FREE EVENT: Fri., June 7 — Festival
There seems to be more visual art than usual at this year's Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival. Yes, this Pittsburgh Cultural Trust production still includes an arts 'n' crafts market and nightly musical headliners from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros to Ralph Stanley and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. And they're reopening Point State Park Fountain, with a big June 7 to-do called Riverlights at the Point. But this year, the art displays go beyond the usual Juried Visual Art Exhibition, Pittsburgh Filmmakers' Art on Film festival, and even the new Flight School Showcase exhibit. Outdoors, look for Richard Gluckman and Robert Wilson's "Sign of Light," a large-scale LED work visible from the North Side. Make your own "sign of goodness" yard sign at artist Vanessa German's Art House, in the Giant Eagle Creativity Zone. Scan the rivers for The Drift, a floating performance-art stage, or duck beneath the park's portal bridge and transcend it all with artist Chang-Jin Lee's "Floating Echo," a transparent, inflatable, floating Buddha statue (pictured). And in the participatory 100 Portraits of Pittsburgh Air, locals who receive a free air filter each are asked to place it somewhere they think the air is dirty. The results will be displayed as socially conscious art ... at next year's festival. Bill O'Driscoll Fri., June 7-Sun., June 16. Point State Park and various locations, Downtown. Free. 412-456-6666 or www.3RiversArtsFest.org
Thu., June 6 — Exhibits
This summer, eight Pittsburgh venues join more than 2,000 museums nationwide in the Blue Star Museums Initiative. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, participating museums offer free admission to active-duty military personnel and up to five of their family members. Locally, military members will have free access to The Andy Warhol Museum; the August Wilson Center for African American Culture; the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History; the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh; the Frick Art & Historical Center; the Senator John Heinz History Center; and the Mattress Factory. Olivia Lammel Program continues through Sept. 2. [email protected] or www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums
Thu., June 6 — Art
If you think the DIY movement still largely belongs to grannies and hippies, perhaps Wildcard's latest exhibit will revamp crafting's wimpy reputation. Tonight, the testosterone-soaked action-film realm collides with string, fabric and other domestic materials at the opening of Craft Hard. This show reduces Bruce Willis's heaving, hairy pecs to needlepoint and Schwarzenegger's stoic stare to a quilt panel. Action-movie music will set the mood for the hardcore crafts of four local (or formerly local) artists: Andrew O. Ellis, Tara Goe, Elliot McNally and Mario Zucca. OL 6 p.m. Exhibit continues through July 22. 4209 Butler St., Lawrenceville. Free. 412-224-2651 or www.WildcardPGH.com
Fri., June 7 — Art
Summer's in full swing for Unblurred. Tonight's installment of the monthly Penn Avenue gallery crawl features more than a dozen venues for music and art, including several new exhibits. At ModernFormations Gallery, Somebody, Anybody .... Everybody highlights drawings and prints by David Grim and photography and sculpture by Mark Panza. Painter Brian Gonnella imagines the apocalypse, U.S.-style, in American Eschatology, at Image Box. Most Wanted Fine Art has Signs of Summer, with paintings by Hiromi Katayama and Michael Galone. And the Roboto Project offers not only art about pizza (a group show), but actual pizza. Bill O'Driscoll 6-11 p.m. 3800-5400 Penn Ave., Bloomfield, Friendship and Garfield. Free. www.friendship-pgh.org
Fri., June 7 — Comedy
Tonight, emerging standup comedian Erin Foley continues her Lower the Bar tour at Cruze Bar. Though Foley has recently done a few guest-star gigs on screen, her comedy is mostly practiced on stage. Her humor has stirred up laughs from Conan to Comedy Central, from the Gotham Comedy Club to the Laugh Factory. In recent routines, Foley pokes fun at the hipster-chemist baristas at snobby coffee shops and extends her condolences to readers of "the saddest book in bookstores," a vegan cookbook for one. OL 8 p.m. (18 and over). 1600 Smallman St., Strip District. $19-30. 415-326-6339 or www.showclix.com
Fri., June 7 — Comedy
On 30 Rock, he is known as Tracy Jordan; in The Longest Yard, he plays Ms. Tucker; and on Saturday Night Live, he has been Uncle Jemima, Astronaut Jones, and Reggie Owens of Wong and Owens: Ex-Porn Stars. Tonight, Tracy Morgan stops by Carnegie Library Music Hall of Homestead for a one-night show for all ages. The show continues his international Excuse My French tour. OL 8 p.m. 510 E. 10th Ave, Munhall. $35.50-40. 412-368-5225 or www.LibraryMusicHall.com
Sat., June 8 – Outdoors
Today's Riverview Park Heritage Day has all the trimmings, including birds from the National Aviary; critters from the Animal Rescue League and the Humane Society; a Carnegie Science Center booth; pony rides at frontier-themed "Fort Heritage"; tours of Allegheny Observatory; the Citiparks Roving Art Cart; and even free refreshments. But its centerpiece is a special tribute to the late Moses Carper. Carper, who died in December, was the longtime community activist and "cowboy of Riverview Park" who oversaw the park's equestrian program. Citiparks honors him with a 1:30 p.m. ceremony at the park's Visitor Center. BO Noon-4 p.m. Off Perrysville Road, Perry North. Free. 412-255-2493 or www.citiparks.net
Sat., June 8 — Marketplace
Local and national artists converge in the Cultural District to present and sell their work in the 10th annual Showcase Noir. This marketplace features pieces created by emerging and established artists from the African diaspora and around the U.S. Presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Showcase Noir will work in harmony with the Pittsburgh JazzLive International Festival, which will provide the tunes from a neighboring stage. Artists include jewelry-maker Alicia Piller, mixed-media artist Justice Whitaker and others working in media from textiles to ceramics. OL Noon-7 p.m. Also noon-7 p.m. Sun., June 9. Eighth Street and Penn Avenue. Free. 412-456-6666 or www.trustarts.org
Sat., June 8 — Dance
Dancer and choreographer Moriah Ella Mason's Yes Brain Dance Theater debuts this weekend with two performances of Of Snails and Lips, at Friendship's Spinning Plate Artist Lofts. Mason is rolling out this new work in a series of summer performances in different venues around town, collaborating with different writers and artists along the way. The show's theme, according to press materials, is "vulnerability and opening up to the world," so look out: We hear both snails and lips are pretty sensitive. BO 8 p.m. Also 8 p.m. Sun., June 9. 5720 Friendship Ave., Friendship. $10 (June 9 show includes $25 dinner option). www.facebook.com/YesBrainDanceTheater
Mon., June 10 — Words
In 1967, the year Edward McClelland was born, the nation's unemployment rate was 3.8 percent. And few places were better set than his hometown of Lansing, Mich., with its roaring General Motors complex. Today, like so many Midwest towns, Lansing's a sink of unemployed people, boarded-up buildings and a toxic industrial legacy. Journalist and author McClelland's new book, Nothin' But Blue Skies (Bloomsbury Press), vividly explores the past, present and future of Rust Bowl towns and their residents, from Decatur, Ill., to Detroit, Buffalo and his current hometown of Chicago. (Sadly, or maybe happily, Pittsburgh doesn't figure in.) Tonight he makes a free appearance at Sewickley's Penguin Bookshop. BO 6 p.m. 420 Beaver St., Sewickley. Free. 412-741-3838
Tue., June 11 — Screen
The long-running Film Kitchen screening series, for local and independent artists, uses its annual contest to fete a condiment. "Ketchup" is the theme of this friendly competition for short original films, held at the Harris Theater. Finalists screen tonight at the grand finale, part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival. Filmmakers vie for cash prizes awarded by a panel of judges, as well as an audience-choice award. The evening includes complimentary refreshments. Film Kitchen is sponsored by Pittsburgh Filmmakers. BO 8 p.m. 809 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $8. 412-681-9500
Wed., June 12 — Comedy
Tonight, Daniel Tosh does two shows at Heinz Hall, part of a national tour of more than 25 cities. Tosh, who anchors the hit Comedy Central show Tosh.0, is trading his signature green screen for red-velvet theater curtains on this summer's The June Gloom Tour. He performs with special guest Jerrod Carmichael, who was recently featured on two different "10 Comics to Watch" lists, and who had a supporting role on the new Fox comedy series The Goodwin Games. OL 7 and 9:30 p.m. 600 Penn Ave., Downtown. $49.50-75. 412-392-4900 or pittsburghsymphony.org
