community + cultural info
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2003
Contact: Brian K. Britza, Steel Valley Arts Council
w: 412.552.7021 h: 412.476.0755 Gallery 412.326.0100
email: bbritza@adelphia.net
RE: Carnegie Mellon University Professor Charlee Brodsky displays her photographs of Homestead in Steel Valley Arts Council Gallery at 303 East 8th Avenue, Homestead
Homestead, PA - Starting November 1st Steel Valley Arts Council will have the honor of hosting a gallery show to exhibit Charlee Brodsky's work for the book she co-authored entitled "Envisioning Homestead, A Town Without Steel". These powerful images of the faces and places of the former "Steel Capital of the World" speak volumes about the trials, tribulations and the somehow undying sense of optimism that is Homestead. The show titled "Homestead Re-Viewed" consists of a series of photographs that were taken very shortly after the mill closed. The people of Homestead will get an opportunity to view themselves from the eye of a nationally known photographer that captures the historical perspective of their times. Visitors will experience a compelling exhibition and witness Homestead's people and the community they share.
art space 303
303 E. Eighth Avenue
Homestead, PA 15120
Opening reception
November 1, 2003 7:00 p.m.
Show runs from November 1st till November 23rd during times and days below.
Hours Tuesdays and Thursdays 5:00-8:00 p.m.
Saturdays and Sundays noon-7:00 p.m.
Photographer's gallery talk Saturday, November 22nd at 2:00 p.m.
Charlee Brodsky is a photography professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the School of Design. Brodsky describes her work as dealing with social issues and beauty. She received two prestigious Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Individual Fellowships: one in 1992 to document the former steel mill town of Homestead, PA and one in 1995 to photograph Stephanie Byram, a breast cancer survivor. She exhibits her work both locally and nationally. In addition, Brodsky has curated numerous photography exhibitions at Carnegie Museum of Art dealing with the history of photography in Western Pennsylvania. In 1997, she co-curated with Linda Benedict-Jones the Carnegie Museum of Art's major exhibition, Pittsburgh Revealed, a collection of photographs from 1850 to the present accompanied by a book of the same name.
In 1998, University of Pittsburgh Press published Envisioning Homestead: A Town Without Steel, a collaborative book of text by Carnegie Mellon anthropology faculty member Dr. Judith Modell and photographs by Brodsky. Her work with writer Jennifer Matesa resulted in Navel-Gazing, the Days and Nights of a Mother in the Making, published in September 2001 by Crown, a division of Random House. In addition, her work with Stephanie Byram documenting Ms. Byram's experience with breast cancer was published as a fine art book, Knowing Stephanie, by University of Pittsburgh Press in Spring 2003. She received an Emmy with three others for her work on Stephanie, a video about her friend who had breast cancer. She holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.F.A. from Yale University.
Steel Valley Arts Council (SVAC) is a community arts organization represented by a 65-member volunteer organization, and membership continues to grow. SVAC is dedicated to preservation, community interaction and dialogue, and emerging artistic thought through rich creative endeavors. Serving the greater Steel Valley area which is comprised of Homestead, West Homestead, and Munhall, Steel Valley Arts Council's impact affects the Western Pennsylvania region and hosts national exhibits with universal appeal. The gallery, art space 303, is located in the historic district of Homestead at 303 East Eighth Avenue. The Steel Valley region, once home to the largest steel producing mill in the world, is now an opulent, ethnically diverse community peppered with some of the most talented artists, craft makers, and creative thinkers today.
Directions:
Take the Homestead Grays Bridge (formerly the Homestead High Level Bridge) and make a left onto East Eighth Ave. Go two blocks to Ann and Eighth; the Gallery is in the second building on the left in the 300 block.
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