The Southwestern Pennsylvania Art Bash is a regional celebration of creativity and community, and will be held in California, PA on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. It will include art and theater workshops, demonstrations, live music, an artist vendor market, and a regional emerging youth art exhibition. The festival is free and open to all. 

 

During the 2025-2026 school year at PennWest California, three student interns and I hosted a series of engagement projects in preparation for the first annual SWPA Art Bash. These projects allowed us to get to know people, collect feedback from students and faculty, build community, and identify unique contributions and collaborations as we planned for the spring event.

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All projects leading up to the event were designed as part of a larger community engagement effort aimed at creative exchange and mentorship on campus and across the region. These projects allowed us to build genuine relationships and open up the planning process for SWPA Art Bash to more people.

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The Cafe

The Cafe kicked off our engagement series on September, 10, 2025. By creating a pop-up cafe and making lattes to order for every visitor to Vulcan Hall, we were able meet more of the campus community and collect feedback about what kinds of activities and performances people were interested in having at SWPA Art Bash. Creating a space for casual conversation around coffee was especially important to the project team as the campus doesn't have many spaces that allow for these important interactions, especially across departments.

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Essay Filmmaking with Studio Ragheb

Next, we hosted Pittsburgh-based filmmakers Studio Ragheb (Cairo, D.C.) for an artist talk, potluck, film screening, and essay filmmaking workshop on November 18, 2025 in Vulcan Hall. 

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This workshop promoted creative exchange and offered students opportunities to learn from working artists. Students and faculty tried out accessible approaches to essay filmmaking led by Lily and Ahmed Ragheb. Following the workshop, participants kept brainstorming ways that they could continue collaborating on short films together, each bringing different skills and resources to the process.

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Raku Firing with Mattress Factory

Finally, on November 20, 2025, SWPA Art Bash program interns supported a Raku kiln firing in collaboration with MCG Youth for Mattress Factory Museum's Teen Art Cooperative in Pittsburgh, PA. The interns took on leadership roles during the firing process and practiced sharing their knowledge with members of the Teen Art Co-op.

 

Opportunities to practice teaching are embedded throughout the program as the interns prepare to lead workshops for high school and college students who visit the SWPA Art Bash in the spring.

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Projects were planned and facilitated in collaboration with program interns Marlee Sinagra, Mal Tadaki, and Hope Yeardie (fall 2025-spring 2026).

Graphic design efforts for SWPA Art Bash led by Sid Christenson.

Alina Gorbachyova joined as a program intern in winter of 2026.