Community Art Painting Party on July 18th!

First and foremost, we would like to invite everyone, especially our Northside neighbors, to the first Northside Doorways Painting Party! This FREE event will be held at Randyland (212 Jacksonia Street) on Sunday, July 18th from 1pm until 4pm. We will be painting a dozen doors in a multitude of colors and designs---stop on by and join in the fun!

We are in the final planning stages of choosing which 12 vacant lots we will be placing the art doors on---which means we are just one step closer (and less than ten days away) to getting to the fun stuff---painting the doors with our community!

Before we are able to paint and install the doors, we are still in need of a few supplies. Please let us know if you're able to help out in any way by emailing us at northsidedoorways [at] gmail [dot] com!

• 12-15 solid wood windowless doors in good to very good condition – email gilsonrandy [at] yahoo [dot] com to see if your door is what we're looking for and he'll take it off your hands!
• Primer for outdoor use
• Paintbrushes (small, medium and large)---these can be left in the box outside of Randyland
• 4"x4" landscaping lumber (in lengths of 6'-10'), 24 pieces 
• 20 unopened bags of cement
• Hardware for attaching doors (screws, nuts, bolts that are compatible with the 4"x4" lumber)
• Donations of money to buy the above materials

Thanks in advance for any supplies you're able to donate!

We hope to see you at one o'clock on Sunday, July 18th!

Northside Doorways Project Background

What is the Northside Doorways Project?

Randy Gilson was featured on the Today show several months ago for his contribution to our neighborhood with what is known as Randyland or as he likes to refer to his home—The Yellow Castle. Several weeks later a representative from Sherwin Williams showed up at his door and offered to supply the paint if he would create another neighborhood art project. There was a call for volunteers to contribute ideas and the Pittsburgh Painted door project was created. The CNNC agreed to support the project that will bring art to the community and highlight vacant lots in the control of the CNNC that could support development. The doors will be a piece of installation art on vacant lots creating an illusion of where a front door would be positioned if a house was there. 

For the first season, there will be a pilot project of 12 doors. The first several doors will be painted by the committee; the remaining through cooperation and involvement of the community. The committee consists of six Northside residents: Randy Gilson, Lindsay O'Leary, Julie Peterson, David Scalzo, Jen Tharp, and Dawn Uzdale (Chair).

Lots located on Jacksonia and above will be chosen for this project by the end of July and 12 art doors will be installed by November 2010 with additional doors added in subsequent years.

One of the initial doors will be on a lot earmarked as a song bird habitat. Other doors will highlight lots available for building a home.

It is the goal of the committee to have temporary art installations to highlight areas where we hope to have permanent homes that will expand and strengthen the fabric of the community.