Doug Cooper: Knowing & Seeing the River City

Pittsburgh-based muralist Doug Cooper responds to works of art in the Museum’s Scenes of Industry collection. His work will be interspersed with permanent collection to further tell the story of the Big Steel Era in Pittsburgh and the surrounding region.

This is the first time that the McKenna Gallery has been utilized in this way, offering visitors a fresh look at and interpretation of The Westmoreland’s permanent collection with the work of a contemporary artist. It is being done in preparation for a complete reinstallation of the gallery and reinterpretation of these southwestern Pennsylvania collections by an outside scholar.

Listen to an interview Cooper did with WESA’s Bill Driscoll in 2019.

Image Credit Line: Doug Cooper (b. 1946), 9 18th St Valley, 2020, Charcoal on paper on board,