Millvale may not officially be part of Pittsburgh, but it feels like one of the city’s neighborhoods. It’s compact, walkable, and full of its own character. One of the biggest reasons it stands out is the remarkable series of murals inside St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church, painted by Maxo Vanka in the late 1930s and…
Tag: Haller Global Honors Fellowship
Shadyside Scramble
Today, my team and I were assigned a “Neighborhood Scramble,” where we traveled to Shadyside and had to provide a summary of the neighborhood’s “main street” (Walnut Street) using four lenses: businesses, civic assets, community organizations, and public resources. Among these four, it was easiest to spot businesses. Many new stores have recently opened in…
Main Streets in Pittsburgh: Bloomfield’s Liberty Avenue
Today, me and my group visited a neighborhood as part of our “Neighborhood Scramble” activity, in which each of the three main Carrigart project groups study a local section of Pittsburgh. While visiting, my group went on a scavenger hunt to take several pictures of buildings or neighborhood features, including something that shows how the…
Exploring a New Neighborhood – The Strip District
Today’s activity was a bit of an adventure for my team, we travelled to the Strip District by bus, and we’re still trying to get the hang of how to get off at your designated stop, but we ended up in the right location! The reason why we travelled to the Strip District today is…
Breaktime! Weekend Reset and Fun Activities.
After being here for a full five days, we have the weekend to relax, do some exciting activities, and still learning on and on. Beginning on Saturday, we have an easy start, our entire group went to go see the St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church and its Murals made by Maxo Vanka, he painted them…
Art, Identity, and My First Week at Pitt
As I concluded my first week, Saturday’s visit to Millvale felt less like exploring a neighborhood and more like stepping into history. Inside St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church, the murals that stood out to me were the ones centered on families and the weight they carried. The Croatian mother raising her son for war stuck…
Vanko Murals: History Within Pittsburgh
On Saturday morning, Phil had taken us out to the St. Nicholas Croatian Church murals in Millvale, Pennsylvania, to see the Maxo Vanko murals. What instantly struck me was the vivid and detailed artwork. The paintings depicted the struggles, faith, and sacrifices of the Croatian immigrant community who left their homeland to work in the…
The Millvale Murals
On Saturday, July 18th, we visited the Maxo Vanka murals in Millvale. We were given roughly an hour tour of the murals that currently reside in the St. Nicholas Croatian Church. The murals were painted by Maxo Vanka in 1937 and 1941. There were seemingly two separate stories told, one of ordinary Christian origin (key…
Millvale: The Croatian Muralist Maxo Vanka
On Saturday, we went over to Millvale, a small quaint town near Pittsburgh, and we went to the St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church to check out some of Maxo Vanka’s murals in there. The decorations in there are packed with different kinds of catholic paintings, including those depicting a more masculine Mary, as well as…
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