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Wednesday, 24 August 2011 10:38

Written by Diana Nelson Jones

If you haven't been to Gist Street, you have a chance to see the city's most whimsical two blocks with a festive crowd Saturday at the 2011 Uptown Street Fest.

The street festival -- from 1 to 5p -- will be centered on Gist, between Forbes Avenue and the Boulevard of the Allies.

Your host is Uptown Partners.

Uptown is a hodge-podge place, with Duquesne University and Mercy Hospital, big industrial lots and parking lots and a bunch of houses packed into little side streets, one of which is Gist Street.

Besides food, music and flamenco dancing, you can experience the street art that lives as a permanent testament to the efforts of James Simon and John Fleenor.

They are artist neighbors who have been creating art on the street and getting other artists to donate time and art to make Gist this city's most arted-up residential street.

You can see large paintings on the sides of houses, two dog statues on the sidewalk, a big ape looking out from James' gate and mosaic work. Also meet Luis Castellanos Valui, the artist who will be contributing the latest painting.

It will be installed in early September on the side of the Pittsburgh Association of the Deaf.

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