chateau neighborhood of the North Side. The series of sculptures, “Touching the Earth,” was commissioned by Public Art Fund, which brings dynamic contemporary art to a broad audience in New York City.

German, known as a citizen artist from Homewood, will be designing “Lifted,” a series of sculptural benches in tribute to Pittsburgh elders. She will cast aluminum benches from hand tracings of city residents over the age of 100. There will be community engagement sessions scheduled across the city that will create intergenerational storytelling and collective relevance to celebrate the benches.

Other artists to be featured include:

• “Sculptures of Regional Wildlife” by Darian Johnson, created in partnership with VaultArt Studio, a progressive arts organization that supports artists with disabilities. This series of sculptural works is inspired by local fauna. In his work, Johnson celebrates inclusion and imagination — offering a powerful vision for public art that reflects a true diversity of perspectives and lived experiences.
• “For the Birds” by Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis. This project will serve as a whimsical ecological intervention, featuring towering, powder-coated steel sculptures designed as perches, swings, and platforms for birds, reimagining circus architecture as sites of freedom and agency.
• “This Is the Body of the Sun” by Mikael Owunna and Marques Redd. This work will expand on the artists’ portrayals of Black queer Kemetic deities. Ra, a solar figure of discipline and inner power, merges ancient African spiritual practices with contemporary aesthetics. It aims to transform Arts Landing into a site of sacred encounter and cultural liberation.
• “Fantasy in the Hold” by Shikeith. This iron and glass sculpture will extend the mission of the artist’s Mellon-funded initiative, Project Blue Space, which explores black histories tied to water and seeks to document former sites of the Underground Railroad in the Pittsburgh Region.
• Sharmistha Ray, a contemporary painter and co-founder of the spiritualist art collective Hilma’s Ghost, will design a series of Pickleball courts inspired by the complex inheritance of multiple cultures through their queer identity.
• “Rotating Weather Sculpture” by John Peña. This is an interactive installation commissioned in collaboration with the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s Tough Art residency program, which challenges artists to design durable, engaging pieces that can sustain the rigors of a hands-on environment. This sculpture invites participants to engage in a communal time capsule reflecting the last moment it was touched via four handwheels which manually rotate a large analog display featuring a clock, temperature readings and weather icons.

The inaugural works will be on display for at least a year. New works will rotate into Arts
Landing over time, with the intention to eventually include the works of international artists.