Carrie in Context: Graffiti & Postindustrial Arts
Grades: 6–12 | Program Length: 2 Hours | Cost: $9 / Student
Availability: May–October
Production may have stopped in 1982, but the era of Carrie Furnaces as an artistic muse was just beginning. Students examine how guerrilla artists, urban explorers, and later, curators and installation artists made creative use of found community space. Students will be challenged to analyze common themes through guided critical and aesthetic response processes. Special focus will be placed on the Carrie Deer sculpture, graffiti artworks, and Alloy PGH, Rivers of Steel’s biennial exhibition of temporary, site-specific collaborative artworks.
Make it a workshop!
Teaching artists guide students in a hands-on graffiti writing experience, giving context to the language, forms, and underground culture of the medium as a creative art form. Add a $3 per student materials fee and an additional half-hour to the program length.
Customize Your Carrie Experience
Many educators prefer to customize their students’ experience—to fit with specific curricula or simply to add an opportunity for a more personal exploration of the site. Consider these popular add-ons!
Program costs and length are adjusted based on the group leader’s request.
Metal-Casting at Carrie
Inspired by the iron-making legacy of the Carrie Furnaces, students create a unique work of art from aluminum. Using everyday materials, they’ll carve a one-sided design in resin-bonded sand and then observe as the artworks are cast from molten metal!
Carrie Photography Safari
After a guided tour, students explore the site with their own camera. Experienced photographers are available for hands-on assistance, if required.
Iron Garden Walk
Students experience a natural garden, discovering diverse plant communities and how human history shapes our urban environment.
Students carving scratch molds during a metal-casting workshop.
