For 65 years, the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival has brought people together, creating memories that span decades and generations. For some, it's the music they'll never forget. For others, it's the cherished artwork that now decorates their home or lives on as the perfect gift for a loved one.
With this year’s festival still fresh in our minds, we’re traveling back in time to share two stories—both of which illustrate how this long-standing summer event has the power to shape lives and connect us in surprising ways.
For Hayley Haldeman, the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival is not only a destination for art, but the reason for her very existence.
“My mother was a TRAF exhibiting artist in the early 1980s—and winner of the Juried Prize for Visual Arts. My grandfather bought one of my mom’s paintings and sent his son to pick it up – which is how my parents met!” she explains.
Today, Hayley serves as the Chief Administrative Officer of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Reflecting on her connection to the festival and the organization responsible for making it happen, she says:
"I’ve been continually honored and thankful to work for an organization that’s played such an important role for so many in the region, including my own parents’ meet-cute.”
At this year's Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, she proudly wore her mother’s 1982 festival sweatshirt, a prized possession that reminds her of the event’s lasting impact on her family. And amazingly, the design on that sweatshirt holds special meaning for another individual too.
Ellen Pomerantz, now a volunteer with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, was a college student studying print technology in 1982. That summer, she landed a job at a local silk-screening company tasked with producing merchandise for Three Rivers Arts Festival. Ellen was part of the team that created the festival’s logo, which adorned canvas banners hanging from light posts around the city, as well as t-shirts and sweatshirts sold at the festival.
Like Hayley, she also has a special keepsake to commemorate that 1982 festival. Ellen had one of the logos stretched onto a frame, and it has hung in every home she's lived in since the late '80s.
"As a born-and-raised Pittsburgher, I've always been proud of my work to contribute to the festival so many years ago," Ellen says.
After seeing the picture of Hayley on our social media channels, she was inspired to share her own story.
Turns out, the festival not only sparks pivotal moments—from first jobs to fateful meetings—but it also helps us to find the connections between us.