Press Release

A Kick-off to World Environment Day: The Geek Art/Green Innovators Festival

PITTSBURGH, January 2010 — The first big "green" event to leading up to Pittsburgh's World Environment Day is on Friday, April 2, 2010. Penn Avenue will be hosting The Geek Art and Green Innovators (GA/GI): Pittsburgh's first art, technology and ecology festival. Pronounced "GAH-gee," the festival will serve as a platform to showcase innovative people, projects and programs from the green and technology industries in Southwestern, PA and beyond.

The Penn Avenue Arts Initiative, which hosts a popular "First Fridays" Art Crawl on Penn is lending its support to Festival Director, Christine Bethea, of Passports: The Art Diversity Project. "We want to involve anyone in this event who has interesting ideas in the green or technology industries. We're highlighting art and inventions. We want to showcase anything new in digital or dirt," said Bethea.

The festival will feature an entire day's worth of activities starting at the Union Project in Highland Park where Executive Director Jeff Dorsey will host the morning kick-off. Activities begin with the "Birds, Trees, and Robots play date" for young and pre-school children that will include a creative movement class by Dance Alloy, ecology children's stories and feature the Power Flower, a solar powered invention from Art Energy Design. Created by David Edwards, it runs anything from laptops to its own insect inspired bugbots.

Filling out the remainder of the day from 5 to 11 p.m., GA/GI events become an expansion of the Penn Avenue Arts Initiative's monthly "Unblurred" art crawl. Unblurred regularly highlights various galleries in the Penn Avenue Arts District (4800-5500 Penn Avenue). But Friday April 2 installment will feature The Geek Art Green Innovators Festival, which will open up many businesses along the avenue, who are offering green and technology themed events to their monthly festivities. The Penn Avenue Arts District corridor will turn into a virtual pantheon of technology and green expositions with some buildings projecting film, hosting storefront demos or showcasing inventions.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute are coming to GA/GI touring a 2001 Scion xB, which was converted into an electric commuter vehicle. The car is part of a new research project, ChargeCar, headed by Illah Nourbakhsh, associate professor of robotics. Don Marinelli of the Entertainment Technology Center will bring his video games and robotic toys showcasing the work of his brilliant students.

Others among the numerous Penn Avenue organizations and companies getting involved include Modern Formations, a gallery whose owner Jen Quinio is expanding her 6th annual Spring Salon by hosting Electric Owl Studios, creators of interactive toys. A few doors down, Jason Sauer at Most Wanted Fine Art is showcasing work from Edinboro University Print Department. Another gallery, The Irma Freeman Center for the Imagination will display a collection of eco inventions. And Deep Local, a Penn Avenue neighbor, has created a way for GA/GI participants to take photos with their camera phones that will upload to Flickr and be displayed during the festival. Yes, people at the event will be the paparazzi!

The capstone of the Geek Art and Green Innovators Festival will be a sneak preview of the long-awaited Glass Loft Condos near Negley Avenue and an eco-friendly fashion extravaganza at the nearby Pittsburgh Glass Center. Kristin Barker of Jonano, a company whose eco-chic clothing will headline the show, leads GA/GI's fashion division. The show will also feature work by high school students from Neighborhood Academy, whose designs are made of discards from the school lunchroom. The fashion line-up also has LED enhanced clothing from Webelow Wear, vintage clothing and nature inspired "defense" gear designed by robotics student, Amisha Gadani. The colorful fashion program will take place in PGC's "Hot Shop."

Greasing the wheels of GA/GI are a number of young enterprises! Universities involved included Pitt, Edinboro, Point Park, Penn State, and Carnegie Mellon. GA/GI will also showcase young entrepreneurs. iParty Productions of IUP will DJ at the Lofts and MPowered from Duquesne University will lead an event video crew. The festival will also preview the mad skills of Kevin Saftner and Touchfaster, a new music, fashion and event planning service, started by recent college grads, based in Dormont.

GA/GI is an event created to lend credence to those connections between art and science and will by its existence assist other art forms and projects laboring under similar misconceptions. At the same time, the Geek Art and Green Innovators Festival will "bring it home" to community and families where they can get a close look at current and new technology and kick the tires for themselves. "GA/GI will be Pittsburgh's Art and Technology barn-raising!" said Charlie Humphrey, CEO of Pittsburgh Filmmakers, a GA/GI sponsor. Festivalgoers will also get their first taste of what World Environment Day will have to offer in June!

A complete listing of the Geek Art and Green Innovators Festival activities will be available closer to the day's events. Meanwhile check out their blogsite. www.gagifestival.blogspot.com or e-mail gagifest@gmail.com for more details.