my my MY! Well Laura, being from Pittsburgh, I know that it has a pretty good arts scene. It centers around one particular section of the city, Oakland. Oakland has all the major universities, museums, and the folks that will tend to congregate at coffee houses (which aren't bad people!) I would try to contact the Mattress Factory. They are a newer arts collaborative, and probably have their finger on the pulse. Try the PA Arts Council in Harrisburg, and they could put you in contact with some folks. As for a rural area, once you are out of the city (it is ringed with hills) it becomes greatly rural. I lived one hour south from the city on, what basically was a farm. If you don't want to go that rural, there is all sorts of inbetween sorts of places. And ther is just as much north, east, and west. Just watch out, the rural folks aren't much for that artsy stuff. They tried killing it at our high school. Arts education might be simply a call to the Carnegie Library (CAR neg ee) or Museum. They have a fantastic monopoly on museums and Pittsburgh As for starting your own organization. Pittsburgh could always use that sort of thing, and you could probably get quite a few grants (I worked in grants for a time.) However, back to the rural thing. If you go with Pittsburgh, you should be ok. Greensburg, Johnstown, maybe even Washington might work. Otherwise its tough. If you could ever do it in a town called Waynesburg, down near the WVA line, call me and I will work for you! I work in preservation and it kills me to see the town with out any sort of heritage education program. Hope I haven't stepped on anyones toes by posting here, but I wanted everyone to know what the scene is like and to get the word out about my town, cause it can use all the publicity it can. Thanks all! Aaron === Aaron Marcavitch-- [log in to unmask] http://members.tripod.com/~RWUHP B.S. in Historic Preservation (99, RWU) Project Assistant at Public Archaeology Lab, Pawtucket, RI _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://museums.state.nm.us/nmmnh/museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).