• How does capitalism affects us as individuals?
• How do alternative economic networks fit into or drop out of the system?
• Are existing strategies of resistance making an impact?

Join us to consider how systems of value are created, reinforced, challenged, subverted and reinvented.

Event Schedule:

April 11th
Other Options Opening– 6-9pm @ Goods & Services*

April 12th
Exploring Our Options Panel Discussion – 2-3:30pm @ Goods & Services*
Cottage Industry Mini-Expo - 3:30pm @ Goods & Services*
Points of Interest Presentations - 4-7pm @ Carnegie Library in Braddock**
Celebration Dinner – suggested donation of $3- $5, 7pm @ The School Building, Braddock**
Soul Dance Lesson – 9pm @ The School Building, Braddock**
Shake Your Money Maker Dance Party– suggested donation of $5, 10pm @ The School Building, Braddock**

April 13th
Sunday Soup – 12 noon @ Goods & Services
Alternative to What? Practical Economics Workshop –12:30- 2:30pm @ Goods & Services

*Goods & Services a storefront/art space located at 2628 Carson Street, across from American Eagle.
**School Building: 1135 Braddock Avenue, Braddock PA

Symposium Details:

Other Options

An art exhibition curated by InCubate and produced in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon students at Goods & Services. This exhibition looks at artist groups who are re-interpreting, altering and creating infrastructure that affect their everyday lives and artistic practice. Artists in the exhibition Include: Forays (New York/Montreal), Phil Orr and Ryan Thompson (Urbana-Champaign, Illinois), Material Exchange (Chicago), Robin Hewlett and Carolyn Lambert (Pittsburgh), and Carnegie Mellon graduate and undergraduate students. The exhibition will continue through May 2nd.
Opening Reception: April 11th, 6 to 9pm
Goods and Services – 2628 E. Carson Street, South Side

Exploring Our Options Panel Discussion

The discussion will consider a variety of practical strategies for re-orienting economic relationships and re-thinking value systems. Panelists include:

Stephen Burke, founding member and President, Ithaca HOURS

William Howard, President, First Community Land Trust of Chicago

Justin Rothshank, founder, Associate Director of the Union Project

Sara Black and John Preus, Material Exchange, Chicago Artist

2pm, Saturday April 12th
Goods & Services – 2628 E. Carson Street, South Side

Cottage Industry Mini-Expo
Local makers, cooks and bakers will be on-hand to sell their wares and discuss their endeavors in small-scale enterprise.
3:30-4:30pm, Saturday April 12th
Goods & Services – 2628 E. Carson Street, South Side

Points of Interest

From April 6-13, Braddock Active Arts will host artists from around the country for Points of Interest—a project, involving local youth in the creation of site-specific installations at key locations throughout the community. Other Options artists Material Exchange and Forays will be included among the artists featured in Points of Interest.

Other artists featured in Points of Interest include:

Lady Pink, Merissa Lombardo, Maya Hayuk, Mary Tremonte, Leon Reid, Swoon, Jorge Rodriguez Gerrada, Forays, Material Exchange.

Public presentation of the completed Points of Interest installations will take place during day-two symposium. Braddock youth will provide tours of the sites and the artists will be on hand to discuss their work with the public. Email info@braddockactivearts.org or call Dana @ 718-644-9802 for an appointment.

tours, 4-7pm …. and all weekend @ Braddock Public Library, 419 Library Street, Braddock, PA

Sunday Soup

Come start your Sunday with soup and fixings, and earn your place on the selection committee of an artist grant fund! Food artist Laura Miller will be selling “Soup with a History” ($5), while Other Options organizers, InCUBATE, talk about the Sunday Soup Project, and other efforts they’ve researched to support art practice through creative enterprise.
12 pm, Sunday, April 13th
Goods & Services – 2628 E. Carson Street, South Side

Alternative to What? – Practical Economics Workshop

Was Margaret Thatcher right when she declared that “there is no alternative” to global capitalism? We don’t think so! But in order to create effective alternatives, we have to work together to better understand the system we hope to challenge.

Join activist and high school economics teacher Matt Meyer to discuss the relationship between local actions and macro-economic forces. This workshop will provide a primer on macroeconomics for artists, activists, community organizers and others interested in social change. We will then discuss the relationships between localized alternatives and the system of global capital. Is it possible to drop out of the system? Is it possible to change it? Come learn, share and strategize together.
12:30 pm, Sunday, April 13th
Goods & Services – 2628 E. Carson Street, South Side

Other Options Pittsburgh is supported in part by a Pittsburgh 250, Community Connections grant through the Sprout Fund. Additional support comes from the Center for Arts In Society and the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University.

If you have any questions please email: carolynlambert@cmu.edu or call 412 398 1122.

We’d like to learn about how you trade, share, exchange and barter on a daily basis, or about work you do “off the books.” Visit the Brew House on January 18th or 19th to participate and exchange a bit of information for an image.

The Brew House is located at 2100 Mary Street on Pittsburgh’s South Side.