UnEarthed Benefit

We partnered with Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest to put together this wonderful event exhibiting amazing works from local artists around the city and to help “Friends” raise money in support of our urban forest. The event was well attended, raised thousands of dollars for the care and maintenance of our urban forest, and for planting trees in our communities to expand our urban forest canopy.

Urban Tree Forge selected over a dozen artists, that work in a variety of mediums, to assemble an exhibit of works demonstrating the varied and inventive ways we can develop value added products from our urban trees.
We had fabric artists to ceramicists, photographers, and steel fabrication artists, woodworkers, architects and industrial designers. We asked the artists to utilize materials from a single source, felled trees in Allegheny Cemetery and incorporate these materials into their works as they desired. The artists responded with an amazingly creative and diverse range of pieces that really helped to make the event special.

Urban Tree Forge worked with the artists to acquire what materials the artists requested, helping with the slabbing of trees to hauling sections of trees, assisting with the fabrication and realization of the different artist’s visions.
The event came together wonderfully and all the artists involved rose to the occasion, providing us with a diverse and creative environment of beautifully crafted works that were well received. Five of the works sold at the one night fund raising event.
Photographer Joey Kennedy wrote up a nice review on his blog about the Unearthed event with some great images as did Katie Smerick on her Holy Vataha blog Thank you both for your tremendous support!!

The fundraising event was only a one night event though, and we are presently seeking additional venues for the exhibition to continue. If you have information on additional venues or opportunities for this exhibition please let us know.

Promoting and advocating the utilization of our urban forest while working to expand our urban canopy replacing the forest we displace is not only a noble endeavor, it is necessary to our continued existence. Being self-reliant as a community using local trees for our resources is not just sustainable… it provides an opportunity for a negative carbon footprint and supports our local economy

My heartfelt Thanks to all the artists who participated in this event as well as the wonderful people who attended making this event such a great success for our community and Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest.