Andy Warhol Museum to build $45m events venue

The Andy Warhol Museum in the artist’s native Pittsburgh is expanding its footprint with with a $45m events venue, part of the museum’s planned “Pop District Initiative”, which seeks to transform the city’s eastern North Shore neighbourhood into a “multi-block public arts” hub over the course of a decade, according to the institution’s website. The $60m overhaul, first announced in 2022, will absorb the six blocks surrounding the museum, according to the Associated Press.On 17 October, Pittsburgh’s planning commission announced plans to erect the plan’s entertainment structure on an existing parking lot. The proposed 58,000 sq. ft site will include a first-floor concert venue with standing room for as many as 1,000 people, a second-floor mezzanine, offices and support spaces on the third floor and a fourth-floor event space with a 360-person capacity.Rick Armstrong, a museum spokesperson, told the AP that the project’s start time is “still flexible”, but construction could start by spring 2024.The museum, the largest in North America dedicated to a single artist, explained that it’s goal was “to generate $1m in annual income for workers with the programme”. In a statement to Artnews, museum director Patrick Moore said, “We now have the plan and resources to follow suit as an agent of change for Pittsburgh.”