Hidden Highland Park: A Tour of Art, Nature, and Community

What if art isn’t confined to museums or galleries? Join public artist Marlana Adele Vassar for a guided walk through Highland Park to explore the many ways art, community, and nature shape our experience of place.

Beginning at Giuseppe Moretti’s historic Welcome sculptures and concluding at Urban Conga’s interactive installation Together, the tour visits a diverse collection of artworks, gathering spaces, trails, and environmental landmarks. Along the way, participants will encounter community created projects, a legal graffiti installation, a waterfall and bridge, ecological sculpture, and Flora, Vassar’s own public artwork.

Through walking, observation, and conversation, the tour encourages participants to slow down and notice details that are often overlooked. How do artworks change the way we experience a place? How have different generations of artists, community members, and park users shaped Highland Park over time? What stories become visible when we move through a familiar landscape at a different pace?

Designed for both arts audiences and curious explorers, this 90-minute walking experience offers an opportunity to discover Highland Park through new perspectives and shared observations.

About Marlana Vassar

Marlana Adele Vassar is a multidisciplinary artist developing a symbolic visual language rooted in transformation, identity, and lived experience. Working across sculpture and public art, her practice focuses on creating images and forms that translate how people physically, emotionally, and psychologically navigate spaces.

Her work often draws from community narratives, personal memory, and mythological structures, using recurring symbols and figures to build layered, evolving systems. In public settings, these systems become site-responsive, reflecting not just where people are, but how a place is experienced over time.

Balancing bold design with conceptual depth, Marlana’s work moves between the personal and the collective, creating pieces that are both visually direct and open to interpretation. Each project contributes to a larger, interconnected body of work that explores cycles of change, perception, and self-construction.

Tour Meeting Location

Participants will meet at the main entrance to Highland Park – North Highland Avenue & Reservoir Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15206.

We ask that participants arrive by 9:45 AM so that there is time to check people in and to start the tour promptly at 10:00 AM.

Parking and Transportation

Free public parking is available inside the park along Reservoir Drive and Lake Drive. Free street parking is also available in the Highland Park neighborhood.

If taking public transportation, the closest Pittsburgh Regional Transit stops are:

• N Highland Avenue and Hampton Street – Route 71B
• Bryant Street and St. Clair Street – Route 71B
• Negley Avenue and Elgin Street – Routes 71A and 71B

For more information, please visit the Pittsburgh Regional Transit website at: https://www.rideprt.org/.

If arriving by bicycle, there are no bike racks available within the park. The closest POGOH Bike Share station is one mile away, located in East Liberty at Penn Avenue and S Whitfield Street. For more information on POGOH Bike Share, please visit: https://pogoh.com/system-map/

Access and Accommodations

This event will be held outdoors in a public park and will take place rain or shine. Please dress accordingly and wear comfortable shoes. The total distance of the tour is 1.3 miles. The tour route will traverse hills and will encounter various types of terrain such as dirt, gravel, and pavement, some of which may be uneven. There are benches at the first and last stops of the tour.

Porta-potties are available throughout the park; not all are ADA accessible.

To request additional accommodations for this event, please submit your request in writing on the event registration form. A Shiftworks staff member will follow up with you directly about your request. We will attempt to implement requests for reasonable accommodations to the best of our ability, but cannot guarantee that all requests will be met. Alternate accommodations may be suggested by staff. All requests must be made by Monday, October 5, 2025.

Questions should be directed to ashley@shiftworkspgh.org.

Photography, Videography, and Other Documentation

Participants should be aware that photography, video recording, and/or other documentation of the event by Shiftworks, other attendees, or the media may take place during the event. Participants will have an opportunity to indicate if they choose to opt out of being included in event documentation, and our team will make reasonable efforts to accommodate these preferences.

Registration

This tour is free and open to the public; advance registration is required. The button below will redirect you to Eventbrite where you will complete your registration.