Lost & Found Factory

Taking place in the center of one of Pittsburgh’s early industrial districts, the Lost & Found Factory honors the city’s past as well as the personal memories of festival visitors. People who had lost an item were able to stop by the factory and supply a description to the artists there, who ‘found’ it in the factory, and then returned the new version to the owner. Visitors to the factory saw the artistic work that went into making these new renditions of their lost objects, and this labor in turn paid homage to the often invisible work that went into making the original items.

Acknowledgements

The Lost & Found Factory was commissioned by the Three Rivers Arts Festival and is curated by Nadine Wasserman. Many thanks to the good people there especially Veronica Corpuz, as well as those at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the Pittsburgh Office of Public Art.

In addition, there are many people and organizations who have helped make the Lost & Found Factory happen. At the top of that list is MAYA Design for the generous use of their perfect little building. Thanks also to IKEA for their in-kind gifts and to the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse, a treasure in our community. Thanks to Alfred University and the Office of the Dean for additional support.

A special thanks to Michele de la Reza, Peter Kope, and the dancers of Attack Theater for bringing another (quite wonderful) dimension to the factory with their work Lost & Found: Memories Through Movement.

Heartfelt appreciation to Emily Blair and to the very creative Andrew Oesch. And also to Laurel Carpenter, Lenka Clayton, and Carol Kumata and to those who helped along the way: Norman Beck, John Ward, Cory Cope, Mariah Sanchez, Sammy Parish.

And finally a huge thanks to the artists, whose work makes lost things found !