A New Chapter for the Arts, Downtown, and the Cultural Trust

One of our goals at the Trust is to create one million annual visitor engagements. I’ll be honest – when we set that goal, it was ambitious. 

But this month showed exactly why it’s possible.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust celebrated major milestones this month that point to something bigger for Downtown Pittsburgh. 

We marked the official grand opening of Arts Landing with the 67th annual Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival. We closed out a strong 2025-2026 season filled with Broadway, dance, music, comedy and more. And now, as the summer season moves into full swing, the Trust begins its next chapter. 

This chapter is defined by incredible impact, as we drive more activity, energy, and engagement in Downtown Pittsburgh than at any point in our 41-year history.

Weekend 1 of the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival

During Arts Landing’s soft opening period in April and May, the new civic space welcomed more than 1,500 daily visitors, and that’s without programming. That early activity grew significantly during the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, which brought more than 110,000 visitors to Arts Landing and the surrounding restaurants and businesses in the heart of the Cultural District over seven days.

With performances by BANDALOOP, Squonk, Spin Doctors, The Pharcyde, Joan Osborne, The Pittsburgh Symphony, and dozens more, along with 350+ visual artists, this year’s Festival marked an unforgettable beginning for Arts Landing as its new, permanent home.

This year, we are also capturing that activity with more accuracy than ever before. Arts Landing’s new technology system includes 65 cameras that allow us to count each person who steps into the space. That system is housed in the new BNY Visitor Center on Penn Avenue, which also opened this month and includes the Arts Landing security team and one of Downtown’s few public restrooms. 

Summer programming at Arts Landing kicks off this week, with more than 70 days of events planned through September, adding to casual daily visitation. An HR&A Advisors report recently commissioned by the Trust estimates that Arts Landing could attract up to 700,000 visitors annually, generating as much as $56 million in new economic activity—based on comparable civic spaces nationwide.

That is the equivalent of more than 10 sold-out Steelers games at Acrisure Stadium — bringing that level of foot traffic not only on game days, but throughout the year. Arts Landing creates a year-round destination that supports nearby businesses and extends the Cultural Trust’s impact beyond major festivals and performances, adding to the Trust’s already substantial $175 million annual economic impact.

The Benedum Center

At the same time, our 2025-2026 season closed with strong results. More than 400,000 guests attended Trust-presented performances this season, including finishing strong with 22,000 seats sold for The Great Gatsby this month at the Benedum Center — a near sellout for the one-week run. And, our partnership with City Theatre on Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Greer Cabaret Theater was City Theatre’s best-selling show in the last 20 years!  

These milestones show the full scope of the Trust’s impact. 

The arts have always been a driver of Downtown economic activity. We’ve been leading arts-driven revitalization in Pittsburgh for decades. Today, with Arts Landing now open, that impact extends beyond the traditional performing arts season and major festivals, filling the summer months with more programming, and leveling up the Trust’s role as a year-round driver of Downtown activity. 

The arts are alive and well in Pittsburgh. And with numbers like these, there is no question about the role they play in Downtown’s future. 

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer brings. 

-Kendra Whitlock Ingram