Besides their status as Pittsburgh icons, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, playwright August Wilson and everyone’s favorite neighbor Fred Rogers have something else in common.
They’re among the people who appear in Brentwood artist Linda Barnicott’s “Our Lady of Liberty,” one of four paintings unveiled Feb. 6 in Bethel Park to help celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary.
Her depiction of the Statue of Liberty against the New York City skyline, with fireworks flashing above, features a dozen and a half folks observing from across the Hudson River. Joining the luminaries of the past are some familiar faces in the Bethel Park community, along with Tom Barnicott, Linda’s husband, who is sporting a Pirates shirt with Roberto Clemente’s No. 21.
“It really represents the hope and the dreams of everyone who has come to America, and it stands for liberty and justice,” Linda said about her work.
Also unveiled were paintings by Pittsburgh residents Johno Prascak and his wife, Maria DeSimone Prascak.
Johno’s art portrays the Bethel Park Historical Society Schoolhouse Arts and History Center, the event’s venue and a place where he previously worked on a 32-foot-long painting of the Homestead Steel Works.
“It was unveiled on the second floor here, and also we had an exhibition,” he said. “And so I have a little bit of history here.”
The commissioning of the 250th-anniversary paintings by the Bethel Park Community Foundation represented the first time he and Maria, whose careers span decades, were given a common assignment.
Maria contributed two pieces to the celebration, one featuring the Liberty Bell and the other a bald eagle as the national bird, plus a brightly colored symbol of hope.
“The sunburst at the bottom represents a new day,” she said. “Every day is a new day. Maybe you didn’t get it right the day before, but we still have another day to just keep moving forward.”
Pittsburgh photographer JP Diroll printed Maria’s art as two sides of an ornamental disc, to be sold along with prints of the paintings to benefit Bethel Park’s “fantastic four” nonprofits: the community foundation, education foundation, historical society and public library.
“I was also commissioned by the Bethel Park School District to photograph the elementary schools that are closing to turn them into ornaments,” Diroll said. Ornaments depicting Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Memorial, Neil Armstrong and William Penn schools are for sale, as well.
The buildings no longer will house students after the conclusion of the current academic year. A new Bethel Park Elementary Center is scheduled to open in the summer.
During the art unveiling event, community foundation board members Andy Amrhein and Christine McIntosh, Bethel Park Public Library executive director, presented a $15,000 check from the foundation to James Walsh, school district superintendent. The money will help pay for a planned outdoor classroom at the elementary center.
“This check represents what the future will be like for Bethel Park children as they experience their community and the school and what we have to offer,” Walsh said. “So I’m really looking forward to cutting that ribbon and having you come and see our ideas when they come to fruition.”
Serving as emcee for the unveiling was Larry Richert, “KDKA Radio Morning Show” host, who praised the artists.
“I wish I had that kind of talent. It’s such a gift. It really is,” he said. “And every piece that you do is a gift back to all of us.”
Speaking at the event were elected officials, including Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato.
“When we’re talking about creating art to honor America’s anniversary, it’s more than just looking backward. It’s also about how we tell our story as Americans today and really what comes next for all of us,” she said. “The commissioned pieces that we’re unveiling today reflect the idea beautifully. These works invite reflection, curiosity and hopefully spark a lot of conversation.”
Dan Grzybek, who represents District 5 on Allegheny County Council, acknowledged the people who “have made Bethel Park such a wonderful place to live and have put so much of their time into the community that often goes unnoticed.”
“This building wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for the countless hours that so many folks have put in,” he said about the Schoolhouse. “And that extends over the last 250 years of our country, right? There have always been people who put countless, countless hours of unpaid labor into making our communities wonderful places to live and making us stronger together.”