vanessa german

vanessa german is a sculptor, performance, artist poet and activist whose community-roted practice centers on love, healing, and collective care. Her work ‘Lifted’, a series of sculptural benches, was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust for Arts Landing.

In 2025, german invited centenarians within the Pittsburgh community to submit hand tracings to be included in one of two benches for the new downtown arts park. In addition to seeking and receiving digital submissions of centenarian hand tracings, german met with centenarians and their families and caregivers to share the origin story of the benches and to trace their hands in person. The hands traced ranged from 99 to 109 years old. That's more than a century of being in the city of rivers.

Our Rock Tavern team had the opportunity of collaborating with german on the digital sculpting and technical drawings of ‘Lifted.’ We collaborated with our partners Fabhaus on the fabrication and with SCC on the powder-coating of the benches before they were installed at Arts Landing.