Newsletters

Rivers of Steel Recent Newsletters

You can stay up to date with all the fresh news and stories from Rivers of Steel when you sign up for our biweekly newsletter.  Just enter your email in the “Get the Latest” section at the footer of this page.  If you want to check out examples of recent newsletters or see what you missed, follow the links below.

Rivers of Steel Recent Newsletters

You can stay up to date with all the fresh news and stories from Rivers of Steel when you sign up for our biweekly newsletter.  Just enter your email in the “Get the Latest” section at the footer of this page.  If you want to check out examples of recent newsletters or see what you missed, follow the links below.

Rivers of Steel Recent Newsletters

You can stay up to date with all the fresh news and stories from Rivers of Steel when you sign up for our biweekly newsletter.  Just enter your email in the “Get the Latest” section at the footer of this page.  If you want to check out examples of recent newsletters or see what you missed, follow the links below.

Rivers of Steel Recent Newsletters

You can stay up to date with all the fresh news and stories from Rivers of Steel when you sign up for our biweekly newsletter.  Just enter your email in the “Get the Latest” section at the footer of this page.  If you want to check out examples of recent newsletters or see what you missed, follow the links below.

Giving Tuesday Now | May 5, 2020

Dear Friend of Rivers of Steel—

For thirty years, Rivers of Steel has been investing in our region’s communities. Our mission, in short, is heritage conservation and development that helps revitalize our communities—through heritage tourism, creative placemaking, community education and collaboration, and outdoor recreation.

The impact of our work is both broad and deep.

Throughout southwestern Pennsylvania, every dollar that we invest in the heritage of our communities has a return of at least five dollars. Through Rivers of Steel’s partnerships with other nonprofits, we are able to provide support with grant funding where our goals align. And through collaborative programming, we are able to amplify our combined reach. On the individual level, the tour guides, educators, and artists that we work with carry our stories and craft traditions to others, helping visitors and locals gain a greater sense of place—an understanding of our region’s legacy.

Rivers of Steel was born out of an economic crisis a generation ago. When the mills and mines closed and our communities needed help rebuilding, we found innovative ways to tell their stories, build up their main streets, transform landscapes from brownfields to recreational green space, and—perhaps most importantly—change perspectives about our communities and their future possibilities.

As we write this appeal for donations, we face a similar economic crisis resulting from a very different situation. We understand now is a time when many cannot afford to give, or that, as a donor, you may have other priorities. We understand. However, we also know that many still can donate. If that is you, please join me in supporting Rivers of Steel on May 5 for Giving Tuesday Now.

This special day of giving will provide critical support to organizations across the United States. Locally, your support of Rivers of Steel will, in turn, help us as we help others by continuing to support our region’s communities.

Moreover, your gift will be doubled. Rivers of Steel’s staff and Board of Directors are committed to matching each gift received on May 5, up to $5,000 .

And because the need in our communities is both staggering and unprecedented, we are taking this appeal one step further. So, in addition to the matched funds, your gift will do even more. In the name of Rivers of Steel, I will personally donate an amount equal to 10%, or up to $1,000, of what Rivers of Steel receives during this Giving Tuesday Now event to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. We are all in this together!

As neighbors in southwestern Pennsylvania, we look out for one another and are as giving as we are hardworking. Many of us can remember the days in the late-1970s and 1980s when we all faced hard times but we all came together. Today, a similar challenge is before us. If you can give, but can only support one organization, we ask that you choose one that provides food, safety, shelter, medical or health support to those with the greatest needs. If you can give more, we hope you will also consider Rivers of Steel. Times may be hard right now, but we will endure with support from one another.

Thank you, and please be safe!

Sincerely,

August R. Carlino
President and Chief Executive Officer
Rivers of Steel Heritage Corporation

Rivers of Steel Locally Supports National History Day Competition for Students

National History Day is a non-profit education organization based in College Park, Maryland.   Each year a theme is selected and more than a half million students from around the world research a topic of their choosing and create projects that illustrate that theme.  The 2020 competition theme is Breaking Barriers in History.  Middle school and high schools students may select a project submission format from the following categories: website, documentary, exhibit, performance, and historical papers.  Projects are created by individuals or as a group project.  Students are encouraged to utilize and interpret primary and secondary sources to support their thesis statement as it fits with the annual theme.

The process of creating a National History Day submission encourages students to critically think about historical events.  Students must utilize research and reading skills to convey analysis of their research topic.  Through the evolution of their projects, students gain a more in-depth understanding that historical events are influenced by many variables.

Heinz History Center facilitates the local competition and serves students from Allegheny, Washington, Greene Fayette, Westmoreland, and Somerset counties.  This year’s competition included additional challenges with the need to shift the judging rounds to an online format.  The local competition judging wrapped up last week and the judging decisions are listed here: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/education/national-history-day

Local competition winners receive constructive feedback from volunteer judges and have the opportunity to edit their project prior to the state competition.  This year’s state competition will also be judged via a virtual format and is set to take place in May.

National History Day is the perfect opportunity for students to utilize archival resources available at historical societies, libraries, museums, and universities.  Many of the archival pieces can be accessed in an online format and often include unique information such as personal letters, oral histories, and private collection photographs.

Rivers of Steel invites students to utilize our collection, whether it be for National History Day or for other research endeavors.  Highlights from our collection includes information on the following:

• The 1892 Battle of Homestead
• 1877 Great Railroad Strike (Pittsburgh, PA)
• 1909 Pressed Steel Car Strike (McKee’s Rocks, PA)
• The Steel Strike of 1919 (The Hunkie Strike)
• The Little Steel Strike of 1937
• Social , health & welfare, and assimilation issues during industrialization
• Closure of mills and worker displacement

To search Rivers of Steel’s online collection: https://riversofsteel.pastperfectonline.com/

For more information on National History Day https://www.nhd.org/

To learn more about volunteering next year as a judge for the local competition: nhd@heinzhistorycenter.org

In compliance with Governor Wolf’s mandatory shutdown of non-essential businesses, Rivers of Steel will be closed at least through April 30  Any and all programs during this time are considered cancelled and public access to all five sites—including the Bost Building, Pump House, Carrie Blast Furnaces, the Explorer Riverboat, and the W.A. Young & Sons Foundry and Machine Shop—is prohibited. If you have specific concerns about a program or project, contact the appropriate staff person by email or phone.  Additionally, the Annual Hammer-In Festival at the Machine Shop on April 18 is cancelled. Stay tuned for further updates as the situation evolves.  Thank you for your interest in and support of Rivers of Steel. We value our community and hope that you are all doing what you can to take care of yourself and your loved ones.

Rivers of Steel kicks off Homestead First Fridays with a new site-specific art installation at the Bost Building

This Friday night Homestead’s historic Eighth Avenue will light up like never before—literally.

To celebrate the inaugural Homestead First Fridays season, Rivers of Steel has commissioned a new site-specific LED installation by contemporary artist Ian Brill. The piece, entitled Aggregate, is installed in the exterior glass stairwell of the Bost Building at 623 East Eighth Avenue.

Rivers of Steel will flip on the switch at 8:00 p.m. on May 3 and invite the community to experience the piece from the street and from the interior, as they make their way to the third floor galleries to view the current archival exhibition, From the Vault.

Aggregate will be on display through mid-August and will be lit nightly.

Developed by Rivers of Steel in partnership with the local artists and businesses of Homestead, along with the borough, the Homestead First Fridays Arts and Entertainment Series offers visitors art exhibitions, make-and-take projects, nightly specials, artists’ studio tours, live music, and more.

“Ian’s installation will not only light up this end of Eighth Avenue, it truly gets at the heart of our vision for Homestead First Fridays,” said Rivers of Steel Arts Director Chris McGinnis. “Efforts of this scale require lots of people working together, as an aggregate of sorts. Rivers of Steel is lucky to work with a passionate group of stakeholders here in Homestead whose collective efforts join with this unique piece of public art to showcase our borough in a new light.”

Art events that evening include a pop-up exhibition by Associated Artists of Pittsburgh at 101 East Eighth Avenue, an exhibition of ceramic art at Eberle Studios, live music at Enix Brewing and Pip & Lola’s, and live painting at Honest Johns.

Rivers of Steel will also debut a street art style exhibition of site-specific murals in the former CVS building at 233 East Eighth Avenue.

Other happenings include live axe throwing, kids workshops, open studios and more. Homestead’s many restaurants, craft breweries, and unique retail shops will complement the arts experiences.

Homestead First Fridays opens Friday, May 3, 2019 from 6 to 10 p.m. along Homestead’s historic Eighth Avenue. The series runs until October 4.

Homestead First Fridays is a project of the Mon Valley Creative Corridor and is made possible with support of the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.

For more information and for a schedule of events, visit the Facebook event for the series.

Mon Valley Creative Corridor

It’s safe to say, Pittsburgh has officially outgrown its reputation as a declining steel town. The art & restaurant scenes aside, the city is flourishing in large part because of its renewed investment in innovation—robotics, eds and meds, self-driving cars, and more.

Yet innovation is not something new for our region—it’s been a part of its evolution for centuries. Colonial agriculture gave way to boatbuilding and river trade before business shifted from commerce to industry, making use of the region’s natural resources for glassmaking, coal mining, small-scale iron production, and of course for Big Steel.

Innovation was inextricably linked to steel. Throughout the 20th century, communities across southwestern Pennsylvania’s Monongahela River Valley thrived in large part due to a robust network of synergistic community organizations and industrial enterprises stretching from the South Side of Pittsburgh to Rices Landing in Greene County and beyond.

This innovative heritage is worth celebrating, and Rivers of Steel is excited to launch its second season of the Mon Valley Creative Corridor to do just that. Mon Valley Creative Corridor programs are inspired by the region’s legacy of hard work, grit, and community spirit.

Throughout the summer, Mon Valley artists will be partnering with community stakeholders to host a variety of pop-ups and happenings, all of which celebrate creative inquiry by crafting opportunities to interpret the region’s past, reimagine its future, and explore a sense of place.

Launched in 2018 with support from the Benedum Foundation, the Creative Corridor was inspired by the robust interest in the arts that also defines our region. During its first year, events included pop-up exhibits, public talks, film projects, metal pours, and more.

The highlight of the second season is the introduction of the Homestead First Fridays Arts & Entertainment Series.

Other events include Hot Metal Happenings at various locations throughout the area, a mural unveiling in Ohiopyle, a video installation by Valery Lyman at the Carrie Furnaces in August and much, much more.

For a full schedule of events, Mon Valley Creative Corridor section of the Rivers of Steel Arts 2019 Schedule of Events.