{"id":147052,"date":"2026-03-24T15:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T15:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/147052\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T15:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T15:43:07","slug":"pitts-center-for-creativity-celebrated-its-10-year-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/147052\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitt\u2019s Center for Creativity celebrated its 10-year anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past decade, the Center for Creativity<\/a> (C4C) has been fostering connection and expression among students, faculty and staff at the University of Pittsburgh. On March 19, supporters and patrons of the center gathered in The Understory, the C4C\u2019s space in the basement of the Cathedral of Learning, to celebrate its 10-year anniversary.<\/p>\n

Founding Director Jeanne Marie Laskas<\/a> and Director Kit Ayars<\/a> credited the success of the center to hard work and \u201ca lot of good people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really trying to be building a community, we were really trying to forefront creativity as important as an important foundation of university work,\u201d Ayars said.<\/p>\n

The C4C consists of four spaces \u2014 three physical and one virtual \u2014 across the Pittsburgh campus. The center\u2019s pilot space, The Workshop, was an outcome of the Office of the Provost\u2019s Year of the Humanities in 2015-16. It serves as an open makerspace for the Pitt community, where anyone can access art supplies, fabric and yarn, musical instruments, a clay wheel and more. The Understory, where people gathered for the celebration, offers practice rooms, a rehearsal stage and a podcast studio for performance-based makers.<\/p>\n

Teaching Professor Barbara Klein<\/a>, Teaching Associate Professor Jessica FitzPatrick<\/a> and Teaching Professor Shannon Reed<\/a>, all in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences\u2019 Department of English, described how The Understory has served as a space for students to give presentations, build their confidence and practice experimenting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI brought my Secret Pittsburgh class<\/a> here to premiere their podcast, and had their podcast launched in this space multiple times,\u201d FitzPatrick said. \u201cI can say without exaggeration that the Center for Creativity shaped my career, made it happier and healthier to be a faculty member here at Pitt and really is substantive in my growth as a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kornelia Tancheva, director of the University Library System (ULS), also took the floor to reflect on the Text and ConText Lab, a Hillman Library space that is a partnership between the C4C and ULS. The lab features both a Vandercook proof press and a Columbian press<\/a>, as well as opportunities for bookbinding, papermaking and other book arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I met [Jeanne Marie and Kit] and understood what the Center for Creativity is and their mission to inspire creativity for everybody at the University, I thought, OK, these are kindred spirits. I am where I should be,\u201d Tancheva said.<\/p>\n

Pitt\u2019s Center for Creativity offers regular events, guided workshops and a number of other programs. Learn more by visiting the C4C website<\/a> \u2014 or drop into one of the spaces, no appointment necessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the past decade, the Center for Creativity (C4C) has been fostering connection and expression among students, faculty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-147052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-pittsburgh","9":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","10":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}